Factors to consider when designing a pharmaceutical factory

There are several factors that you need to consider when it comes to the layout of your pharmaceutical factory. This is because the efficiency and productivity of your operations and business as a whole rely on how well the equipment and machinery used during production processes are arranged.  

In this article, we’ll be looking at the key factors you should think about when designing your factory, if you need any help with this our team of expert pharmaceutical plant design consultants are here to support you and making your operations as effective as possible.  

Location of the proposed factory 

The size, shape, and topology of your chosen site will likely have a strong influence over how the layout design of your processes will look. The most important thing is that you can best utilise the space available to you. Equally, this determines to a reasonable extent the size and nature of the building.  

Cost considerations 

This can be seen from two perspectives: construction costs and the cost of operations. Construction expenses can be minimised if you go for a design that will support reduced material handling during pharmaceutical engineering production processes. Maintenance cost is also an important consideration to avoid spending more money maintaining the building in the long term.  

Factory building 

The nature of the proposed factory building as well as its shape and size will also play a role in your plant layout. It should be set out in a way that follows basic regulatory requirements for the construction of a pharmaceutical plant. If you are hiring your factory building, alterations should be made where necessary to suit the needs of your plant and also to make the most of the floor space you have.  

Nature of the product 

The type of layout design you use heavily depends on your line(s) if product. For example, the design of an industry that processes raw materials to make Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient (API), excipients or ancillary substances used in pharmaceutical formulations will be different from industries that process dosage forms like tablets, injections etc, from raw materials or intermediate products. However, there might be similarities in relation to quality control, raw material quarantine, approved materials, and more.  

Production process 

The processes you need to use to transform raw materials into either semi-finished or finished products should be one of the main things you consider as it will have a strong baring on the design of your factory. Your layout should ensure there is effective and efficient flows of production processes to prevent mix up and cross contamination in your operations.  

Volume of production 

Your company’s scale of production is another factor to think about in your factory design. If your business is involved in large scale production, you will need to take into account a layout that will comfortably house the raw materials, machinery, finished products, etc.  

If you don’t have enough space, there could be reduced productivity. Whereas if you have too much space, productivity might still be reduced as well as a degree of waste of capital which should be used in putting other elements in place.  

Equipment and machines 

The type of equipment you use during production will also impact what your layout will look like. Typically, there are differences in the requirements of each equipment and machines with respect to space, speed, and the process of material handling. Your suggested design should have enough space to accommodate the required machinery and suitable gaps should be left between equipment to prevent accidents during operations.  

Conclusion 

As you can see, there are a lot of important considerations to make when designing a pharmaceutical factory, so it is always best to rely on experts like the team at FESS Group. Our pharmaceutical engineering consultants have extensive experience in the industry and can help with your factory layout design to ensure it is as operationally efficient as possible as well as cost effective and adheres to all the necessary regulations and guidelines. Contact us today to request a free site survey or have any questions answered by our friendly team.