When pharmaceutical industry discussions turn to RFID, sooner or later data integration issues and ERP, and the name SAP, come up. As director of the firms pharmaceutical division of its life sciences unit, James Sabogal is at the center of changes happening at SAP and in the industry, and has his finger on the pulse of RFID and where it connects to enterprise IT.
Pharmaceutical Manufacturing spoke with Sabogal to get his thoughts on the pharmaceutical landscape now that RFID is an integral part of every firms long-range strategic planning.PM: What changes have you seen in the industry over the last six to nine months?JS: Pharmaceutical manufacturers have started to understand what the FDA is doing with compliance, specifically the issue of improving quality throughout the drug manufacturing process the updated cGMPs, for example, and the whole Critical Path agenda.Compliance is a key issue for our customers, but, based on FDAs timetable, companies are looking at the RFID initiative. And theyre getting external pressure from local governments especially around the pedigree laws, Florida being one of the first.PM: What does this mean for manufacturers in the next six to nine months?JS: Theyll need to:
Pharmaceutical Manufacturing spoke with Sabogal to get his thoughts on the pharmaceutical landscape now that RFID is an integral part of every firms long-range strategic planning.PM: What changes have you seen in the industry over the last six to nine months?JS: Pharmaceutical manufacturers have started to understand what the FDA is doing with compliance, specifically the issue of improving quality throughout the drug manufacturing process the updated cGMPs, for example, and the whole Critical Path agenda.Compliance is a key issue for our customers, but, based on FDAs timetable, companies are looking at the RFID initiative. And theyre getting external pressure from local governments especially around the pedigree laws, Florida being one of the first.PM: What does this mean for manufacturers in the next six to nine months?JS: Theyll need to:
- improve their manufacturing quality
- assimilate RFID into their supply chains
- look ahead three to five years and see how they are suited to developing their internal supply chain landscape.
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