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White Paper on

Weigh and Dispense

for Batch Manufacturing

Copyright 2014 Zenith Technologies Limited. All rights reserved.

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Introduction
Manufacturers are in business to generate revenue and profits by adding value to
the materials which are used to make the products that customers want to buy. In life
science manufacturing, the majority of these raw materials are of high commercial
value. Weigh and Dispense software workflows, which align with your business
processes, allow manufacturing operations to:

Reduce operational risk by assuring compliance and full traceability with

adherence to costs and schedule
Reduce working capital by having predictable weighing & dispensing to
assure perfect quality and reduce inbound and outbound inventory
Reduce direct costs by eliminating give away, saving time and eliminating
non-productive operations
Improve operation efficiency through saving operator time and getting greater
visibility using visual performance indicators
Increase quality by getting it right every time and assuring that assets,
capabilities and production schedule are optimized to make best use of
capacity

Enforce high quality weighing methods and modes with full traceability, user security
and clear visibility to safety datasheet information and relevant hazardous material
pictograms.

The Details
There are different methods of weigh and dispense across batch manufacturing
within life science companies. Even within the same company, different plants and
sites sometimes have subtle differences in their procedures and business processes.
Many of these differences are driven by the physical layout and design of the
warehouse, plant area, plant or site and the types of weigh scales used as well as
legacy system issues. Whether your business needs weigh and dispense in biotech
manufacturing for media preparation at a vessel or material dispensing in a
warehouse room or laminar down flow booth for pharmaceutical manufacturing, one
weigh and dispense sequence may not always fit your manufacturing needs.
Shopfloor-Online gives you the flexibility to create your own weigh and dispense
sequences that fit perfectly with your business processes. Reduce operational risk
by creating the workflows for weigh and dispense that fit your business!
Configure your own weigh and dispense sequences and have as many weighing
modes as you like via a configuration user interface without back-end customisation.
Map each weigh and dispense business process, lean it and then configure the
perfect fit weigh and dispense sequence(s) via a front-end interface as you would for

Copyright 2014 Zenith Technologies Limited. All rights reserved.

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any batch manufacturing sequence. Have sequences loop back to the beginning for
the next material or next order from ERP or have a new sequence automatically
load.
Zenith Technologies can map out your business process for weighing and
dispensing across your manufacturing enterprise. Once the mapping is complete, an
opportunity then exists to lean that process in order to improve efficiency and save
time. Following that exercise, we can create workflow sequences which meet the
lean business processes for weigh and dispense.
A weigh and dispense sequence in Shopfloor-Online is a workflow recipe (a
procedure in S88 terms) that can be configured and run for each dispensing activity
required (there can be multiple weigh and dispense activities for each production
order).
For a simple weigh and dispense activity for material(s) in a production order, the
flow may be something like the following:

A production order is listed on a device or screen for an operator to

select in order to start preparing the weigh and dispense activities for
the order.
A list of materials and quantities (bill of materials (BOM) from the
Enterprise Resource Planning system (ERP)) may be displayed on
screen.
As the user selects the first material to weigh and dispense, the
hazardous material pictograms, and materials safety datasheet
(MSDS) hyperlinks to MSDS pdf files for each material may be
displayed.
The operator may be asked to scan the barcode of the initial material to
be dispensed and to scan or enter the quantity in each the containers.
The system verifies the material code and quantities against the BOM.
The weighing mode is selected either by the configured sequence or
the operator or a combination depending on the material code.
The operator may be asked to scan or enter a location (e.g. room
and/or laminar down flow booth)
One or more scales may be associated with that location with different
scale ranges for weighing small quantities and large quantities, so a
scales selection is either configured in the sequence or selected by the
operator.
Verification of the scales may be required by scanning if scales are
mobile.
The operator may be prompted with the reading from the scales if
outside a pre-defined tolerance reading and asked to verify that there is
nothing currently on the scales and the scales may then be zeroed by
the system.
Depending on the weighing mode in use: simple weighing, tare
weighing, reducing gross weighing etc., the operator will be prompted
to step through the required steps.

Copyright 2014 Zenith Technologies Limited. All rights reserved.

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The weight of the material is displayed in large font and a scale bar,
with colour coding, is used with the material specification limits
indicated on the colour coded status bar.
Once the weight has settled, the operator may confirm when the
system can accept the indicated weight or the sequence may
automatically capture the weight.
For new material containers or bags, a barcoded label can be printed
with the material details and confirmation requested from the operator
that the label has been attached successfully.
ERP may be updated with quantities consumed and/or container level
details.

Interfacing to ERP is an option, Shopfloor-Online can also have bill of materials

(BOM) master data configured within it and operate independently of ERP if
required. Patching regimes in ERP need to be considered to determine the interface
strategy. Similarly, the calibration process of weigh scales is an option, with
interfacing to maintenance systems or Shopfloor-Online maintenance management
functionality to determine when activity is due and updates when calibration has
been completed. Alerts and notifications can be triggered ahead of time to ensure a
proactive maintenance and operation culture.
More complex weigh and dispense solutions for biotech and pharmaceutical
manufacturing can involve split level dispensary rooms with post hoists, intermediate
bulk containers, small charge containers, laminar flow booths or isolators, gases and
liquids. Dispensing rooms or areas can be in separate buildings or integrated into the
production area. Again, a workflow sequence can be configured in Shopfloor-Online
to cater for more complex weigh and dispense solutions. Isolator, booth, container
and rooms statuses and history can be recorded in date/time sort order in ShopfloorOnline in line with cGMP requirements. Weigh and Dispense may be integrated to
larger production workflow sequences or used as a standalone solution.

The Benefits
Weigh and Dispense for batch manufacturing improves efficiency and reduces
operational risk by providing:

Accurate weighing and dispensing against a bill of materials and material

specification limits.
Visible weigh and dispense workflows for operators to follow in easy steps.
Barcode scanning to verify the correct use of materials, rooms, containers and
scales.
Multiple weighing modes within the one weigh and dispense workflow.
Configurable weigh and dispense sequences based on a step-and-transition
model for perfect alignment with between MES S95 and S88 batch control
systems.
Automatic integration to ERP for master data, production orders, bill of
materials and material consumption updates.

Copyright 2014 Zenith Technologies Limited. All rights reserved.

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Automatic integration to a maintenance system for scales calibration checks

and calibration workflow sequence execution.
Automatic exception generation in the event of a deviation or not-as-expected
result in the sequence.

The Conclusion
Shopfloor-Online can deliver huge benefits to your batch manufacturing facility.
Our browser based application can allow multiple plants or warehouses within the
enterprise to facilitate the different weigh and dispense sequences and master data
required by your business to enforce high quality weighing methods that deliver.
Shopfloor-Online can connect to your manufacturing systems from MRP/ERP to
production schedulers to control systems to individual weigh scales to LIMS to
maintenance systems in order to deliver Weigh and Dispense the way your business
needs it delivered.
Improve efficiency, proliferate quality, reduce costs and working capital and control
operational risk by using Shopfloor-Online Weigh and Dispense functionality.

Please contact us for more information about Shopfloor-Online:

Email: sales@zenithtechnologies.com
Online Form / Telephone: http://www.zenithtechnologies.com/contact-us/contact-us/

Copyright 2014 Zenith Technologies Limited. All rights reserved.