By Victor Spiteri and Maurizio Cappello
Teva Malta is certainly one of Malta’s main pharmaceutical manufacturing hubs and part of Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, a world chief in generic and specialty medicines. The Malta website focuses on large-scale pharmaceutical manufacturing, packaging and high quality testing of medicines for export around the globe. Inside this context, there are numerous areas for industrial analysis and innovation.
In a daring step in the direction of modernising pharmaceutical manufacturing, Teva Malta has launched augmented actuality (AR) know-how into its packaging operations, making it the primary website within the world Teva community to take action.
The mission, which earned Teva the Industrial Excellence Award 2024 throughout that 12 months’s Malta Engineering Excellence Awards hosted by the Chamber of Engineers, is remodeling how staff perform changeovers. A changeover is the method of switching manufacturing from one medication to a different. These changeovers are important in making certain product security and high quality; it is rather vital, as an example, to make sure no tablets from a earlier run find yourself within the subsequent manufacturing run. Because of the huge number of medicines Teva produces, these changeovers occur very regularly.
Historically, changeovers contain lots of paperwork, guide checks and operator expertise. However now, because of AR glasses and sensible software program, operators can observe step-by-step directions displayed proper in entrance of their eyes. This implies a guided course of leading to fewer errors, quicker transitions and higher documentation.
“We’ve seen a giant enchancment in consistency and pace,” mentioned Victor Spiteri, senior supervisor of upkeep in packaging at Teva Malta. “Operators are guided visually, which helps them keep away from lacking steps and ensures every thing is completed correctly.”
The AR system breaks down the changeover into clear phases: preparation, cleansing, verification and machine set-up. Operators may even take pictures and report notes throughout the course of, that are robotically added to the system for overview.
In simply 14 weeks, augmented actuality utilization jumped from 8% to 80% of all changeovers. The outcomes converse for themselves:
• 693 hours saved in changeovers from January until December 2025.
• 420 hours saved yearly in doc overview time.
• 31 fewer guide signatures required per guidelines.
• 9% discount in documentation errors.
Such know-how additionally helps new workers study quicker and ensures that even skilled workers observe the identical excessive requirements constantly. Past prescription drugs, Teva believes this know-how may gain advantage different industries in Malta like meals manufacturing and aviation the place fast and correct changeovers are important.
The mission has not solely improved effectivity but in addition empowered staff with cutting-edge instruments, making ready them for the way forward for manufacturing.
“This isn’t about solely saving time,” Spiteri provides. “It’s about elevating the bar for high quality and giving our individuals the instruments they should succeed.”
With its profitable rollout within the Malta website, Teva is now seeking to increase AR know-how to its different world websites, setting a brand new commonplace for excellence in pharmaceutical packaging.
How is AR remodeling medication containers?
Augmented actuality (AR) and pharmaceutical packaging may seem to be they dwell in numerous universes, however they’re being built-in to reshape how we perceive and work together with medicines.
AR first appeared in 1968, when pc scientist Ivan Sutherland constructed the ‘Sword of Damocles’, a head-mounted show so heavy it needed to be bolted to the ceiling.
At present, the identical idea powers apps in your cellular gadget that allow you to scan a medication field and immediately see dosage animations, security warnings or 3D directions floating above the pack.
Pharmaceutical packaging itself has a surprisingly dramatic historical past. The primary child-resistant cap was patented in 1967, and inside a decade it helped scale back unintentional poisonings by greater than 90%.
Blister packs, now all over the place, had been initially launched to guard delicate medicine from humidity and oxygen. Some trendy blisters even embody micro-printed codes invisible to the bare eye, used to authenticate merchandise and struggle counterfeiting.
AR is now being examined to confirm those self same safety features. A smartphone digicam can detect patterns or markers embedded within the packaging and make sure authenticity in seconds. In medical trials, AR overlays are getting used to information contributors via complicated protocols, decreasing errors and bettering adherence.
So, the following time you open a blister or scan a QR code, you’re interacting with many years of innovation quietly working behind the scenes.
