Two US GSK sites implement Informance OEE services

The US consumer healthcare products division of GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has hired Informance International to implement overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) analysis at its facilities in Clifton, New Jersey and Aiken, South Carolina.

The deal is part of a global framework agreement focused on the use of business intelligence to drive and sustain manufacturing operations performance, according to the UK drug major.

Informance said the services being offered include assessing improvement opportunities, aligning plant tactics with corporate strategies, and exercising the most efficient use of the information to sustain the effects of OEE.

According to Informance, medicine manufacturers are under tremendous pressure to increase product volume in their own plants, in order to reduce contract manufacturing and improve margins. This drive to optimize resources is a challenging task without the benefit of real-time OEE discovery analytics for operational excellence.

John Oskin, Informance's Executive Vice President, said: "Manufacturers like GlaxoSmithKline use Informance solutions together with IMPACT services to help discover and evaluate opportunities in manufacturing, so that they can take action on those that add the greatest benefit."

GSK did not comment on the deal and no financial details were released.

Informance International, which specialises in providing industrial customers with manufacturing analysis, was bought by Hong Kong-based resource planning based CDC in May this year.