The choice of packaging material is determined by the demands placed on the packaging throughout the entire process chain. The most important of these are mechanical strength, protection of the pharmaceutical product against environmental influences, reliable runnability in the packaging processes, user-friendliness and, of course, economic aspects. Key factors in selecting the ideal material and thus ensuring reliable and cost-effective processes and products are:

• The specific properties of the packaging material,
• The conditions in the packaging process and the supply chain,
• The interactions between the packaging material and the processes.

The most expensive material is not necessarily the best. On the other hand, choosing the cheapest material can result in significant additional costs.

We offer our customers impartial advice on material selection and all-round expertise acquired over many years of experience in this field.

Special products require special packaging processes.

We support our customers in the pharmaceutical and medical industry sectors in the development of new packaging processes and the optimization of existing processes over the entire spectrum from primary packaging to warehouse logistics. The main emphasis is on ensuring product availability while at the same time making cost-effective use of all resources. The late-stage customization approach is used when there is a wide variety of SKUs and/or stocks of finished products need to be kept to a minimum. We evaluate packaging processes using FMEA methods with particular emphasis on GMP requirements.

Our customized simulation programs help with capacity planning and investment decisions. Rather than using standard software we model processes to meet individual requirements and specific circumstances.

In our experience, most types of packaging used for pharmaceutical and medical products have considerable potential for optimization. The reasons for this may be over-dimensioning, altered parameters or, quite simply, a lack of expertise in packaging material selection, packaging design or the configuration of the packaging process.

Our awareness of the requirements for reliable and efficient packaging processes enables us to identify the technologically relevant packaging properties. We provide an overview of these aspects and highlight the demands that will need to be taken into consideration in the future in an article published in the journal pharmind. [ Link to the article ]

Finally, we utilize our expertise to draw up packaging specifications you can depend on. And of course we also provide advice on the assessment, maintenance and revision of existing packaging specifications.

Problems in the packaging process or packaging defects can occur for many different reasons. Our experience enables us to identify these reasons and suggest steps to prevent such problems arising in the future. To this end we use the measurement technology available in the laboratories of Munich University of Applied Sciences.

The most sensible approach is, of course, to configure the materials and processes in such a way that problems and defects do not arise in the first place. This can be achieved by means of intelligent process design and technically relevant packaging specifications. You will find the consultancy services we offer in this area under “Process design and packaging optimization”.

The sustainability of packaging is a crucial element in our consultancy work. Our aim is to ensure the essential functionality of the packaging while keeping the utilisation of resources to a minimum. The first step towards this goal is to select the right packaging material.

The design, the packaging processes and the logistics are then also taken into account in the overall assessment, which is carried out with the aid of a computational model from Munich University of Applied Sciences. This model quantifies the differences between various forms of packaging with respect to CO₂ emissions and energy consumption. The calculations take into account various types of materials, manufacturing processes, transport paths and all the usual end-of-life versions.

Choosing a particular packaging material and type of packaging in the pharmaceutical industry is a decision that has far-reaching long-term consequences. Key criteria here are the suitability for the product to be packaged, the safety of the process and the material, the overall costs and the sustainability. A wide range of packaging materials and types of packaging are available on the market to satisfy these complex demands. Detailed knowledge of these materials is essential in determining the ideal form of packaging for a given requirement.

To this end we provide training courses covering the production, processing, properties and testing of packaging materials and types of packaging in the pharmaceutical industry. The content and range of these courses, which can be conducted externally, in-house or on-line, are individually tailored to the needs of the participants.