ABB India announced that it has secured an order from Reliance Life Sciences (RLS) to deploy automation and control solutions for their new biosimilars and plasma proteins manufacturing facilities in Nashik, Maharashtra. “The scope encompasses complete automation of the manufacturing process using ABB’s flagship Distributed Control System (DCS) Ability™ System 800xA, Remote I/O systems, Batch Recipe Management, and MES Integration,” it said in a regulatory filing.
RLS has a 160-acre facility at Nashik which will house manufacturing plants for plasma proteins, biopharmaceuticals, oncology pharmaceuticals, and vaccines. ABB’s System 800xA® solution is expected to reduce manufacturing errors and ensure high-quality yields. The company said that the technology is used extensively for operator interaction, batch control and production information on the factory floor.
“This collaboration will reinforce our position in the pharma and life sciences market, where, as a technology provider, we see tremendous potential for growth and innovation,” said G Balaji, SVP, Head of Energy Industries, ABB India. “With India rapidly progressing as a prominent biopharmaceutical manufacturing hub, we find ourselves well-poised to ride the wave of the industrial revolution driven by the adoption of automation in these segments, which is pivotal for large-scale production with quality assurance.”
System 800xA® will be installed in a virtualized environment for RLS, which is expected to bring many cost and operational benefits by simplifying how servers are managed and maintained. “It significantly reduces the IT footprint and thus resultant operational costs. ABB’s multichannel remote I/O solutions will enable streamlined data communication, reduce wiring, declutter the hardware footprint in the plant, and improve space utilization and faster project execution. As installation is for a pharmaceutical manufacturing unit, the DCS would be supplied in compliance with US FDA 21 CFR Part 11, to meet the required standards.,” the company said.
ABB India further stated that System 800xA® will provide an integration platform that brings together various plant components and areas, eliminating the need for multiple PLCs. “This integration ensures a unified audit trail, integrated data reports, and streamlined operations, reducing maintenance, training needs, and inventory. Moreover, it simplifies third-party audits,” it added.
Besides this, the deployment of ABB’s DCS will enable Reliance to cut on the total cost of ownership. ABB will deliver DCS on the latest Windows Server 2022 platform, which will help Reliance to avoid any plant shutdowns for software upgrades, ultimately reducing overall costs associated with downtime, software or hardware updates, and related services.
“Reliance Life Sciences has a tradition of leveraging automation technologies in its manufacturing processes, as part of its larger objectives in quality and productivity. The partnership with ABB is not just part of this continuum, but also a step up in terms of virtualization and process control,” said KV Subramaniam, President, Reliance Life Sciences.
In addition, RLS will also adopt ABB’s modular remote I/O solution which will allow the company to achieve faster commissioning and process implementation with the ability to scale the capacity of the plant in the future.