Aegis: Manufacturing informatics

Manufacturing processes at biotech and pharmaceutical companies generate mountains of data from disparate sources, all of which ends up housed in complex databases. The challenge is to integrate the varied data sets and then pull out useful information to improve manufacturing decisions. Aegis Analytical Corp. is attempting to make that possible by integrating multiple manufacturing data sources using its Discoverant software.

CEO and co-founder Gretchen Jahn said it is difficult to synchronize data from different parts of the manufacturing process so that it can be linked and queried. On average, she said, a manufacturer needs about four different software packages: enterprise resource planning (ERP) software is used to record material purchases and inventory; supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) software is used to monitor instruments and control process parameters; manufacturing execution system (MES) software is used to track data on raw materials and reagents used in a batch; and laboratory information management system (LIMS) software is used to measure and record quality and yield from a batch. ...