Pharmaceutical packaging development requires many professionals and various moving parts to get from concept to design.
From graphic designers to proofreaders and packaging engineers, the processes must be organised to ensure a successful project. And these processes can always be more efficient. In an industry where packaging developments are constantly evolving, it’s important to regularly review ways to save time.
In this guide, Origin offers time-saving solutions for getting pharmaceutical packaging products into the hands of patients as quickly as possible – without compromising on form, function or safety.
Understanding the roles involved in packaging development
Pharma packaging development is split into several steps handled by different specialists – taking each packaging innovation from concept to a design that is ready for manufacture.
The exact processes can differ depending on the pharmaceutical company or even based on regional differences. But it’s important to understand the common steps involved in a packaging development project to determine where processes can be optimised and speed-to-market improved:
- Labelling project manager – responsible for a large number of employees and teams. They typically interpret guidelines and instructions given by regulatory bodies regarding packaging. They must then balance guidelines with orders given by stakeholders and potentially even pharmaceutical research and development teams to ensure labels are factual and correct.
- Packaging departments – involved in the conceptual design of pharmaceutical device development, including sketching initial designs and producing prototype concepts. They may consult existing designs for inspiration, which can be a significant time-saver, especially when it makes use of existing machines and materials.
- Graphics teams – often more of a technical role than a creative one. Pharma packaging design must include all the necessary details to inform users what the product contains, where it comes from and its name. The main challenge during the design stage is producing packaging that meets the requirements set by engineers and the labelling project manager.
- Proofreaders – must have a strong command of written English to ensure packaging is legible. Their goal is to scan the literature of proposed pharmaceutical device developments to locate grammatical or spelling errors and pass this information to the graphics team.
- External suppliers – often contacted at the end of pharmaceutical device development to source raw resources, printers and manufacturing plants. Suppliers will typically review the packaging design before accepting it and proceeding to mass-produce it for their clients.
As you can see, there are a number of roles that must work together – across different departments – to produce packaging product designs.
It is by reviewing both these individual processes, and how these separate teams communicate and collaborate, that it is possible to streamline packaging development to save time and money…
Optimising Pharmaceutical Packaging Development
We’ve highlighted the various roles within the packaging development process that are susceptible to disruption and delays. But how can you optimise each of these steps – and the stages in which they overlap – to improve time to market?
- A strong and vocal manager – With so many teams and individuals involved in the development process, it takes a strong and vocal manager to keep everyone on the same page.
Strong communication skills go a long way when it comes to streamlining the work process. Ensure managers are involved in every step of the process and can constantly bounce between teams and keep everyone working at a steady pace.
It’s also the manager’s responsibility to notice areas that are slowing down the process, so they can reassign the workforce to focus on specific areas of the development process. - Highlight strengths in your team, not weaknesses – It’s easy to focus on weaknesses in your team as they tend to stand out more than strengths. However, it’s vital to take a more positive approach when it comes to delegating tasks to your employees.
Keep strengths in mind and tap into each individual’s unique skills to optimise your team. If you need to hire new people, make sure they fill skill gaps in your team. - Constant communication – The top consideration for saving time is to put everyone on the same page. With so many different teams and individuals working together, it’s important to use your communication skills to ensure that your teams are collaborating efficiently.
This is where it helps to focus on utilising different collaborative processes that can assist greatly in fast pharma packaging development… - Collaborative Processes – Building an efficient collaborative process is the key to a fast packaging development cycle. When your team is on the same page and working together on the individual elements that make up your pharmaceutical device, you’ll have a much easier time managing your team. Here’s what collaboration in your team could look like:
- Project managers – Operating a decentralised system where individuals and teams are responsible for their own work can drastically speed up the development process. Instead of having a manager examine each individual piece of work before the development process can progress to the next stage, a collaborative process focuses on putting more trust into the hands of individuals and teams.
- Graphic designers – Collaborating on design allows teams to share graphics and ideas with other designers. If a team of designers collaborates on a project, then there’s less chance for errors to go unchallenged which can lead to delays. Changes can also be made by each individual as designs are often split into several elements that can be modified separately.
- Packaging engineers – Can benefit from a collaborative pharma packaging development workflow. With a transparent process, they’re able to identify critical bottlenecks in the system and can work with individuals and teams to implement countermeasures. A packaging manager can also communicate with external suppliers to ensure that there is full transparency in the entire development process.
Save time and money on packaging development with Origin
Origin Design and Development is an online portal that encourages pharma organisations to collaborate and share new ideas, develop new pharmaceutical devices and find unique solutions for particular drugs.
From concept to commercial-ready products, Origin’s customer-led packaging and device product program allows your team to work together with a larger pool of talent to greatly speed up development time and save money.
For more information, contact our expert team today.
