Seabrook Technology Group
Democratizing MES with the Cloud

The manufacturing industry is often regarded as one that is at the forefront of technology adoption. However, on the other side of the coin, there are many manufacturers, particularly in the medical device and biotech manufacturing domain who continue to rely on a paper-driven process. This makes it very easy for manufacturers to cut corners--manufacturing sub-par quality goods for customers. “This practice does not force the manufacturers to collect the right data, and in case the data collected is out of specification, it will not prevent the manufacturing process from continuing. Especially, in the case of the medical device industry, where it is critically important to prevent errors and prevent defects from eventually getting to the patient,” says John Dzelme, Global COO of Seabrook Technology Group— a Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) solution provider that is catering to the Medical device and biotech industries.

The main obstacle with MES is the cost; most Tier 2 and Tier 3 organizations cannot afford the infrastructure that is required for a proper MES solution. Seabrook is currently working on solving that issue by bringing to market an MES cloud solution. A full turn-key solution, it is called as “Connected Manufacturing”. Aimed at being a game-changing technology for Tier 2 and Tier 3 organizations, “Connected Manufacturing” will include the MES, business intelligence, an integration platform, all wrapped up in a single solution, hosted and managed by Seabrook. This allows the customers to get the best-in-class software, in addition to specialized, best-in-class expertise in medical device and biotech manufacturing. Scheduled to launch with limited functionality at the end of this year, the full-blown version of the solution will be entirely ready for the market by mid 2019.

Process with Collaboration

Manufacturing, by nature, has to be a process-centric focus and Seabrook are the only ones in the market that currently build a process alongside collaboration with the customer, where the technology fits the process and not the other way round. Seabrook works to provide as much of an out-of-the-box solution to manufacturers for many reasons—sustainability, simplicity, support, and so on.

Connected Manufacturing is a full-stop solution; it is a package of manufacturing operations technology that provides the full electronic manufacturing suite along with business intelligence

The firm provides software updates as part of the ongoing partnership so that clients can take advantage of new features as and when they become available.

To prevent inaccuracies and future recalls from occurring, manufacturers opt for MES. Not only does this save the direct costs of paper and other materials, but it also functions as a self-audit for the manufacturer, as the entire history of the manufacturing process is noted. MES provides real-time enforcement to ensure that the operator who is doing the actual task in the manufacturing process is trained in that specific process. “MES constantly checks in real-time if the process is being maintained and is fully calibrated. It also does not omit any data that needs to be recorded. If the data is out of specification, the MES automates the conformance process and forces the manufacturer to halt the process and rework the situation,” explains Dzelme.

Connected Manufacturing will be particularly useful for those organizations that have multiple locations around the world. Instead of relying on various data centers and disaster recovery sites, organizations only have to build on AWS or Azure or Google Cloud, where they already have data centers.

Connected Manufacturing is a full-stop solution; it is a package of manufacturing operations technology that provides the full electronic manufacturing suite along with business intelligence. By the looks of it, it will be a game changer as Seabrook. Only the future holds the answers.