As Augury’s Account Executive for the Pharmaceutical Industry, I love seeing a prospect’s eyes light up when they suddenly get it. They now see how Machine Health can increase OEE, but also how their maintenance program can help achieve larger business goals.
As a sales professional, my job is often to show a skeptical pharma lifer how Augury’s technology can make their life easier.
In general, Augury solves the same pain points across the manufacturing spectrum. We not only eliminate unplanned downtime and improve product quality (while reducing waste), we also provide the tools and means to jumpstart a complete digital transformation.
However, pharma has its own specific challenges: the pressures to bring innovative drugs speedily to market, the complex supply chains, the intense regulation requirements, decreasing margins due to the continuing rise of generic drugs, a prevalence of risk-adverse management… And the list goes on.
Every supply chain has been heavily stress-tested by the last year-and-a-half of pandemic but pharma’s products literally saves lives. When a critical machine fails, patients may suffer.
My Own Big Ah-Ha Moment
Pharma’s main need is to manufacture the right drugs and get them to patients on time.
Everyone recognizes the need to make their machines more reliable – and the dire consequences if these machines break down. But the industry is drowning in “solutions”. Pharma companies have tried a lot of different tools, software and applications – too many. Now pharma customers want to implement technologies which make a concrete impact on their top business goals and challenges. Machine Health is one of those technologies.
So that’s my big picture. Still skeptical? Well, let’s just break it down a little further…
Big Ah-Ha #1:
We Diagnose 24/7 So You Don’t Have To
I love that moment our clients come to trust our diagnostics to recognize when a machine is failing and what it will take to fix it. Any site is lucky to have a maintenance person in Sector C who knows every machine by sound, smell and touch. Now, AI gives you many more such people and helps fill the knowledge gap due to retirement. Which leads to:
Big Ah-Ha #2:
Know Exactly What to Fix and When to Fix It
Over-maintenance is a huge waste of time and money. But if you don’t know what the problem is or the exact time-frame you have to fix it, what else are you going to do? You have to call in someone to have a look to find out what’s wrong. But our alerts take the guesswork out: we flag the problem so you can plan it – long before you have to drag people away from their families at 3am or on the weekend. Which is linked to:
Big Ah-Ha #3:
You Can Run the Plant, Not Have the Plant Run You
Here’s a big moment: realizing that you’ve always been a slave to your machines. You’ve been reactive and now you can be proactive. You can use data from your own machines to get better insight into what’s going on not only in your plant but across your portfolio. For example, are your bearings wearing too fast? Maybe it’s time to check with your supplier or rethink your lubrication program.
Big Ah-Ha #4:
Wait, Did You Say Your AI Is Insured?!?
There’s nothing like putting an insurance company into the equation to sweep away any skepticism. Insurer Munich RE/HSB reimburses Augury customers up to $100,000 per machine if a piece of equipment fails under our watch. Not everyone makes the effort to understand our tech, but everyone knows that an insurance company would.
Big Ah-Ha #5:
Wait… So, Machine Health Is Easy To Install On Utility Equipment As Well As Production Equipment? Without A Whole Recertification Process?
Yes. Our tech is non-invasive. We don’t need to tear your equipment apart. You don’t need to recertify your production line. Plus, we are already certified for clean rooms and for hazardous locations. No extra regulations to follow!
Big Ah-Ha #6: So Machine Health Can Help Us Switch Over From Batch To Continuous Manufacturing?
The industry is finally making huge moves from intermittent manufacturing to continuous manufacturing. And when you can rely on the machines that matter most you can increase capacity, improve quality, and increase your speed to market. And with increased reliability comes increased revenue – along with an enhanced reputation for your company.
Big Ah-Ha #7:
So Machine Health Can Also Reduce – Or Even Eliminate – Redundancy At Our Plant?
Pharma has been privileged with high CapEx budgets. So when running capital projects, pharma has simply added an extra machine or stocked up on spare parts and inventories to be able to properly react to machine failures. But once you know exactly what’s going on with your equipment, you can drastically reduce your CapEx budgets.
Big Ah-Ha #8:
You Get Value Fast And At Scale
Yes, we want to empower that maintenance person in Sector C to take action based on the real-time condition of your machines – to address problems before they lead to a failure. And it works, so they use it. And it provides rapid ROI, so the CFO is happy. Plus, as a subscription service, we require no up-front hardware investment, it’s predictable, and it delivers value at site, cross-site, and at the corporate level.
Everyone goes home happy.
Do you have a pain point that wasn’t covered above? We’d love to learn about your unique challenges and how we can overcome them. Reach out by email or phone me direct at 203-520-3924 so we can arrange a personalized ‘Ah-Ha! moment’.
