Automation

GE Healthcare, Rockwell collaborate

Collaboration will help improve efficiencies

GE Healthcare, a subsidiary of General Electric, and Rockwell Automation are combining their automation, IT and single-use solution expertise to build bioprocessing operations for the digital age.

Rockwell Automation is a leading company dedicated to industrial automation and information.

The two companies will help biopharmaceutical companies create flexible and scalable facilities of the future, focused on rapid response to market demands, streamlined production technologies and adaptable manufacturing environments, said a statement.

GE Healthcare has also joined the Rockwell Automation PartnerNetwork Program as an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) partner to help drive a best-in-class distributed control system offering, it said.

Kevin Seaver, executive general manager, Bioprocess Automation and Digital, GE Healthcare, said: “As our company and the healthcare ecosystem move toward precision health, flexible and scalable solutions are critical for companies to efficiently manufacture smaller batches of tailored medicines.”

“Our collaboration with Rockwell Automation is an integral part of our strategy to confirm we deliver innovative solutions that meet the needs of the biopharma 4.0 era,” he said.

Fran Wlodarczyk, senior vice president, architecture and software, Rockwell Automation, said: “Our collaboration with GE Healthcare will help make bioprocessing operations more agile.”

“The facility of the future reimagines what’s possible in production of biopharmaceuticals. It uses connectivity, information, and modular equipment to create smaller-scale, more efficient operations,” Wlodarczyk said.

“As GE Healthcare becomes a member of our PartnerNetwork programme, our joint work will help GE Healthcare bring the Connected Enterprise to life, so they can meet demands for more targeted drugs and get products to market faster,” Wlodarczyk added.

GE Healthcare and Rockwell Automation can help companies:

• Gain greater efficiency with FlexFactory single-use equipment integrated with Figurate bioprocess automation that improves reproducibility, repeatability and compliance; and

• Digitise batch files and processes to reduce review times by weeks and even achieve real-time reviews.