June 25, 2024

Overview
Takeda Pharmaceuticals contacted Grantek to develop a User Requirements Specification (URS) and a Functional Requirements Specification (FRS) for a new Material Request System (MRS) at their Cambridge, MA facility. Takada needed these improvements as they looked to modernize and improve their operations with a more connected facility and better reporting capabilities.

After delivering the URS and FRS to Takeda, Grantek was then asked to also provided hardware and engineering services for this new system at their facility. The URS and FRS defined all user level and technical requirements for the new MRS.

Challenges
Due to the custom nature of what Takeda was looking for, Grantek worked closely with them to map and then re-map the workflows of the MRS. Grantek worked closely with Takeda to provide them with desired functionality and overall user experience. Grantek recommended Ignition from Inductive Automation be sued as the SCADA and overall software platform. Ignition has many best-in-class modules such as Perspective, Alarm Notification, SQL Bridge, and Reporting, along with a one-year BasicCare Support Plan. Grantek developed an Ignition application that met all the requirements as defined in both the URS and FRS. Prior to deployment onsite, the system underwent a Software Factory Acceptance Test (SFAT) protocol to validate its functionality against the requirements documents. Systec & Solutions was selected as the hardware provider for the MRS terminals. This cleanroom rated hardware from Systec & Solutions met all the platform needs including network wireless and wired requirements. On-site services included terminal configuration, virtual machine software installation, Ignition Application deployment, network communication verification, Site Acceptance Test (SAT) execution, and training sessions.

Solutions
The overall business goals were to provide a platform to efficiently communicate requests for ingoing and outgoing materials; efficiently coordinate delivery of reagents, supplies, equipment and services to the cleanrooms; and to provide order history reports to ensure requests are fulfilled within specific timeframes. All of these goals were met with the Grantek provided solution. Improved reporting capabilities were also realized upon the end of this project. The new system will reduce the need for radio communication between facility spaces and a order history report will provide a summary of ongoing activities. The application will provide insight into the status of open orders and allow system users to clear backlogs more effectively. Grantek recommended the industry leading cleanroom hardware offered by Systec & Solutions, for this project ten Systec & Solutions Smartboards were implemented.

The MRS allows users in various production cleanrooms around the facility to request ingredients, supplies, equipment, and services from cleanroom compliant terminals at other locations around the plant. The requests are presented on one or more fulfillment terminals where the orders can be filled and dispatched. The completed system will allow the request statuses to be monitored on both the request terminals as well as the fulfillment terminals. With this solution, Takeda was able to improve their overall productivity by eliminating the need for additional communication touch points, as all relevant operators had access to the same information at each of their terminals.