Why did the customer have 7 560 925 ampoules that couldn't be filled with medicines due to high breakage numbers?

What was the customer's problem?

On 5th of October 2006 our customer contacted us to stop the ampoule production since during the filling process they exhibited a high number of breakages in neck and bottom areas. Customer's technical support service was unable to find the cause of ampoule breakage. The customer asked Piramida to send its representatives to try and determine the causes of the breakages and solve the problem and delay in production.

Due to the detected breakage, our customer had 7.5 million ampoules left that could not be used.

How did Piramida approach the problem?

Next day, October 6th, representatives from Piramida met our customer, who detailed that frequent breakage of the ampoules was detected on the part of the filling line that was putting ampoules into final packaging blisters, which resulted in single packages being filled with broken ampoules. Working together with the technical support, our representatives reset the filling line a number of times, but no solution was found and breakages were still occurring.

Since before this series same type of ampoules was used without any problems, our customer decided to check the glass quality of the ampoules.

Piramida representatives were notified of the findings and they went to inspect the customer's production line, specifically the parts that are used for marking and packing the ampoules into blister packaging. During this inspection, we discovered a number of irregularities at the settings of the line, and made arrangements with our customer's tech support for removing them. We also made arrangements to make certain changes at the filling line which would result in lowering the pressure being exhibited on ampoules.

What was our solution?

Our company's representatives recalibrated one of the filling line sensors which was using too much pressure on ampoule (the sensor was hitting the ampoule and causing fractures or outright breakage).

By recalibrating this sensor together with representatives from our customer, we have solved the problem of breakage.

What were the results of our solution?

With our customer's technical support service we recalibrated the sensor, and then after finishing other previously contracted services, we restarted the ampoule production.

On October 10 2006, the newly recalibrated line finished 13 650 ampoules without a single breakage, at speeds of 249-257 pieces per minute.

By giving our customer fast and quality solution, we helped them avoid unnecessary losses and save both time and money.