Pharmaceutical producers must uphold rigorous validation and data integrity while accelerating timetomarket and enabling personalized treatments. This shift intensifies the need for flexible manufacturing systems that can handle high variability, support rapid process changes, and sustain efficiency. Automation and digitalization become essential to keep productivity high and compliance airtight.
B&R’s digital ecosystems connect equipment and IT/OT for unified data flows, realtime monitoring, and predictive analytics that prevent deviations. Adaptive transport systems like ACOPOStrak supports highspeed packaging and latestage customization, while endtoend traceability streamlines audits and release decisions.
“Reduce risk, increase speed! Talk to us about digital traceability and adaptive packaging.”
The challenge
Pharmaceutical manufacturers are facing increasing complexity across the entire production lifecycle. Rising regulatory pressure, frequent product changeovers, shorter batch sizes, and the shift toward personalized medicine demand production systems that are both highly flexible and fully compliant. At the same time, quality, throughput, and data integrity must be guaranteed at every stage.
Traditional, rigid production lines struggle to keep pace. Manual interventions increase the risk of errors, while disconnected systems complicate validation and traceability.
The solution & key technologies
What the industry needs are intelligent, adaptive automation solutions that seamlessly connect processing, handling, inspection, and data — without compromising GMP requirements. B&R enables pharmaceutical manufacturers to transform static production lines into flexible, scalable platforms that support innovation, efficiency, and regulatory confidence.
Core automation, motion
Tablet press, blister packaging, aseptic filling — standalone machines and integrated lines.
B&R’s core automation and motion integrates control, motion, safety, and HMI in one automation architecture — enabling the high synchronization and precision pharmaceutical production requires. This creates a consistent machine platform that scales from single stations to complete lines while supporting traceability and future extensions through an open ecosystem
Robotics & vision
Pick & Place, product feeding, inspection, packaging, and quality control.
Microsecond synchronization
B&R integrates robotics and vision into the controller environment, so handling and inspection happen in real time — essential for highspeed pharmaceutical processes like tablet handling, blister loading, and inline quality checks. Integrated vision supports quality control and transparency by detecting defects early and reducing human error.
Track & planar
ACOPOStrak: Mass production with batch size 1 flexibility. Track technology decouples process stations so slow processes no longer slow down fast processes, and products can be routed and buffered individually — ideal for frequent changeovers in pharmaceutical production.
Track & planar
ACOPOS 6D: Contactless transport for hygienic requirements. Planar technology reduces mechanical contact (and therefore abrasion/particles), supporting compact, clean handling concepts and making it suitable for sensitive pharmaceutical environments
Why choosing B&R as automation partner for your pharmaceutical production?
Benefits for the machine manufacturer
- One platform strategy: Same hardware and software architecture across blister, tablet press, filling, and packaging machines
- Faster timetomarket: Reusable software components (mapp) for alarms, user management, diagnostics, and audit trails
- Simplified validation: Standardized, transparent automation architecture
Benefits for End Users
- Flexibility: Rapid adaptation to new products, batch sizes, and formats
- Operational excellence: Higher uptime, lower scrap, optimized OEE
- Data integrity: Endtoend transparency and traceability across the production line
- Futureready production: Scalable automation for evolving pharma requirements
References and success stories
Insights into real-world applications and partnerships: See how companies worldwide are benefiting from our solutions.
Medical Devices
Medical device assembly is becoming smaller, more complex, and highly personalized. B&R’s adaptive automation solutions ensure flexible, sterile, and traceable production that boosts throughput and maintains consistent quality.
Biotechnology
Biotech labs need automation that is precise, sterile, and flexible. Discover how B&R enables adaptive, fully compliant lab workflows that scale with future therapies.
