How Pierre Ospedali utilizes RFID for product sterilization production

Italian pharmaceutical company Pierre Ospedali produces a range of products including intravenous injections that require disinfection.

The government stipulates that all bottled solutions must undergo a strict sterilization process through high-pressure sterilizers. The solution bottle must be sterilized and disinfected at a temperature of 120 ° C for at least 10-15 minutes. Therefore, the process must have strict documentation and control.

If there are doubts about whether any batch has successfully completed the sterilization process, the entire batch in question must be discarded. Considering that the cost of a bottle of solution is approximately $110, and a tray contains approximately 160 3ml solution bottles, the value of the complete tray that must be discarded due to suspicion is $17600. This money has actually been thrown away invisibly.

Drugs are safer

With the introduction of metal trays using RFID tags, Pierre Ospedali is now able to track the time each bottle enters the oven (tray ID matches the entry time/date stamp) and when it exits the hot press can. The tray is now instantly and accurately identified as having completed the hot press sterilization process.

Before executing this process, all information was manually entered. This method is often prone to human errors, and due to the inability to verify whether the solution has been properly sterilized, it often leads to the entire tray of solution having to be scrapped.

More efficient operation

In addition, RFID tags such as the Xerafy Nano X-II can survive longer under the harsh temperatures of high-pressure sterilizers, while manual tracking processes such as paper barcodes and even traditional mounted metal RFID tags cannot survive repeated cycles of high-pressure sterilizers.

More importantly, the accuracy and completeness of the RFID tray tracking system allow for only one employee to manage the process, while manual processes require 2 to 3 employees.