Automation and Industrial IT From a Single Source
For the construction of a completely new production facility, our customer needed the perfect mix of automation and IT, both in production and in the office area. Based on our experience in the planning of greenfield projects, we supported the customer with our expertise and a comprehensive offer.
Bacthera was founded at the end of 2019 as a 50:50 joint venture between Chr. Hansen and Lonza with the aim of specifically serving the needs of the emerging living biotherapeutic products (LBPs) industry. LBPs are a new class of drugs that contain living microorganisms to treat or prevent various diseases.
In order to expand its CDMO services, Bacthera has built a new production facility in Visp (VS, CH). The building has seven floors, of which the lowest three are currently used for production, the laboratory, utilities and offices. In future, all floors will be managed.
A reliable IT/OT infrastructure is an essential component for efficient and safe production. As an experienced provider of IT/OT infrastructure and production DCS (Distributed Control System), we were mandated with the planning and commissioning of the necessary systems.
Reliable IT system landscape
Thanks to our experience from other projects, we were able to determine the requirements at an early stage and identify the right solutions for the office IT infrastructure.
All areas of the production facility were to be equipped with wireless. CTE planned and configured around 110 access points and put them into operation. In addition, IT sockets were provided on the three floors to ensure productive work in the future. The entire network is based on CISCO components, which are known for their reliability and performance.
A redundant virtualisation cluster was set up as the server platform, on which various virtual machines (VMs) for domains, file servers or RTDS (Real Time Data Services) were provided with high availability. The RTDS enable real-time monitoring and control of production processes. Moreover, the server nodes were operated on two different floors to increase reliability.
Qualified industrial IT in the GMP environment
As a highly regulated sector, the pharmaceutical industry is subject to strict GMP guidelines. Accordingly, the IT infrastructure in the industrial environment (OT) is also subject to strict quality standards. As a result, servers and networks also had to be qualified.
In principle, the server and network architecture in OT was set up in the same way as the IT infrastructure. In addition to the file server and domain, additional jump hosts were implemented in the OT server, which enable the package unit suppliers to explicitly access their machines via remote maintenance. This increases the efficiency and flexibility of maintenance work. In the production area, the integration of around 14 package units from different suppliers was planned, coordinated and integrated into the OT system.
DCS (Distributed Control System)
A DCS is a system for controlling and monitoring production processes. Based on an evaluation supported by CTE, Bacthera opted for Zenon from COPA-DATA. This system in combination with Soft-Logic offers a high degree of flexibility and scalability with relatively low hardware and installation costs. The remote IOs in the field were connected to the Soft-Logic system via Profinet. The Zenon services themselves (SCADA and Logic) run redundantly on different hosts, the visualisation was implemented using terminal sessions on thin clients.
The DCS was mainly used to monitor and alarm GMP equipment such as freezers or refrigerators. These devices are important for storing the LBPs under optimum temperature conditions. In addition, we have implemented pure water production, communication to various package units and communication to the building via the DCS. All critical alarms are also escalated via SMS service. This ensures a rapid response in the event of a problem.
Conclusion
Our customer Bacthera, and ourselves, are delighted with the result achieved together. We would like to take this opportunity to thank them once again for the trust they have placed in us in order to implement all three complex disciplines of automation, OT and IT in one innovative project. We look forward to continuing our successful collaboration with Bacthera.
