Increasing Production Efficiency Through Electronic Batch Record Systems: A Case Study

As manufacturing operations become increasingly sustainable and seek to evolve towards paradigms such as Industry 4.0 and the Smart Factory, the importance of process control becomes paramount. Strictly controlling manufacturing processes improves production efficiency and this can be supported by Electronic Batch Record Systems (EBRS). This study examines this concept in terms of existing literature, and through a case study that explored the implementation of an EBRS at a Life Science manufacturing company, focusing on practical implications of EBRS adoption. The main advantage identified was a 75 % decrease in human errors in batch records, compared to a hardcopy system, thereby yielding improvements in production efficiency. The main disadvantages were cost, implementation resources and the in-built obsolescence of manufacturing software systems. Despite these disadvantages, the company found that implementation of EBRS resulted in a significant increase in production efficiency.