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DNMControls &
Automation

Industry

Control systems for pharmaceutical plants

In a regulated plant the control system is not judged only on whether it works. It is judged on whether you can demonstrate that it works, to somebody who was not there.

Photograph pending · 16:9Plant utilities exterior — cooling towers, chillers or a scrubber stack at a site DNM works onpublic/photography/plant-exterior.jpg

We work the utility and facility side of pharmaceutical manufacturing — the systems that hold the environment steady rather than the ones that touch product. Cleanroom pressure cascades, HVAC, purified water generation and distribution, extraction and scrubbers.

The engineering is not fundamentally different from any other plant. The documentation is. Qualification evidence has to be produced as the work happens; reconstructing it afterwards is expensive, and an assessor can usually tell.

How a qualified job differs

  1. Step 01

    Categorise first

    A GAMP category assessment sets the documentation burden. Treating a category 3 system as category 5 wastes money; the reverse causes an audit finding.

  2. Step 02

    Specification trail

    URS, FDS and design specification with a traceability matrix from requirement to test.

  3. Step 03

    Test as evidence

    FAT and SAT records written as qualification protocols, executed and signed rather than reconstructed later.

  4. Step 04

    Change control

    Every post-qualification change assessed, documented and re-tested to the extent the assessment requires.

Being straight about scope

We are a controls engineering firm, not a validation consultancy. We produce the engineering documentation and execute the protocols; where a job needs a formal validation lead or a QA sign-off function, that sits with your quality team or a specialist, and we will say so at quotation rather than after.

Questions we get asked

Next step

Running pharmaceutical plant?

Tell us which system, which platform, and what the constraint is. We will tell you honestly whether we are the right firm for it.

An engineer responds within one business day.

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