Pharma industry 4.0 deployment and readiness: a case study within a manufacturer

Purpose – This study investigates the readiness for and understanding of Industry 4.0 in a pharmaceutical manufacturer. Design/methodology/approach – Utilising qualitative interviews within a single-site case study in a pharmaceutical organisation, the understanding of Industry 4.0 and the challenges, benefits and critical success factors for Industry 4.0 readiness therein and applications of Industry 4.0 are assessed. Findings – The research findings found that Industry 4.0 implementation has implications for regulatory compliance and enhancing operational excellence on the site. The Pharma site is embracing Industry 4.0 technologies, particularly for paperless systems and data collation and analytics, but the site is somewhat of a late adaptor of Industry 4.0 implementation and is on a path towards increased digitalisation. Research limitations/implications – A limitation of the study is that it is a single-site case study, but the results can be generalisable in demonstrating how Industry 4.0 is being deployed and its challenges and benefits. Originality/value – This study is unique and novel because to the authors knowledge, it is one of the first studies on Industry 4.0 readiness and status in an Irish Pharma site within a single pharmaceutical organisation. This study can be leveraged and benchmarked by all pharmaceutical organisations as it demonstrates the complexity of Industry 4.0 deployment from a highly regulated and complex pharmaceutical manufacturing and processing viewpoint