Nippon Shinyaku Corporation Pharmaceutical Formulations Plant, Odawara, Japan

The Nippon Shinyaku Corporation's new plant for pharmaceuticals formulation production was under construction from January 2000. It is in Odawara, and was completed on 45 February 2001.

Nippon Shinyaku Corporation is a pharmaceuticals manufacturer. It has its head office in Kyoto, Japan.

MARKET RATIONALE

The Japanese company aims at improving its overall productivity by integrating all its production facilities at the Odawara plant, strengthening its research and development activities, and refocusing its business toward overseas markets which has a higher rate of growth than Japan.

According to public statements, Nippon Shinyaku will continue to focus on innovation putting further resources into new drug research and development, and promoting faster decision making and operational implementation by incorporating more information technology into both the manufacturing process and the marketing system. The company says that it invests the equivalent of 14% to 15% of sales in research and development projects.

ODAWARA PLANT

The existing Odawara plant covers 60,000m² and the new plant uses 16,000m² of floor space of that area. Odawara is one of the largest pharmaceutical plants in Japan. Total investment cost is around $57 million.

The plant owns the total floor space of about 16,500m². It is equipped with the latest computer systems for automated production lines, and it is hoped it will function efficiently as a site of pharmaceuticals formulation production hereafter. In line with the company's global development strategy, the plant was constructed to conform to the high international standards of GMP (good manufacturing practices) while also centralising production facilities, raising production capacity, and lowering costs through streamlining and greater efficiency.

The company's is also planning to introduce more information technology so as to increase the efficiency of all office departments and speed up decision making.

CHIYODA

Chiyoda Corporation was selected to carry out engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) for the new pharmaceutical plant project. The service is based on an IT system named I-plant 21, designed for use in an increasingly competitive market. The I-plant 21 is an integrated and intelligent project engineering system for use throughout a project life cycle. The IT system consists of seven major sub systems ranging from front end engineering to plant completion. It is electronically integrated and uses standardised data and workflow.

I FRONT

The I front is the front-end engineering system. It provides integrated functions for process simulation, database driven PFD, intelligent P&ID and automatic plant layout. The information from I front is electronically transferred to downstream systems as required.

I ENG

The I eng is the engineering database system for each discipline's design activities. The information is openly available to engineers working directly for the project.

The integrated 3D-design system is used to develop the spatial plant models.

I MAT

The I mat is the project material management system. It controls all materials, at all project phases, from material take off, through procurement and transportation to field construction. The material take off information is electronically transferred from I 3D.

I FIELDS

The I fields is the field construction system. It provides necessary functions for field material control, preparation of isometric/spool drawings linked to I 3D, piping welding control, plant turn over control and schedule, cost and progress management.

The document management system (I dms) provides a platform to retrieve, review and monitor all project documents electronically including vendor prints.

The project management system (I pms) provides a platform to plan and execute the work, mobilise the required resources, monitor schedules, costs and progress and take corrective actions.