Körber uplevels pharma factories with cloud-based PAS-X MES SaaS using Microsoft Cloud for Manufacturing

Being the first to do the right thing at the right time is the guiding principle at Körber. Across its four Business Areas—Digital, Pharma, Supply Chain, and Technologies—the organization, headquartered in Hamburg, Germany, focuses on manufacturing technology—encouraging an entrepreneurial spirit that catalyzes innovation and industry-changing breakthroughs.

Within its Business Area Pharma, Körber is building factories of the future by providing end-to-end, scalable manufacturing ecosystems that can evolve with increasing pharmaceutical demands and the specific needs of customers. Körber provides software and machinery to 19 of the 20 global pharmaceutical organizations, as well as many regional companies.

“In pharma, you strive for the highest quality products,” says Christian Schlögel, Chief Digital Officer at Körber Group. “Our north star is helping customers create advanced ecosystems that deliver optimum quality—with our solutions as the backbone—that empower employees with intelligent and sustainable processes.”

Schlögel adds that Körber prides itself on being strategic partners with all of its customers. Through these relationships, it knows that the biggest customer goals are to maintain supply chain robustness and agility and ensure regulatory compliance, security, and scalability no matter the company size. “Customers need guidance on their digital transformation journey,” says Schlögel.

Production management in pharma, biotech, and cell and gene therapy manufacturing is demanding and multifaceted—covering every stage in a product’s lifecycle. It includes defining and documenting research and development phases, as well as the tech transfer and scale-up of production operations to ensure regulatory requirements. “At every step, there are cross-checks and approvals on your recipes, manufacturing systems, and how you actually process and package the different medicines or treatments,” says Kevin Hillmann, Head of Digitization at Körber Business Area Pharma. “It is incredibly complex and requires systems that are designed to provide visibility throughout the process and eliminate human error.”

Creating advanced ecosystems

Helping customers become more efficient and agile in pharmaceutical production, Körber transformed its market-leading PAS-X MES offering into a cloud-based SaaS solution. This strategic enhancement is designed to meet the rising global demand for pharmaceuticals by facilitating scalable MES deployments and maintenance while reducing capital and resource expenditure. The company chose Microsoft Cloud for Manufacturing and Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) to offer a service stack that enables greater flexibility and scalability.

Hillmann says companies have to consider the different IT interfaces an MES might engage with. "Microsoft Cloud for Manufacturing helps us connect the dots—the physical and the digital—across factory and supply-chain ecosystems,” says Hillmann. “Working with a cloud leader like Microsoft that is also respected for security and compliance means that together we create more value for customers.”

“With AKS, Körber is able to provide a technology and service stack for greater flexibility and scalability to its customers. This capability is essential for end-to-end production management across the entire product life cycle,” says Lars Hornung, Sr. Principal, Alliances and Technology Partners Software at Körber Business Area Pharma. “It allows us to offer our proven, GMP-compliant, on-premises Pharma MES in a fully managed, cloud-based version.”

AKS supports PAS-X MES deployments that can meet the needs of smaller start-ups as well as large companies with hundreds, even thousands of users. “AKS provides assurance while supporting the flexibility and scalability ambitions of our customers. They can grow with the MES system, the MES can grow with them,” says Hornung.

Cybersecurity is another key aspect when scaling manufacturing from small-scale to high-volume production in this modern cloud architecture. ”With all of the cyberthreats out there, Microsoft Defender for Cloud helps us, and our customers feel more secure in running such strategic applications. With Defender for Cloud, customers have even more confidence about the safety of the cloud,” says Hornung.

Körber will also implement Microsoft Copilot into the solution to help workers get the right information to problem solve quickly. “Normally, it can take a lot of time to identify and assess the right information as fast as possible, on demand,” says Hillmann. “With Copilot, they can use natural language to get critical site and process information fast.”

AI, automation, and adaptive plants

The benefits of PAS-X MES SaaS are already significant. Körber customers are reporting they are happy with the flexibility and speed of the product, experiencing a 75 percent IT responsibility reduction, 65 percent initial investment reduction, as well as decreased deployment and testing efforts. Through real-time insights, PAS-X MES users are gaining immediate improvements, fostering continuous innovation within their operations.

“Also, time to market is a major factor for our customers,” says Schlögel. “With PAS-X MES, customers are reporting a 50 percent reduction in time to market, which is huge.”

Körber plans to expand on the MES SaaS solution with more Microsoft capabilities, says Jens Woehlbier, Chief Executive Officer Software at Körber Business Area Pharma. “Connecting the MES with Microsoft Teams, for example, and connecting it with Power BI. We’ll also expand on the use of copilots and cognitive search to make it even easier for operators to interact with the MES. Microsoft Cloud for Manufacturing makes this possible.”

Woehlbier adds that AI is behind the great early results and Körber’s future plans. “We think AI offers more potential to the pharmaceutical industry than anything we’ve ever experienced. We are continuing to work with AI in the space of automated systems, and all of this is getting us closer to our vision of more efficient, adaptive plants—or lights-out factories—in pharma and in other areas of business.”

Schlögel emphasizes, “With Microsoft as a key ally, we aim to make more breakthroughs that evolve manufacturing excellence and innovation across all industries—and help pharmaceutical companies deliver the drugs and medicines the world needs now and in the future.”

Find out more about Körber and LinkedIn.