Herron Pharmaceuticals Manufacturing Complex

CLIENT

Herron Pharmaceuticals Pty Ltd, now part of the Sigma Company Ltd, manufactures, markets and distributes over 300 pharmaceutical and natural healthcare products.

OBJECTIVES

Herron Pharmaceuticals contracted Wiley to design and construct a new complex in which it could consolidate its manufacturing, packaging, office, laboratory, distribution and storage operations in response to record sales growth and workforce expansion.

The company sought an optimum balance of cost-efficiency, serviceability and durability for its new facility, which was to be built as an extension to an existing building on the company’s site at Tennyson in Brisbane.

CHALLENGES

• Designing an innovative plant layout and production process to achieve maximum operating efficiency and throughput
• Designing a highly efficient material flow to support a complex range of manufacturing operations, such as granulation, compression, coating and encapsulation, for ‘over the counter’, liquid and cream products
• Complying with the stringent Therapeutic Goods Administration Code of Good Manufacturing Practice for Therapeutic Goods—Medical Products, particularly in relation to impervious surfaces and a dust-free atmosphere
• Accounting for intense use of services, such as electricity, plumbing and air conditioning, within the facility design
• Staging and coordinating construction, installation, fit out and relocation operations with minimal disruption to ongoing manufacturing
• Designing the facility to accommodate future expansion of product range and improvements to productivity.

SOLUTIONS

Advice

• Detailed planning and organisation of a fast and efficient relocation of operations from existing plants to the new facility (in conjunction with Herron management and staff)
• Development of a comprehensive timetable for the relocation.

Design

• Application of innovative design principles to achieve a plant design, layout and production process flow that would be most efficient and enable future expansion (in conjunction with Herron management)
• Design of building and process elements to meet all health and hygiene standards
• Design of the extension to the existing building to achieve all the requirements of the new facility.

Engineering

• Provision and coordination of all utilities supplying production equipment
• Coordination with client production equipment suppliers.

Construction

• Undertaking of main contractors role
• Commissioning and direct contracting with all subcontract trades
• Construction, site supervision and coordination.

RESULTS

A new research and development and manufacturing facility praised as one of the most modern pharmaceutical manufacturing plants in Australia.

The facility, which was approved by federal health authorities on the first inspection, enables Herron Pharmaceuticals to pursue its vision of becoming a world-class manufacturer and exporter and one of the leading ‘over the counter’ pharmaceutical companies in Australia.