A Consolidated Approach to Instrument Servicing

The Challenge of Maintaining Multivendor Equipment

Managing maintenance service and qualification for an array of manufacturers’ laboratory equipment presented an ongoing challenge for the scientific team at Boehringer Ingelheim. Their fragmented instrument service approach required the coordination of many different OEM service providers, and instrument downtime was affecting laboratory productivity.

“The OneSource concept from PerkinElmer allows us to focus on our work. Thanks to their experience as a manufacturer of laboratory equipment and a multivendor service provider, OneSource has proven to be the ideal partner for our equipment maintenance.” Dr. Ulrich Baumann, Boehringer Ingelheim Pharma GmbH & Co KG

Efficient Service Delivery Can Increase Productivity

Looking to increase laboratory productivity, the AQM (QC Chemicals) department selected OneSource to directly maintain and manage the service of all laboratory assets. This consolidated approach freed up scientists’ time, enabling them to focus on analysis. OneSource engineers’ expertise deliver an instrument downtime of less than 4 hours, contributing significantly to improved laboratory productivity.

Having realized the benefits of increased laboratory productivity, Boehringer Ingelheim expanded their OneSource service program to include the (AQO) (QC Pharma) department and now more than 1,000 scientific assets are covered by a team of OneSource engineers at the Ingelheim site.

OneSource can provide this high level of service regardless of equipment manufacturer because the engineers possess multivendor skills that are continually maintained through extensive training programs.

Customizing Quality Documentation

Not all documentation provided by the OEMs was available in the local language, German, which can be a barrier when defending an audit. The OneSource team not only developed a quality manual tailored specifically to the needs of the site (available in both German and English), but also harmonized all the qualification documentation across all the OEM systems improving their performance during an audit.

Company: Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH

• Size: Worldwide group of affiliated companies with almost 40,000 employees
• Business: A leading independent pharmaceutical research and manufacturing company, placing special emphasis on product development that improves quality of life for patients. Delivering value through innovation, the company develops pharmaceuticals for respiratory, cardiovascular and central nervous system diseases, among others.
• Program details: Corporate headquarters, Ingelheim, Germany
  • Year 1: Maintained 157 assets and managed 2 vendor service contracts covering 5 assets (total of 162 assets)
  • Year 2: Expansion of OneSource service contract for a further 3 years
  • Year 3: OneSource service solution extended to AQO (Analytical Quality Operations) department
  • Year 4: Maintain 904 assets and manage 4 vendor service contracts covering 172 assets (total 1076 assets)
  • Year 5: Average OneSource instrument downtime is less than 1 hour