Increasing Productivity in Pharmaceutical Manufacturing With VR Training
Cleanroom personnel are the core of aseptic production; their performance in everyday tasks determines overall production performance. If they are insufficiently trained, they are unable to excel at their job, potentially endangering product quality, patient safety, and financial targets. A state-of-the-art training program that is as effective as possible reduces the likelihood of incorrect behavior, thereby increasing productivity KPIs. This article explores the two most important components of a good training program—skill and awareness training—and why VR training is the superior solution for increased productivity.
Skill Training: Conditioning for Correct Behavior
Conditioning in cleanroom training involves developing the right behavior in personnel, ensuring that they perform their tasks correctly and efficiently, almost instinctually. This is achieved by embedding repeated, correct actions until they become second nature to the workers. VR technology enhances this process by:
Instant Objective Feedback and Precise Measurements
VR provides real-time feedback on behavior and mistakes and measures movement, enabling precise conditioning of speed and accuracy. This uniform training leads to less variability in operator behavior, thereby minimizing mistakes and contamination.
Repeatability and Real-life Scenario Training
Through VR, personnel can repeatedly practice critical scenarios, which aligns training closely with the real-life demands of their roles. This intense, focused practice develops routine and competence, reducing errors in actual production situations.
Ease of Use and Standardized Content
VR simulators facilitate easy training with standardized, high-quality content, eliminating the need for senior operators as trainers and instead utilizing less-skilled VR instructors. This shift results in less production downtime as experienced operators can continue focusing on production.
Knowledge Training: Awareness on Behavioral Consequences
While conditioning ensures that cleanroom personnel can perform tasks correctly, knowledge training helps them understand the underlying reasons and consequences of their actions. This comprehensive awareness prevents robotic adherence to procedures and encourages conscious, informed decision-making. VR technology promotes awareness by:
Multimedia VR Training with DeepVision
Having visual, auditory, and behavioral stimuli in one package enhances the training effect and engages trainees more deeply. Through extended visualization techniques (DeepVision) that visualize abstract topics or unseeable objects like germs and airflow, VR provides a more effective knowledge transfer, helping personnel understand the consequences of their actions and the critical nature of their adherence to protocols.
Understanding and Adapting Behavior
By comprehending the ‘why’ behind actions, personnel can adapt their behavior in real-time, which cultivates a strong quality culture and further reduces the likelihood of mistakes and contamination.
More Impactful Training
The multimedia learning style of VR leads to higher effectiveness and efficiency of training. This means that trainees not only learn and remember more, but the transfer of that knowledge also happens faster, reducing the time to operational readiness.
Productivity Effects of VR Training
The combined impact of these benefits on productivity is profound. Cleanroom personnel become skilled, competent, and knowledgeable, gaining increased awareness of the correct behaviors and their underlying reasons. This represents a paradigm shift from being reactive procedure-executors, who simply follow orders, to proactive risk-owners, who act responsibly and preventively. The tangible results of integrating VR Cleanroom Simulator Training into the training program are evident in the following productivity indicators:
Reduced Behavioral Mistakes
Enhanced conditioning and heightened awareness through increased training effectiveness lead to a more competent and confident workforce, resulting most importantly in fewer operational errors. Additionally, competency and confidence also lead to higher job satisfaction, which in turn increases overall work performance and decreases staff turnover rates, reducing all HR-related administration work and costs.
Reduced Deviation Handling Time
A competent workforce that makes fewer behavioral errors also leads to a reduction in the time and resources in the QA department spent on deviation handling. With ever-increasing complexity of machines and procedures, leading to an ever-increasing amount of deviations, this freed time is extremely valuable.
Reduced Production Downtime
A paused or even closed production line is extremely costly. Therefore, every minute that can be shaved off of the needed downtime counts. Having personnel that make fewer mistakes is the biggest factor in the reduction of that downtime, but reducing the need for senior personnel to serve as trainers, having a faster onboarding and shorter initial training time as well as a reduced risk of media-fill or APS failure with a more competent workforce, are also important aspects that positively impact this measurement.
Reduced Throughput Time (TPT)
Produced batches need to be stored and checked before being shipped. But when this QA test is delayed for workload reasons, or because a deviation in the production process is found, the TPT increases, leading to higher costs for storage and longer lead times, in the worst case also endangering contract fulfillment and reducing overall reliability for third parties.
Decreased Loss of Batches
In case of critical deviations and product contamination, the batch is lost completely. Increased training effectiveness with VR Simulator Training can reduce the likelihood of this severe scenario.
With cleanroom personnel working at the most critical points in the production chain, having the most effective training program becomes crucial to maintaining quality and compliance as minimum standards. But with increased personnel proficiency also comes increased productivity, turning a necessity into a competitive advantage. Our VR Cleanroom Simulator Training fundamentally enhances the way cleanroom personnel are prepared for their critical roles, paving the way for a more competent and productive workforce and driving significant improvements in productivity and operational efficiency.
The Innerspace VR Cleanroom Simulator Training increases productivity by…
