How a Leading European Pharma Company Streamlined Its Artwork Operations
Client Overview
A top European pharmaceutical company, headquartered in Lyon, France, is a long-established player in the healthcare sector. By volume, the company ranks among the top five generic manufacturers in the retail pharmacy segment and holds a leading position in hospital-supplied medicines. Managing a large, high-volume portfolio distributed across multiple markets and packaging sites requires close coordination between internal teams and external partners to ensure packaging materials remain compliant, accurate, and market-ready.
The organization’s artwork management process spans multiple functions including launch coordination, graphic design, lifecycle management, and supply chain. Each playing a critical role in packaging execution and regulatory compliance.
Until recently, artwork management was handled through multiple disconnected systems. Workflow approvals were managed separately, while product and packaging data were maintained on another platform. This fragmented setup led to silos between teams, limited visibility, and manual coordination efforts that slowed approvals and increased operational complexity.
Challenges:
Operating across disconnected systems made it difficult to maintain traceability and control over artwork data. Packaging material changes were tracked manually in Excel, and validation processes weren’t linked to the data source. As a result, teams struggled to align artwork approvals, packaging details, and supplier communications.
Although the company had its own internal workflows for approvals, they weren’t automated. Explaining these detailed, multi-party workflows — especially those involving suppliers and the supply chain — during implementation proved complex. The company needed a centralized system that could accommodate its established methods while introducing automation, compliance control, and lifecycle visibility.
ManageArtworks Solution:
With a limited window for migration and training, ManageArtworks partnered closely with the company to ensure a seamless transition. The project began with a clear goal — to unify artwork workflows, data management, and approvals within a single validated system while preserving existing operational logic.
Through continuous coordination, the teams configured automated workflows, implemented a centralized records module, and integrated product data with SAP via secure SFTP. This eliminated manual handoffs and ensured that every data point — from molecule details to packaging materials — remained traceable, validated, and audit-ready.
Migrating legacy data, adapting complex workflows, and aligning the bill of materials presented early challenges, but the implementation teams worked in close coordination to overcome them. Each phase — from data mapping through IQ, OQ, and final validation — was completed in line with compliance standards, ensuring the system met both operational and regulatory expectations.
Adoption and Usage
Today, teams across 10+ departments including design, project management, launch coordination, and lifecycle management actively use ManageArtworks. Over the course of a year, the company will be processing over 800 artworks through the system. Each SKU involves a minimum of three components, giving the platform a central role in managing the growing packaging workload.
Centralized records and database functionality have quickly become essential, replacing Excel-based tracking with a structured, traceable single source of truth for packaging and product data. This shift has strengthened visibility, control, and traceability across all teams involved in packaging operations.
The company is seeing clear impact, with smoother cross-team collaboration and faster approvals with the proofing tools. Workflow automation has brought greater consistency and efficiency to lifecycle management while keeping existing review setups intact. With stakeholder adoption progressing well, the foundation for continued efficiency gains is firmly in place.
The Experience
The implementation required close collaboration to align the system with existing workflows involving multiple suppliers and supply chain processes. Through collaborative sessions, both teams fine-tuned the setup to reflect established ways of working. The result was a smooth implementation completed within a short timeline, improving version control, material management, and cross-functional collaboration. The record management and proofing tools have added structure and visibility to daily tasks, with ongoing enhancements continuing to improve performance and flexibility.
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Hear what Our Customers say
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This 100% English platform was quickly mastered by internal and external collaborators. It offers centralization, data security, traceability, and streamlined packaging reviews, saving time and effort. After 3+ years, it continues to receive unanimous praise and a growing user base!
