How AstraZeneca reduced packaging artwork lead time by 60%

AstraZeneca, a global leader in pharmaceuticals, worked with Loftware to upgrade its Artwork Management solution in order to support the company’s corporate strategy, ensure business continuity, and minimize risk.  

As the organization’s packaging components include cartons, leaflets, foils, and labels—each of which must comply with global regulations and good practice guidelines— it was important to identify a solution that could maintain accuracy, while also reducing the amount of time needed to complete changes to packaging artwork. With more than 1,000 users involved in its Artwork Management process, AstraZeneca also wanted to adopt a process-led solution that could enable customization and accommodate easy onboarding of new sites, partners, and customers. 

They selected Loftware Smartflow because of its centralized and flexible approach that includes configurable workflows to support business procedures. The result was an impressive 60% reduction in artwork lead time while boosting accuracy, transparency, and efficiency.  

Read on for three benefits that AstraZeneca saw after implementing Smartflow: 

#1 Accelerating the speed of change. One of AstraZeneca’s primary goals was to improve collaboration and effectiveness across their Commercial, Operations, and IT departments. To achieve this, they needed required a solution that supported the fast on-boarding of new entities and end users. Smartflow’s secure and intuitive design empowered AstraZeneca to quickly adopt the solution and incorporate it into daily activities. 

#2 Driving continual improvement with Artwork Management. Custom reports in AstraZeneca’s previous system could not be modified to meet current needs, thereby limiting their visibility of current operations. As such, they were keen on Smartflow’s ‘control tower approach,’ which utilizes data to measure efficiency and quality of processes across all operation sites and departments.   

#3 Supporting accuracy and compliance. Accuracy and regulatory compliance are critical to the successful production of artwork packaging in the pharmaceutical industry. Smartflow supports AstraZeneca’s ability to meet global regulations with audit tracking of changes, version control, and a centralized Digital Asset Library (DAL) that stores digital content for the multiple artworks associated with each product. 

Results? 

Moving to Loftware Smartflow allowed AstraZeneca to provide a system of transparency and accountability, while simultaneously speeding up the company’s artwork change process. Read our full case study to learn more about how AstraZeneca improved its Artwork Management processes with Loftware Smartflow, and how those same benefits could translate to your organization.