In this blog post, we look at a success story of one company using OptiRun™ Connect, our new Internet of Things (IoT) online service solution. Together with our UNICORN™ software, using OptiRun™ Connect allows customers to track their instrument’s health and potentially detect irregularities before they become critical. When it comes to addressing issues, trained Cytiva service specialists can identify, isolate, and in many cases correct an instrument issue remotely. If necessary, specialists can proactively identify the required parts and tools for onsite repair.
Nishith Soni
Global Remote Services Engineer
In this success story, a fully integrated biopharmaceutical company located in Ahmedabad, India, turned to OptiRun™ Connect to address their downstream process development challenges. They’ve installed five ÄKTA™ chromatography systems to develop advanced-stage biosimilars and other complex products for patients worldwide. They needed to plan their batch runs, optimize utilization of their ÄKTA™ systems, and keep a detailed record of instrument utilization throughout the process development workflow.
They began using OptiRun™ Connect in December 2022. For the next several months, their ÄKTA avant™ chromatography system was in “ready” status and was working fine. However, on March 2 and 3, 2023, during a batch run, six events were generated on the OptiRun™ Connect portal. After the Global Remote Service Engineer Nishith Soni received the events on the Optirun™ Connect dashboard and reached out to the customer, Nishith performed a detailed analysis of the error and discovered that it was related to rusty monochromator grating bearings of the ultraviolet (UV) module. The monochromator is the heart of the system, and if not functioning properly, it leads to incorrect results and product loss.
On March 3, a field engineer was dispatched to visit the customer’s site to confirm the remote diagnostic assessment, and the engineer explained the error to the customer. As a predictive finding, our OptiRun™ Connect service team advised the customer to keep a spare UV module in stock in order to avoid system downtime in the future.
“For me, this was the ‘wow’ moment,” Nishith said. “This is the first case where I have helped a customer to identify the problem proactively/predictively using OptiRun™ Connect as a tool.”
The customers appreciated the predictive diagnosis, which will allow them to be alerted of an upcoming failure in advance — ultimately decreasing interruptions to their processing runs and increasing the speed at which they’ll be able to deliver effective therapies.
Learn more about OptiRun™ Connect.
About Cytiva service solutions
OptiRun™ service solutions are care plans for life sciences systems to help organizations maintain their equipment at factory specifications. Our highly trained field service engineers are equipped with proprietary diagnostic and maintenance software to help ensure that our equipment delivers peak performance at all times. Moreover, OptiRun™ service solutions are designed to maximize the total productivity of an organization—not just the technology in place, but its people and processes.