By Geir Rune Flåten, Chief Solutions Officer
Let me start by saying, that I fully support that all in-person conferences are postponed or made virtual in the current situation. However, I do hope that we will get back to a reality where in-person conferences, meetings with peers and networking is normal. It does give another dimension to feel the industry “pulse” by listening to customer needs and pick-up the buzz about emerging trends in the market, that we as providers can bring home and address in future releases. With that in mind, I am happy to share my impressions and take-aways from this year’s IFPAC conference.
I come from a small nation. The total population would only qualify to a big city in other parts of Europe, USA, or Asia. So when you work in a pretty narrow and specialized space, as I do, you don’t have many peers in daily life fully appreciating the nuances and opportunities you are babbling about.
Participating in international conferences like IFPAC and Pittcon is a very welcome opportunity to mingle. Here I find myself surrounded by a lot of people knowing what I’m talking about and thinking along the same lines. You meet them everywhere, and suddenly you find yourself having a meaningful conversation about heavy analytical issues while pouring coffee or stocking up on cookies.
This year I participated for the first time in Pittcon conference in Chicago and for the 4th time at IFPAC in Maryland. Pittcon felt more like a trade show and the challenges addressed by the exhibitors were mainly laboratory or field analytics, while the focus at IFPAC was more aligned with my current main interests. Here I met and talked with an impressive number of analysts, data scientists and domain specialists working with industrial analytics in real life.
– I’m happy to say that we at Camo Analytics have, are and will support this trend of turning yesterdays hyped up buzzwords into reality.
To me one of the key talks at IFPAC was from FDA. The regulatory authority in pharma has in its DNA to support advancements and innovation in drug manufacturing. Historically the FDA has “sugar coated” the pill, when it comes to continuous manufacturing. But this year I noticed the wording has shifted from “it will come” to “it is here”. Now continuous manufacturing is the new normal, and as you would expect, it comes in a lot of different shapes and forms.
Continuous manufacturing is a subset of industrial analytics and covers specific tools and approaches. It has a lot to do with advanced and comprehensive control strategies. The industry experiences are clearly growing, and the options for delivering continuous control strategies are also expanding. Multiple tools are available, and no single approach fits all products.
I’m happy to say that we at Camo Analytics have, are and will support this trend of turning yesterdays hyped up buzzwords into reality. On our exhibition we demo’ed how a hyperspectral camera and our analytical tools can separate chocolate chips from the cookie dough in a regular chocolate chip cookie. Admittedly, the demo is very basic, but it does demonstrate the online principle for both HSI measurements and real-time analytics as well as relevant and concise communication of results. As our booth was located next to the conference coffee table, we had good traffic from both newcomers and old friends of our technology. Great experience.
Also this year I must say, that I was re-assured. We are on the right track. It is coming!
During IFPAC we showcased our new real-time solution for quality monitoring and sorting using hyperspectral image analysis in a production line.
Read about the Camo Unscrambler suite and PAT solutions >>
Talk to an expert
Get in touch if you have questions about our products, platform, how to get started or how best to address your analytics needs.
