There are also systems sophisticated enough to discern critical errors from noncritical ones. Applying a different algorithm to each part of the label, for example, would catch a missing decimal point in the dosage instructions, which is critical, but pass a missing dot of an i in the list of inactive ingredients, which is not critical. That, Manning says, improves the speed and efficiency of the line. The question remains, however, whether the healthcare industry will embrace these new technologies or whether it will focus on the immediate bottom line and invest only in the most economical and basic systems. The response could well vary from one company to another.
Some companies tend to use the information for some process control, with a human being in the loop.
Pharmaceutical packaging operations are still rather people-intensive and are not highly automated as they are in other industries. If a label on the bottle is crooked, there is the capability to send word back to the labeler to adjust its positioning. But most don't do it yet. As much as suppliers push the new technology, healthcare product companies won't commit to it until they can be sure they will get a high return on their investment. That involves vendor information as well as internal information, so suppliers can only argue the point to a certain extent.