ABB India has secured a major automation contract from Reliance Life Sciences (RLS), to automate their new manufacturing plants in Nashik, Maharashtra. RLS’ 160-acre facility at Nashik will house manufacturing plants for plasma proteins, biopharmaceuticals, oncology pharmaceuticals, and vaccines.

Large-scale biotechnology production presents distinct and complex process and automation challenges. These processes adhere to strict regulatory guidelines to ensure product quality, and ABB’s System 800xA® solution reduces manufacturing errors and ensures high-quality yields. It interfaces seamlessly with various skid systems and is used extensively for seamless operator interaction, batch control, and production information on the factory floor.

“We are proud to partner with Reliance Life Sciences on this critical project. This collaboration will reinforce our position in the pharma and life sciences market, where, as a technology provider, we see tremendous potential for growth and innovation,” said G. Balaji, SVP, Head of Energy Industries, ABB India.

“With India rapidly progressing as a prominent biopharmaceutical manufacturing hub, we find ourselves well-poised to ride the wave of the industrial revolution driven by the adoption of automation in these segments, which is pivotal for large-scale production with quality assurance.”

“Reliance Life Sciences has a tradition of leveraging automation technologies in its manufacturing processes, as part of its larger objectives in quality and productivity,” said K.V. Subramaniam, President of Reliance Life Sciences. “The partnership with ABB is not just part of this continuum, but also a step up in terms of virtualization and process control.”

System 800xA will be installed in a virtualized environment for RLS. Virtualization brings many cost and operational benefits by simplifying how servers are managed and maintained. It significantly reduces the IT footprint and thus resultant operational costs.

ABB has been delivering high-end DCS solutions for leading pharma companies in India and has been ranked the no.1 DCS provider in the world for the 23RD consecutive year, according to the ARC Advisory Group report 2021.