Pharmaceutical Dispensing System for SPIMACO, Saudi Arabia

The system would interact with the IBM ERP package MAPICS, and provide the technicians at the SPIMACO Plant with specific information to aid them in their weighing, Batching and Dispensing of raw materials to process the drug work orders for each day. At the end of the day all data regarding drugs produced, packaged and dispatched would be communicated back to the MAPCIS System. As the working of a Pharmaceutical company is very diverse, and the smallest of errors can lead to huge losses of life, and property, a lot of validations, checks and Cross-checks were incorporated into the Dispensing System to ensure that quality is maintained, without any chance of errors.

SOFTWARE SYSTEM DESCRIPTION
The software consisted of the following modules-

Supervisory Module -
This module was responsible for communicating with the MAPICS package over TCP/IP, and Retrieving Dispensing, Packaging, and Dispatching information from it for each day. At the end of the day, it had to communicate again with the MAPICS system, and send back all the relevant reports of the day’s activities. In addition, the supervisory module is also responsible for providing data to each booth for the smooth functioning of Dispensing operations. The Supervisory module also monitors activities in all the booths to ensure that no errors occur during dispensing.

Dispensing Module -
This module is responsible for all dispensing operations. It contains data for the weights of each raw material that needs to be dispensed, and also interfaces to a Symbol Barcode Scanner, and weighing balances from Mettler. The user scans the raw material, and puts it on the balance where the weight is continuously read until the required weight of raw material has been added to the balance. Once this is accomplished, the Dispensing System generates a label with the correct raw material, and the next raw material is taken up for dispensing.

Antibiotics Module -
This module is responsible for all operations related to the Supervision and Dispensing of Antibiotics. The raw material data is downloaded from the Supervisory Module, and is passed on to the antibiotic booth for dispensing. Here special balances are provided for weighing the raw material, and updating the database. Once raw material is suitably weighed, a Barcode label is generated, for the dispensed raw material.

Packaging Module -
This is one of the most critical modules in the Dispensing System, as the Drugs, once prepared, and packed, need to be packaged in bulk packs depending on order placed for them. The application is such that the user has to be mobile, and at the same time, his hands must not be hindered by having to hold a scanner. Such specifications meant, that we had to use a hand held device for data-entry, Synchronization and also have a Wireless Scanner which could communicate, both with the Handheld, as well as with the main Packaging PC. Thus we settled on the Palm-pilot, and the Wireless Scanner from Symbol, which sits on the index finger. The user had to scan the Barcodes of each order using the Barcode scanner on his finger, and this data would go onto his Palm-pilot, where we had written our application to Interpret the Barcode, Retrieve data from the Packaging and Labeling to be done. In addition, it would also tell him when and how the dispatch would take place. Also, it would give him the details of where the package needed to be stored in the warehouse.

The Armada Enterprise Scanner is a combination of the current Scanner and the Test Component units, which are currently available separately. We have to take the current units, remove the buttons and displays, and reassemble them in a metal housing, along with a PPC 823 based custom board to be developed by Wind River. The modules will then plug into a Display Unit (Enterprise Scanner). The modules are responsible for filtering and processing the incoming data. The Enterprise Scanner will be responsible for displaying the data.

Board support package we need to implement should include the various components depicted in the diagram below. This BSP includes a Boot Sequence allowing MPC823 to load appropriate applications and drivers. This Boot Sequence contains a global hardware initialization.

The Low-level drivers to be implemented and integrated are I2C Controller Driver, SPI driver, PC Card Bus driver, MMC Driver, Parallel Port Driver, EEPROM Driver, Battery Charger Driver, Backlight Controller Driver, Scanner Test Bay Driver, Component Test Bay Driver and all Power Control Schemes.

The Low-level Drivers to be integrated only are the Interrupt Handler, LCD Driver, Photon Package, UART Driver, Mouse Driver, Parallel Flash Driver, USB Driver, TCP/IP Stack and Ethernet 802.3 Driver.

There are cases where some Device Drivers will make calls to other devices in order to function. The figure below shows those devices that are controlled through other devices.