Pharmaceutical Engineering Strategy for Quality Informatics on the IDEF0 Business Process Model

Introduction Intricate modern pharmaceutical business activities strive to achieve lean development for the desired quality level by applying the quality by design (QbD) approach. Methods To engineer suitable information flows for quality development by this approach, a business process model written in the type 0 method of integrated definition language (IDEF0) was created for biopharmaceuticals development activities by analyzing actual company activities. Results and Discussion The model comprises engineering activities of product quality design, recipe development, process engineering, and production. In the QbD approach, the activities are hierarchized into five stages. Information flows that trigger plan–do–check–action (PDCA) cycles beyond the stages (vertical PDCA) as well as those in the same stage (horizontal PDCA) are defined. Conclusion With the model as reference, it becomes possible to design an extensive information sharing system applying the QbD approach to the activities necessary for a series of functions.