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Case Study: Gerresheimer and Hurricane Helene
Gerresheimer is the global go-to partner for packaging products for medication and drug delivery devices made of special-purpose glass. They run a special application glass-test cycle on their Systec autoclaves. Without this crucial glass-test cycle, production operations are stalled, affecting the availability of many medications that rely on Gerresheimer packaging.
The river nearby surged to unprecedented levels, rising over 50 feet and leaving destruction in its wake. Everything in the immediate area was devastated. Gerresheimer, located within the floodplain, was hit hard. Both the existing building and a newly constructed facility, which was almost fully completed, sustained significant damage.
The aftermath was catastrophic. Mud covered everything, with no clear place to even begin shoveling it away. The older building took on about 18-24 inches of water. The Systec VX autoclaves, crucial to operations, bore watermarks halfway up their sides, indicating the severity of the flooding. Meanwhile, the new building suffered five inches of water, enough to damage all the newly installed floors. Fortunately, the newly purchased Systec autoclaves stored on pallets in the new building escaped harm, a lucky break amidst the chaos.
Restoring operations was a daunting task. The autoclaves, essential for testing products—especially as the production lines were being repaired—had to be brought back online as quickly as possible. Our service technician managed to power up one of the flood-damaged units, enabling him to retrieve the vital parameter settings needed to set things back in motion.
When our service technician started working on installing new instruments, the floodwaters had not fully receded in some areas. Despite the challenges, Microbiology International successfully set up the new instruments to mirror the previous ones, even ensuring they were fully compatible with identical operational software.
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