Pfizer Montreal manufacturing facility wins innovation prize for cleaning process

Montreal, QC – Pfizer Global Supply’s manufacturing facility in Montreal has been awarded the Prix Innovation 2011 for the most innovative process development by the Association pour le développement de la recherche et de l’innovation du Québec (ADRIQ).

The award, presented in Montreal at the association’s 21st annual celebration of Quebec innovation, recognizes an innovative and high performance dry cleaning process put in place at the PGS Montreal facility. While achieving the same quality standards, it reduces overall cleaning time, increases output and eliminates the use of water and detergent, helping the environment by saving the use of 150,000 litres of water and 1,500 litres of detergent per year. The process also helps employee safety and security by eliminating falls from slipping on wet floors as well as potentially harmful exposure to chemical splashes during preparation of the detergent.

“We are very pleased that this new high performance dry cleaning process has been recognized for its innovation by ADRIQ,” said Annie Sébastien, vice-president of operations and managing director of the facility. “We are always looking for continuously improving our processes towards quality, safety and efficiency and it is a tribute to all our 1,000 employees to be recognized in this way.”

The PGS Montreal facility was also a finalist in the technology partnership category for its partnership with the Université de Sherbrooke in the research of Process Analytical Technologies (PAT). This work is done through a Pfizer Research Chair in PAT and consists in using analytical tools to monitor in real time the manufacturing process, instead of taking samples, to enhance process understanding and quality control.