Process Simulation in Pharmaceutical Manufacturing The Crystal Ball in the Cleanroom: How CSL Behring Benefits from Simulation

For years, CSL Behring has consistently relied on dynamic process simulation linked to live production data. The result: more robust operations, faster ramp-ups, rolling maintenance instead of major shutdowns, and measurably higher productivity. For the biotech company, process simulation is now a mandatory requirement in major investment tenders.

The crystal ball is the classic prop of the fortune teller: hidden in mysterious twilight, revealing the future, tapping supernatural sources, and often cloaked in cryptic ambiguity. In regulated pharmaceutical and biotech manufacturing, however, there is little room for mystification – these industries revolve around measurable, hard data and facts. And yet, the term “crystal ball” has found its way into this environment. Many wish for a “crystal ball” to foresee capacity bottlenecks and better plan workforce deployment and maintenance windows. Especially in batch plants with complex and frequent cleaning processes, spreadsheets – or intuition – quickly reach their limits.

When CSL Behring engineer Ferdinand Marx presented a new concept in 2016 within a cross-industry, cross-tool simulation working group – demonstrating how existing simulations could be upgraded into a true “crystal ball” – the audience, mainly members of large pharmaceutical companies, responded enthusiastically. His idea ultimately sparked a development that is now reality at the company’s plasma fractionation facility in Marburg. The simulation tool “Inosim Foresight” builds on “Insight”, linking process simulation with real-time production data to provide reliable forecasts for workforce capacity, maintenance windows, and supply chain planning. A key feature of this “crystal ball” is its ability to predict future issues and waiting times. Of course, it is not a mystical sphere but a practical dashboard fed with live data from the basic fractionation process of the Phoenix plant and regularly updated. Insight, by the way, is CSL’s standard tool for plant design and production planning.