GlaxoSmithKline DCS

GSK's pharmaceutical manufacturing plant in Zebulon, North Carolina faced a critical infrastructure risk: the facility, operational for 30 years, was running on a 20-year-old Energy Management System (EMS) and an aging Building Management System (BMS). In pharmaceuticals, outdated control infrastructure carries compounded risk — not only operational downtime but regulatory exposure under FDA manufacturing standards. Any upgrade had to be executed without interrupting required production schedules or creating compliance gaps. The aging systems represented a growing liability, increasing the risk of unplanned outages and making the facility harder to validate and audit under current GMP expectations.

GSK partnered with Rockwell Automation to replace the legacy control infrastructure with the PlantPAx® modern distributed control system (DCS) — a process-oriented platform designed for pharmaceutical and regulated manufacturing environments. To manage the complexity of a live upgrade, the project was structured around three dedicated teams of support personnel working in coordinated shifts. The migration was planned as a phased cutover approach rather than a single high-risk transition, allowing each segment of the control architecture to be brought online incrementally. This strategy minimized production disruption and maintained the compliance posture the facility required throughout the upgrade process.

The project delivered two complete, successful cutovers — migrating both the EMS and BMS to the PlantPAx modern DCS platform without triggering production stoppages or regulatory incidents. The structured, multi-team approach proved effective for managing the complexity of upgrading a 30-year-old plant in a live pharmaceutical environment. Key outcomes included:

• Two system cutovers completed without disrupting required production schedules
• Regulatory compliance maintained throughout the upgrade process
• Modern DCS infrastructure in place, reducing long-term risk of unplanned downtime and simplifying future validation and audit activities

• Phased cutovers reduce risk in live pharmaceutical facilities — avoid big-bang migrations when production continuity and GMP compliance are non-negotiable.
• Dedicated, multi-team support structures are essential for complex control system upgrades in regulated environments.
• Infrastructure age is a compliance risk, not just an operational one — aging EMS and BMS systems create audit exposure that modern DCS platforms address directly.
• Planning for regulatory continuity should be as central to the upgrade design as technical integration, particularly in FDA-regulated manufacturing.