In part 4 of my blog series on how to create excellent packaging artwork capabilities, I looked at the third of our defined processes, Supporting Processes and the influencing aspects of organisation design. Here in the final part five I will look at our final two capabilities: the importance of establishing the right inclusive leadership and governance and the role technology plays in establishing artwork capabilities.

Leadership and Governance

Given the cross-functional and cross-organisational nature of the artwork capability, establishing the right inclusive leadership and governance is key to the long-term success of the capability. All stakeholder groups involved in the delivery of the artwork capability need to contribute effectively or the whole process will fail. Therefore, all parties must buy into their role in the process and actively contribute to it. This will rarely happen if they are simply passive bystanders in the design of the capability or the delivery of the resulting activities.

The role of an Artwork Governance Team

We would recommend establishing a cross-function governance team to steer the establishment, ongoing delivery and development of the overall artwork capability. This governance body should include membership from all stakeholder groups involved in the process, including, where appropriate, external service providers.

It is all too easy when forming and managing governance teams to focus on the steering and decision-making aspect of the activity. If you are not careful, this may result in the leadership responsibilities of the team being overlooked. The governance team needs to ensure that they provide leadership to the artwork function in a number of distinct ways. Firstly, they need to ensure that a vision and strategy for the artwork capability is developed, agreed across all impacted stakeholders and communicated effectively to the broader organisation. Secondly, they need to ensure that the journey to achieve this vision is structured and managed effectively and that progress is communicated to the wider organisation. Thirdly, the leadership of the governance team needs to manifest itself in decisive decision-making that supports the vision and goals of the artwork capability. Finally, the behaviours the leadership display need to actively model and support the key cultures that underpin the successful service delivery.

To support these leadership activities, some organisations purposefully put in place a number of key roles:

Senior sponsor – a senior member of staff who will represent and support the overall artwork capability at the highest levels in the organisation.

Governance team chairperson – the leader of the governance team who ensures that the governance team activities are managed effectively.

Artwork process owner – an individual who is responsible on a day-to-day basis for ensuring that the end-to-end artwork process operates effectively and that any improvements to the process are appropriately designed.

With all of this in place on an ongoing basis, the artwork capability should remain effective and appropriate for an organisation over time.

Technology

Technology is a necessary and useful part of any packaging labelling and artwork capability, indeed it is practically impossible to operate an artwork capability today without some elements of technology.

Technology helps address many issues which can lead to improvements in compliance, performance and cost. Some of these issues include:

- Eliminating human error, particularly prevalent in transcribing information and in proof reading

- Ensuring everyone has the right, up to date information available to them when they need it

- Ensuring process adherence

- Aiding coordination of the different people involved

- Helping individuals manage their own activities better

- Reducing lead times

- Reducing cost

Before I go on to discuss any specific IT capabilities, let me just pause to cover some of the potential downsides of technology. Before selecting and implementing any technology, the full implications and costs should be weighed against the benefits. Some of these costs include:

- Initial and ongoing cost of tools and software

- Systems maintenance and support capabilities

- User education, training and support capabilities

- Impact of the technology on other business processes

For the purpose of discussion here, I will break down the packaging, labelling and artwork related technology into a number of sub-groups. I will briefly describe each of them and you will find a more detailed discussion on each of them in our book, Developing and Sustaining Excellent Packaging Labelling and Artwork Capabilities. You should be aware that the solutions available from different vendors often provide functionality that crosses two or more of these areas and I expect this trend will continue over time.

Artwork Creation: the tools necessary to create such things as documents, artworks, drawings, 3D visualisations and the associated components such as barcodes, Braille etc. generally, this technology is available off the shelf. The principle issue in implementing these tools is deciding and controlling which of the many configuration options are used.

Document Management: the tools necessary to securely store documents, ensure versions are managed effectively and that audit trails are maintained.

Translation Management: the tools necessary to efficiently and effectively manage the creation, storage and use of translations. Companies use everything from simple documents through to complex and sophisticated translation management solutions in this area.

Image Management: the tools necessary to ensure that what the user is looking at is a true representation of the underlying document. This includes such things as pdf creation, printing, electronic image presentation and colour management.

Collaborative Review & Approval: the tools necessary to allow individuals and groups to review individual documents, create and manage comments and ultimately securely approve documents. This area would include such things as electronic signature management.

Proofreading: tools that help users to proofread documents and their associated elements such as barcodes and Braille. Whilst very useful in reducing errors in artwork, it should be remembered that these tools are only aids to skilled proofreaders and need to be used with caution.

Change Control & Authorisation: the tools necessary to manage the definition and authorisation of changes in a compliant environment. The change control aspects of labelling and artwork changes will often be managed as part of a larger corporate change control system.

Bill of Material Management: whilst often not considered part of the labelling and artwork suite of tools, bill of material management systems are key to the success of labelling and artwork management at either end of the process. Initially, they are key in ensuring an accurate and comprehensive impact assessment is carried out. At the end of the process, they are key to ensuring that the changed packaging components are implemented in a controlled way into production.

Planning and Work Management: tools such as workflow technology that allow activities to be planned and routed to the right individuals at the right moment. More sophisticated versions of these tools will have the ability to manage large numbers of individuals, locations, work teams and separate organisations.

Performance Management: the tools necessary to gather and report performance information across the end-to-end capability. Some organisations will use corporate business intelligence tools for this.

Forecasting and Budgeting: the tools used to help forecast workload, plan resource capacity and financial budgets.

Don’t forget that many of these technology elements will need to be validated as the implication of their failure could impact artwork quality and therefore patient safety.

I will close with a word of caution when specifying, selecting and implementing technology which I have learned the hard way from experience. Many of the technology elements I have described have subtle interactions and dependencies with each other. Unless these dependencies are fully understood, it is very easy to make a change in one area that has an unforeseen and detrimental impact in another.

In part three of my blog series on how to create excellent packaging artwork capabilities, I looked at two important artwork processes: the core and interfacing, examining some typical interfacing processes and their interaction with the artwork process. Here in part four I will look in more detail at the third of our defined processes, Supporting Processes and the influencing aspects of organisation design.

Supporting Processes
The core processes described in a previous article define how individual labelling and artwork changes will be carried out. Whilst this is absolutely critical to the success of the artwork capability in an organisation, it is not sufficient in itself to provide a complete capability. A number of support processes need to be in place to achieve this. These include:

- Governance
- Performance Management
- Issue Management & Resolution
- Process Lifecycle Management
- Education, Training & Competence Management
- Information Technology Support
- Service Provider Management
- Project & Programme Management
- Forecasting & Budgeting
- Business Continuity Management

Many organisations will find that they already have one or more of these supporting processes in place that can be adapted or extended in scope to include the necessary artwork process areas. In many instances, this approach is to be recommended, as the artwork capability does not necessarily need its own unique iteration of a supporting process.

There are a number of questions that need to be considered when making the choice about incorporating artwork into an existing supporting process or creating a separate artwork-specific iteration. These include:

- Does a robust supporting process already exist elsewhere in the organisation which has a close fit to the supporting process requirements for artwork?
- Is the existing process owned and managed by a part of the organisation heavily involved in the artwork process?
- Would the owners of the current process consider artwork an appropriate extension of their scope?
- Is the existing process governed by an appropriate steering team that will take fair account of the needs of the artwork process when considering changes to their process?
- Is the artwork capability sufficiently small in scale to be successfully managed within another support process?

If the answer to any of the above questions is no, then careful consideration should be given to creating an artwork-specific support process rather than trying to force-fit artwork into an existing process capability.

For a more detailed discussion on each of the supporting processes, please refer to our book Developing and Sustaining Excellent Packaging Labelling and Artwork Capabilities.

Organisation Design
Having discussed the various types of processes associated with packaging, labelling and artwork capabilities, I will now discuss some aspects related to organisation design.

Roles that support the process

Roles should be structured to support the business process. Therefore you need to have defined your business process before your roles and ultimately people’s jobs.

An individual role should be constructed by examining the tasks a process needs to have performed and the skills and knowledge that those tasks require to perform them successfully. Once all this is understood, a logical grouping can be performed to gather together tasks that require similar skills and knowledge.

Some of the typical roles that result from this include:

- Artwork Coordinator
- Artwork Operator
- Proofreader
- Local Market Representative
- Regulatory Affairs Representative
- Printer Representative
- Supply Chain Representative
- Packaging Technologist
- Packaging Quality Control
- ERP Data Management Representative
- Packaging Operation Representative
- Legal Representative

In a typical organisation there are a number of artwork capability related roles that tend to equate to full-time roles for individuals, or at least absorb a very significant portion of an individual’s time. This is a point that will become useful when we discuss organisation design later in this post. These 'full-time' roles are typically:

- Artwork Coordinator
- Artwork Operator
- Proofreader

Organisation structure

Having looked at the key roles that support the process, we can now start to look at the organisation structures that will best support the new capability. We will focus here on the roles and people who spend the majority of their time carrying out the artwork process.

For those people who only spend a small amount of their time carrying out artwork process related tasks, it is normal for them to remain within the structure of their current organisation and we will therefore not consider them any further here.

Co-locating the full time roles and putting them under the same management can bring significant benefits, as I will discuss next. Indeed, if you look at the way typical manufacturing site-based artwork studios have often evolved, these are exactly the roles that exist there, together with the management structure to support them.

Whilst not the only answer, creating one or more artwork studios to serve the whole organisation can have a number of key benefits which have proved to be very powerful in some organisations:

- With one or a small number of artwork studios driving the global artwork activity, it is much easier to create and maintain a truly single global process.
- The need to develop far fewer relationships results in higher quality relationships being formed, which in turn results in the process working much more effectively.
- Individuals in the consolidated operation can leverage their specific knowledge across many more artwork changes.
- It is much easier and more efficient to provide all users with the training and support they need to carry out their activities correctly.
- Furthermore, with a critical mass of key roles at the artwork studio, higher quality training and competence development becomes possible.
- Awareness of the overall picture is improved, allowing improvement in things like brand consistency.
- A larger artwork studio leads to benefits of scale in support services and management overhead.
- Improvement and change activity is much easier to implement as there are fewer nodes to deal with.

When deciding on how many service centres are needed, a number of factors need to be taken into account, all of which will be very different depending on the situation within each company. The types of things which impact the decision include:

- Number of countries in which products are sold
- Commercial, supply-chain and support functions organisation structure
- Existing resource levels and the potential impact of reorganisation
- The political will for change
- The budget available for re-organisation
- The quality and extent of the IT tools available to the artwork process

Depending on what other functions are or could be located in a similar way, an organisation might also consider expanding the service provided to include physical packaging design and packaging related Enterprise Resource Planning data management. I do not believe there is a one-size-fits-all answer here, the organisation structure has to fit the particular company’s circumstances and timing.

In part five, the final part in this series, I will look in more detail at our final two capabilities: the importance of establishing the right inclusive leadership and governance and the role technology plays in establishing artwork capabilities.

In part two of my blog series on how to create excellent packaging artwork capabilities, I looked at some of the main causes of artwork error and the importance of creating a service culture. Here in part three I introduce three important artwork processes and look in greater detail at the core and interfacing artwork processes. I highlight the 5 fundamental core process steps and examine some typical interfacing processes and their interaction with the artwork process.

As we have discussed in earlier articles, creating correct artwork is an activity that requires many groups to act together in an orchestrated way to deliver a successful result, on time. The way of ensuring that these people act together in a co-ordinated way is to define a set of processes that everyone adheres to.

Whilst there will always be many ways to reach the same result, and artwork creation is no exception, we will present a high-level process here as a basis for discussion. This process is based on experience working with a number of different companies, and if you are involved in artwork processes we are sure you will recognise many elements of it.

For the purpose of clarity, we will divide our discussions about artwork-related processes into three distinct areas:

Core Processes: The primary activities involved in defining and executing individual artwork changes.

Interfacing Processes: Those business processes that interact directly with the core process, will have an influence on the core process and may be modified as a result of this interaction.

Supporting Processes: The business processes that are required to support the core process and other artwork capabilities.

We will deal with each of the process areas in turn and will start here with the core process.

High level core process steps

At its highest level, creating artwork is no more complex than defining what is required, creating a work product such as an artwork and then verifying that this output meets the requirement initially defined. This is a very familiar process to anyone involved in quality systems.

For the purposes of this discussion, we have defined a high-level process consisting of five fundamental, or level 1 steps:

1 – Create Local Language Text

2 – Define Change

3 – Produce Artwork

4 – Produce Printer Proof

5 – Implement

We define each of these steps very briefly below. For a much more in-depth discussion on the Level 1 and 2 process in each of these steps please get a copy of our book Developing and Sustaining Excellent Packaging Labelling and Artwork Capabilities.

1. Create Local Language Text

Create and approve local language source text document(s) for each of the packaging components to be created or modified.

2. Define Change

Define exactly what is required to be created or modified as part of this change.

3. Produce Artwork

Produce a new or revised artwork that complies with the requirements defined in the Define Change step.

4. Produce Printer Proof

Produce a modified artwork file that can be used directly in the packaging component printing process. This file differs from the artwork produced in step 3 in that it is modified to include all features that will allow it to be successfully printed via a specific printing route.

It is possible to eliminate this step through the use of a print ready process.

5. Implement

Ensuring that, at minimum, the first time a new or modified artwork is used to create packaging components for use in the manufacture of real product, that they are correct.

Critical control points

It is worth pausing at this point and briefly discussing process critical control points. Given that this process produces information that, if incorrect, can have a significant and potentially fatal impact on patients, it is critical that there are defined control points in the process to ensure that the quality of the output of the process is to the highest standard practically achievable.

To achieve this, companies have found it useful to define critical control points in the artwork process to ensure that all necessary tasks have been completed to a high quality before moving to the next phase. Each control point would normally include a quality check for accuracy as well as a formal approval by key individuals to proceed. In addition, some control points will provide an approval of a master document which will form a part of a master record source for GxP information.

Interfacing processes

The artwork process does not operate in isolation. It is a process which relies on information and activity in many other processes in order to operate successfully. Furthermore, some of these processes are owned and operated by organisations external to the company who owns the core process. Some typical examples of these interfacing processes include:

- Change control process

- Production planning

- ERP data management process

- Physical packaging development process

- Company core datasheet development

- Component code management

The design of the artwork process must clearly take account of each of these interfacing processes. For each process it should be clear at which point the interface(s) occur, what information is interchanged between the processes and in what format.

When designing the artwork process, it is highly unlikely that all of the interfacing processes will provide exactly the right information in the ideal format to support the new artwork process. Consequently, analysis will have to be carried out in each case to decide the best way forward. In some cases it will be necessary to modify the interfacing process to meet the ideal needs of the artwork process. In other cases, it will be necessary to modify the design of the artwork process to accommodate the constraints of the interfacing process. In many cases a compromise solution will result. In some cases it may be necessary to phase the implementation of the new process, initially implementing a less optimal solution which can later be optimised when the corresponding interfacing process can be modified.

In part four I will look in more detail at the third of our defined processes, Supporting Processes and influencing aspects of organisation design.

In the opening part to my new blog series examining how to create and apply excellent artwork capabilities, I looked at why packaging artwork matters so much and what happens when you get it wrong. Here in part two I take a closer look at some of the main causes of artwork error, how to prevent them and how to create right-first-time packaging artwork. I also examine the importance of creating a service culture around the provision of labelling text and artwork and the benefits this can bring to the packaging artwork process.

Causes of artwork errors
I have divided the many causes of artwork errors into categories, discussing each of them in turn.

Process gaps and inconsistencies Alternatively termed as systematic errors, these occur when the design of the business processes is incomplete or are conflicting, leading to errors in the content of the artwork. A typical example of this would be a gap in the process definition for the provision of a particular piece of information.

Lack of competence Here, operators do not have the necessary skills, knowledge or instructions to carry out the tasks that are required of them in the business process. This may be due to issues such as an inadequate level of process definition or inadequate training and competence assessment. An issue of particular concern in artwork processes which I discuss later is that of ensuring the competence of people who perform tasks in the process only very infrequently.

Lack of quality time It does not matter how competent people are, if they do not have enough quality time to perform the tasks required of them then they are likely to make forced errors in one form or another. A lack of quality time to perform tasks is typically due to unrealistic process step times being expected, or an overall lack of adequate headcount resource. Clearly, this may also be a symptom of ineffective process and/or tool design.

Inappropriate decision-making In this type of situation, people will make inappropriate decisions during the execution of the business process which leads to errors in the resulting artwork. For example, management may set priorities which are interpreted by operations staff as needing to prioritise moving an artwork to the next stage of the process ahead of doing a task completely and correctly.

Ambiguity The artwork process involves many individuals providing detailed instructions to other individuals in the process, with the resulting opportunity for ambiguity in these instructions to lead to errors in the artwork. A lack of templates or instructions on how to pass on information and instructions in an unambiguous way can be examples of this type of issue. It must be remembered that many people working in the artwork process do so in their second language. This significantly increases the possibility of individuals misinterpreting instructions which are not entirely clear.

Errors in source information The age-old phrase “garbage in, garbage out” applies very well to the artwork process. If incorrect source information is used in the process then it is highly likely to cause errors in the resulting artwork.Typical examples of this type of issue include people using the wrong or incorrect versions of documents and the use of uncontrolled information sources such as ad hoc personal spreadsheets.

Human error A typical artwork process includes many steps where people are directly responsible for carrying out activities such as transcribing information from one source to another and performing multiple complex or repetitive tasks. It is natural for human beings to make mistakes; this can be for many reasons. Sometimes it will be due to limitations described elsewhere in this blog, sometimes it may just be because we are having a bad day. Whilst many steps can be taken to help reduce the possibility of human error, the fact remains that it can still happen and needs to be taken account of when designing artwork capabilities.

Technology errors Technology in the form of computer software and tools is often used to perform or aid the artwork process steps. However, without careful design and control, this technology can introduce errors into an artwork. Examples of the types of issues which may cause such errors include software operating incorrectly; systems not providing the user with a true image of a document and font transcription errors when moving information from one document to another.


Creating a service culture

The development of packaging labelling and artwork involves many different groups across the company and, more often than not, external service providers and supply-chain partners. As I have already discussed, the creation of artwork requires many elements of information to be drawn together in a way that ensures that every detail is correct in the end-result. Without careful orchestration, the separate groups involved in the artwork creation process, both from within and external to the company, will not deliver artwork of the required quality standard. Each person involved in the process must perform their task in the process in the correct sequence, using the right information and tools in order to achieve a quality result.

To facilitate this, it is beneficial to consider the provision of labelling text and artwork as a business service. In our experience, the best artwork capabilities are those that consider themselves to be providing a service to the key business stakeholders and strive to understand their service role and deliver it. Like any service offering, this will evolve over time as the customer’s needs change. The management of the artwork capability should recognise these changes and adapt the service accordingly in a managed and considered way.

The development of clear mission, vision and performance measures can go a long way to orchestrate the successful delivery of the service across the diverse groups that are involved.

Defining service requirements

When designing an artwork service, we have found it useful to take a systematic approach to the definition of the service requirement based on a number of key questions, which we discuss in more detail in our book Developing and Sustaining Excellent Packaging Labelling and Artwork Capabilities.

- What is the service producing?

- What is the scope of the service?

- Who are the customers?

- How do you measure success?

- What do you need the service to achieve?

- Who “owns” the service?

- Who is involved in the service?

Service statement

In order to answer the above it is good practice to capture the requirements of the service in a service statement of some kind. This may take the form of a service level agreement or any other similar document used in your company. It gives clarity to everyone within and outside the service on what the service is and is not there to do, how success is measured and how the service is expected to grow.

Guiding or underpinning principles

To support the service statement, it is also useful to define a set of guiding or underpinning principles on how the processes and capabilities will operate. These define the “rules of the game” and will help all parties involved in delivering the service when having to make decisions about how to move forward in a particular situation. We discuss typical principles further in our book.

Service culture

Developing a common service culture across the various teams involved in delivering the overall artwork capability is also a useful means to ensure successful delivery of the service. It must also be recognised that, in providing a service to a broad group of stakeholders, it is rarely, if ever, possible to please everyone all of the time. An element of good service management not only recognises this, but actively helps to ensure its key stakeholders also recognise this and are involved in collaborative decision-making for key aspects of the service delivery.

It is easy for an external supplier to develop a service culture; after all, it is inherent in the nature of the relationship between the two parties. Not pleasing your customer on an ongoing basis more often than not results in a clearly recognisable termination of the relationship.

When managing internal service functions, the service nature of the relationship between the artwork capability and the rest of the organisation is not as obvious to everyone involved unless it is carefully orchestrated. This requires activity not only on the part of the group providing the service, but also on the part of the customer groups. As with relationships with external providers, it is all too easy for a customer group to abuse the relationship and blame the service provider for all manner of issues. To be successful, the service group and the customer groups should strive to see the relationship as a meeting of equals for mutual benefit, not a master and servant relationship.

You will also recognise that the artwork service relationship, if it is to be successful, will last a considerable period of time. Indeed, if the service is provided by a largely internal team, there is little or no practical opportunity to stop the relationship. Everyone in a long-term relationship will recognise that, for the relationship to be successful, effort needs to be put into it from all parties. Managing an artwork service capability is no different and this effort needs to be budgeted for and the necessary work planned and executed.

In part three of my blog series on Excellent Packaging Artwork Capabilities I’ll be looking at the core artwork process and interfacing processes.

 

In the opening part to my new blog series examining how to create and apply excellent artwork capabilities, I look at why packaging artwork matters so much and what happens when you get it wrong. What are the far-reaching impacts of artwork error on the various stakeholders involved?

Packaging artwork is an often-forgotten back room process in most pharmaceutical companies, but the changing business environment has brought issues from this capability to the fore. Pharmaceutical and other healthcare companies are facing one of the most difficult periods in their history. Current products are rapidly going off patent leaving significant revenue challenges. At the same time, weak product pipelines are failing to fill the gap. Furthermore, global markets are changing rapidly. Traditional mar­kets are stagnating and new markets are evolving at a rapid pace. Everywhere, key healthcare purchasers are putting increasing pres­sure on drug prices. In response to these significant challenges, pharmaceutical companies are looking to make the most out of their current assets. This often manifests itself in a drive to launch as many product variants in as many markets as possible. For the traditional molecule-based global pharmaceutical companies, this represents a significant change in strategy.

The rapid growth in the number of drugs coming off patent, together with the increasing pressure on price from the major purchasers, has led to a huge opportunity and growth for generic pharmaceutical companies. For them the challenges are very similar to the phar­maceutical companies, namely to market as many product variants in as many markets, as quickly as possible.

In today’s world, all drug companies have an increasing need to develop and maintain an excellent reputation with a diverse group of stakeholders. Pharmaceutical companies are looking to develop and maintain trust with governments and purchasing groups in order to help maintain the product prices necessary to support their significant drug development spending. The increasing competition amongst generic companies means that they each need to develop and sustain their reputation in order to win business and maintain their production licences.

Maintaining this reputation whilst rapidly growing the number of products is particularly challenging when one considers that one of the largest single causes of product recall is packaging errors. In recognition of this, regulators around the world are focusing on driv­ing improvement in all business capabilities associated with the management of packaging design and manufacture.

When launching product variants in new markets much, if not all, of the physical packaging design is already established. The text and graphics, or ‘artwork’ as it is known, that is placed on these physical components is what changes every time. It is this artwork design and maintenance capability that becomes critical to achieving and maintaining the objectives of both pharmaceutical and generic drug companies.

For a large global pharmaceutical company, developing artwork for tens of thousands of products is typically a process involving thou­sands of people, in over a hundred countries, from tens of different organisations. To orchestrate all this activity, the right combina­tion of business processes, organisation design, information technol­ogy, facilities and suppliers must be managed. For smaller organisations, whilst the scale of the problem may be reduced, all of the same challenges have to be met.

So, what are the types of packaging labelling and artwork errors (which we refer to as “artwork errors”) that often occur and what are their significant and far reaching impacts? This will provide some context for later posts discussing the capabilities that need to be put in place to prevent them.

Whilst written from the perspective of a typical pharmaceutical company, we believe the points made apply equally well to other supply chain partners and other regulated industries.

What is an artwork error?

We categorise artwork errors into four groups for the purposes of discussion:

Gross errors - Where significant information is omitted from an artwork. An example would be completely missing the need to change a piece of artwork in response to a new regulatory requirement.

Context and meaning errors - Where information is presented in an ambiguous or incorrect way on the artwork. An example of this might be the inappropriate use of hyphenation causing ambiguous or incorrect meaning.

Content errors - Where there are errors and omissions in the detailed content of the artwork. An example of this would be incorrect symbols being used in the artwork.

Technical errors - Where there are errors or omissions in the technical aspects of the artwork. An example of this would be the wrong specification of barcode being used in an artwork.

The implications of an artwork error

The implications of an artwork error can be as far-reaching and serious as any other error with the supplied product. Artwork text and graphics describe the product and provide information and instruction for its safe and effective use.

Impact on patients - The bond between the patient and their medicine is deep-rooted. Patients trust that the product will make them better and expect that it has been developed, manufactured and supplied to the highest quality and ethical standards. Errors in the information provided with the product are significant and can be life-threatening. We are sure that you will agree that any risk to the patient’s well-being is not acceptable and their confidence in the treatments they are taking must be maintained. Trust is easily lost and almost impossible to recover.

Impact on prescribers - All prescribers (whether doctors, pharmacists, nurses or other healthcare professionals) are busy people with a clear mission – to make the patients they treat better. They expect that the products and information they are provided with are fit for purpose, error-free and safe to use. They don’t want to administer products that will make their patients more unwell. Rectifying the patient issues cre­ated by artwork errors is a burden they neither want nor welcome. Furthermore, the remedial action following an incident diverts their limited resources away from their core purpose

These healthcare professionals are often the final decision-makers when it comes to selecting the product that is prescribed or used in the future. Hence, any lack of confidence that they may have in a particular product, brand or company can have a direct impact on the products that get used. Also, it must not be forgotten that there is also a serious per­sonal impact for some prescribers involved in incidents leading to patient harm. Indeed, some prescribers involved in such incidents subsequently go on to leave their chosen profession altogether.

Impact on regulators - The remit of the pharmaceutical regulators, amongst other things, is to set and enforce the standards by which the industry must operate to ensure patient safety. They have the authority to allow or block product use and the power to take punitive action against companies who they see fail to meet expected standards. The regu­latory environment is becoming ever more complex and stringent and there is less and less tolerance for artwork error. Moreover, as we have already observed, the information age means that an incident in any country has visibility to all regulators worldwide. It is therefore understandable that regulators expect companies to be continually striving to eliminate artwork errors and take appropriate actions to reinforce that view.

Impact on pharmaceutical company staff - Two groups of pharmaceutical company staff are typically impacted by an artwork error: the team managing the recall and the operations teams who support the artwork process in which the error occurred.

The team managing the recall need to focus on the immediate and urgent tasks related to identifying the impacted product, with­drawing it from the supply-chain and reinstating adequate supply as quickly as possible. Whilst challenging, this work is often very motivating for those involved as a great deal of satisfaction can be derived from solving the immediate and significant recall problem.

The impact on the staff involved in the operation of the artwork process is somewhat different. Not only are they likely to be involved in the rectification activity, they will be heavily involved in the incident enquiry and corrective and preventative actions. Furthermore, there are the undoubted performance and morale issues that will likely need to be addressed.

Impact on the company - The impact on the company can be significant. The patient safety implications are counter to any pharmaceutical company’s core values. This is compounded by the sales, reputation and sanction impacts, through unfavourable publicity, loss of customer con­fidence, possible loss of licence and increased regulator scrutiny and action. As we discussed earlier, in today’s business environ­ment, these impacts are potentially significant to the success of the company.

The cost impacts of these errors are also substantial. There are the immediate tangible costs of recall, product write-off, repacking and market re-supply. However, these can be overshadowed by the less tangible follow-on costs occurring through loss of sales and market share, customer reimbursement and litigation. In the extreme these not only impact the bottom line but can directly influence the company’s share price.

The benefits of getting it right

There are of course very tangible benefits to getting your artwork right. Achieving excellence in this area can help deliver many significant strategic benefits including:

• Increased patient safety

• Improved regulatory compliance

• Increased sales

• Improved profit margin

• Improved reputation

• Reduced cost and valuable resource absorption

In part two of this blog series I will take a closer look at some of the main causes of artwork error, how to prevent them and how to create right-first-time packaging artwork. I’ll also discuss developing a common service culture, internally and externally across an organisation.

I always consider that ‘Right-First-Time’ is the fundamental metric for an artwork service. This is a simple pass or fail metric – did the artwork pass through the process once or was any change required? This is difficult to achieve on a consistent basis and requires focus and persistence. This is the subject I am exploring further in this series of Right-First-Time blog posts, along with 10 essential tips to help you get it right-first-time.

Here in part 4 we look at the final two tips, focusing on the importance of quality time, quality facilities and how to create a winning culture in the workplace.

Tip 9: Ensure there is quality time and quality facilities to do quality work

Leadership needs to take accountability for the performance of their function

Reviewing the right-first-time figures at the governance meeting, with sufficient root-causing activity, should highlight areas where the process just seems to ‘get stuck’. Each representative then needs to work to resolve issues that have arisen in their areas of responsibility, in the interests of the whole artwork supply chain.

Quality time for quality work

We talked early in this series about the ‘concertina’ effect in artwork projects, where numerous rounds of rework occur but the deadline is fixed so work gets continually squeezed into faster and faster rework cycles. This is a downward spiral as the increasing pressure likely results in either shortcuts being taken or more errors being made. How often have you seen the situation where an artwork has to be sent out at 5pm on a Friday followed by a phone call asking if you have approved it yet?

One of the greatest benefits of achieving a high right-first-time is to get out of this whirlwind of rework and chasing. Schedules become more stable and outcomes become more predictable. People get the quality time to do the quality work required because they don’t have to do it again and again.

We often hear, ‘Let’s get the artwork started now because is takes forever’. Invariably this means starting without knowing all of the information – this is just a guaranteed way of generating rework. Surely the better way is ‘Let’s get all of the information together and correct and then do the artwork really quickly – ONCE!’

Quality facilities – a tidy desk is a tidy mind

Line clearance procedures in pharmaceutical packaging facilities are a critical quality process. Why? To avoid the risk of cross contamination of products or components from one batch to another.

The principle also applies to artwork. A routine source of error is when source information gets mixed up and the wrong documents are compared. This can be a particular risk when there are a number of strengths of a product being compared against a number of reference documents – it can be easy to be looking at a wrong combination. A clean-down of the work-space between each artwork should be undertaken.

Think about workplace design

Most artwork activity is desk-based in offices, but there are some specific facility requirements that should be considered. Proof reading and artwork review needs good lighting, space to lay out large documents and quiet areas. Many of the roles need two screens so they can be looking at an artwork and a set of instructions, or comparing two artworks.

Think about the facility and equipment needs of the people who undertake the tasks in your processes. If they don’t have what they need, they will be unlikely to be able to do quality work.

Tip 10: You need to have the right culture, displayed across all teams involved in the end‑to‑end process to ensure success

Why think about culture?

So what do we mean when we talk about culture in the context of the workplace? Culture is a facet of the way people engage and behave towards each other. It is prevalent in the way people respond to instructions and rules. It affects the way people respond to different types of recognition and reward. Workplace culture is influenced by the different national and geographic cultures present in the workplace.

Culture could be considered as the informal rules in the workplace or ‘the way things get done around here’. Therefore if you want certain behaviours from your team, you need to make sure you have a culture that promotes those behaviours.

What would define a winning culture?

There are lots of ways you could define your target culture. We typically use nine parameters as a starting point:

This list is not exhaustive but covers the key elements we consider most important. However, this isn’t necessarily a list you can just lift and use. Many companies have culture and value statements at a corporate, if not also functional, level and so your target culture needs to align with these. This may impact the parameters you chose or the language you use.

Once you have agreed your parameters, you need to decide what good would look like for each. If you were displaying a successful outcome for each parameter, how would that manifest itself? How would it look and feel? Could you measure it? It is best doing this as a team exercise to build buy-in to the desired outcomes.

How do I get the right culture?

Once you have defined your target culture you can look at how you can achieve it. What is different from today and what will need to change to make that happen? Changing mindset and behaviours is difficult and takes time and perseverance. Do you need to change any management processes? Do you need to do team working training? Do you need to change the way people are measured? How do you reward the people who are doing what you want and what do you do about the people who are not?

Your culture will not change automatically – you need to define the actionable steps that you will take to make it happen. Again, work with your team on this transition plan to build their buy-in..

The role of leaders in attaining the right culture

Leadership is key in realising and sustaining cultural change. Leaders need to express, model and reinforce the new culture you want to achieve. They need to role model the new behaviours – if they don’t, people will not believe it is real. They need to be seen to actively promote the culture you want, recognising teams and individuals who are displaying your new culture and behaviours. Therefore your target culture needs to align with the expectations of your governance, so you need buy-in from leadership as well as the teams involved.

Series summary

In this series of blogs, we have covered a number of tips for how to improve your right-first-time. Summarising these, we have discussed:

Tip 1 – Measure your right-first-time.
Tip 2 – Use codes to categorise errors, then ensure a thorough root cause analysis to eliminate the source of errors.
Tip 3 – Make sure all of the input information is correct before starting.
Tip 4 – Ensure there is a comprehensive and effective end-to-end process with clear roles and responsibilities.
Tip 5 – Make sure the right quality of checks is undertaken by the right people.
Tip 6 – Ensure all people in the process have the appropriate skills, competencies and capabilities through effective training.
Tip 7 – Ensure there is effective cross-functional governance.
Tip 8 – There needs to be an appropriate and scalable suite of IT tools to support the process and people working with it.
Tip 9 – Ensure quality time and quality facilities to do quality work.
Tip 10 – You need to have the right culture, displayed across all teams involved in the end-to-end process to ensure success.

We all understand that packaging and artwork still present a significant compliance risk and delivering right-first-time artwork is a complex endeavour involving many moving parts. Furthermore, being right-first-time increases speed, reduces waste and raises confidence. From this series, we can see that achieving high right-first-time is doable, but there are many parts to be addressed, requiring focus and persistence. As such, right-first-time is as much a mindset as an outcome.

Should you have any questions about this or our artwork or our proofreader and document verification training, please contact Be4ward at [email protected].

I always consider that ‘Right-First-Time’ is the fundamental metric for an artwork service. This is a simple pass or fail metric – did the artwork pass through the process once or was any change required? This is difficult to achieve on a consistent basis and requires focus and persistence. This is the subject I am going to explore further in this series of Right-First-Time blogs, along with 10 essential tips to help you get it Right-First-Time.

Tip 3: Make sure all the information is correct before starting, using an artwork brief

People mistakenly think starting early will make it faster

Why is it that there are so many issues with pharmaceutical artwork? Well, getting artwork right is tricky. It requires gathering all the correct different elements, from different departments in the company, often from different countries and making sure they are placed onto a piece of artwork in exactly the right position, accurately.

Companies often jump straight into designing the artwork thinking that getting ahead of the game will speed up the overall process, but they are mistaken. Consistently, I have seen that proceeding this way not only makes it more likely for mistakes to happen but often the overall timescales are longer.

One analogy is to think of the situation where you are arranging for your house to be painted. You test to get the colours you want and then agree that up front with your painters. You don’t get them to try different colours until you see one you like and you don’t want to have to pay them again if they use a colour you don’t like!

A good artwork brief defines ‘the change’ completely, with no ambiguity

Events either inside or outside a company will result in the need to introduce new artwork or change existing artwork. So a ‘change’ is required. I always recommend to clients, to have all the information before starting and make sure it is correct. The ‘change’ is captured in an artwork brief and signed off as approved by key parties before starting. A perennial source of artwork not being right-first-time is incorrect input information or a key stakeholder not agreeing the change during artwork approval.

A good brief is a clear and concise record of the change required with no room for any misinterpretation and containing the following information:

All this information is collated and presented as one brief.

It is important the same groups who approve the artwork also sign off the brief

A powerful use of the brief comes from the key stakeholders agreeing this is the change required. The signatories will need to be defined for each part of your company and their approval forms a critical control point in your process.

The final artwork review and approval would be made against the artwork brief, by the same signatory departments and ideally the same people who approved the brief, making sure all the changes required have been implemented and that no other changes have been made inadvertently.

Tip 4: Ensure there is a comprehensive and effective end‑to‑end process with clear roles and responsibilities

Map the end-to-end process

When you start to measure the right-first-time figures, your approach to improve it may be to root cause each incident as it arises. This is a good idea. However, there is a risk, even when you have thoroughly investigated incidents, that you only fix parts of the problem. Issues continue to arise because fundamentally the current process is not ideal.

To really improve your right-first-time metric it is best to review the process as a whole and where possible get external independent expertise. This will enable you to design a process which uses best in class principles and is more likely to include elements which ‘future proof’ the process.

Map the end-to-end process considering the various different scenarios that arise in your company. The steps for external artwork approval in the EU will differ to that of the US.

Mapping the ‘as-is’ process and redesigning it will require a number of workshops and support from the senior management team. However the effort will be worth it as you will end up with a process that works, is understood by all and has received full team commitment.

Define the outcome for each step

When mapping each step be clear what should be done, by whom and ensure the performance expectations for each step are defined and agreed. Look at it with fresh eyes where possible. Take the opportunity to achieve your ideal process.

Map the roles and responsibilities for each step

It is useful when mapping the process not to be too bound by the current staffing structures as this can constrain the thinking and prevent a more streamlined process from emerging. This process will almost certainly result in changes in certain roles and you can expect some friction but if this mapping process is done as a group and agreed with the senior team, then it is more likely people will be engaged and go along with the changes.

Make sure there is a clear information flow

Once you have designed the new process, you should ‘trial’ it prior to implementation or configuring any software. Choose a number of scenarios and trial it with the people from each department involved on a day-to-day basis. Then walk through each scenario testing each step and checking they work as expected. Doing this properly will ensure that all the steps are there and in every case, someone is accountable. Only then should you have the confidence to update procedures and configure any systems.

Tip 5: Make sure the right quality of checks are in place and undertaken by the right people

The importance of the review and approval steps in the process

There is typically a four-step process to assure the quality of the master artwork file.
- The initial check carried out by the artwork operator who has created the file, following the brief.
- The second check is a full and independent proof read, carried out by the proof reader, reviewing all text and graphics against the brief and including a detailed technical check.
- The third check is done by the regulatory group reviewing the text and content, ensuring any local requirements are met.
- The final check is done by QA or their representative, checking only that the correct process has been followed and documented.
All these people in the chain must be aware of the responsibilities they are undertaking when reviewing and approving at each stage.

The danger of being vague

There is a danger that we are not prescriptive enough when saying what needs to happen when performing a check. If procedures are too vague there is the potential for elements of the artwork to not be correctly reviewed. In particular we often see ‘thick’ SOPs in the central artwork team versus very ‘thin’ SOPs for the regulatory checks done by the affiliates.

Be clear who checks which elements

So it's important to spell out in SOPs the responsibilities for each stage and back this up with detailed checklists showing which elements must be checked and by whom. Don’t fall into the trap that everyone checks every element, because actually not everyone is qualified to perform some checks. Only the local language expert can check the context of the language on a leaflet, for example, to confirm how the text will be understood by the local patient or medical professional.

Define the ‘what’ and the ‘how’

It is important to define not only what needs to be checked but how it will be done and with what equipment, if required. State exactly what is involved in each check and what to check against. Regulatory checks will need to be referenced to listed key documents, for example, as well as the brief. Proof readers will need to be clear what equipment they need, for example, to check bar codes and braille.

In the next article, I will explore the topic of right-first-time further and present tips six, seven and eight, which look at the importance of effective staff training and suitability, cross functional governance groups and some of the key tools available for IT support in the artwork process.

Should you have any questions about this or our artwork or our proofreader and document verification training, please contact Be4ward at [email protected].

Plan your updates

It is important to plan ahead for eventual updates. This will help minimize re-work that may impact your budget and schedule. There are several cost effective ways to coordinate your future updates. Your technical document translation service provider should be able to help advise you on the best way to move forward on this is.

Intelligently conduct change management of your documents

It is without a doubt that edits are going to happen in the lifecycle of a document. However, in order to reduce costs and problems down the line, it would be prudent and wise to establish a documented plan for updating your documents. Furthermore, in order to avoid minimum charges or recurring processing fees, consider having any changes done in batches.

Build a strong translation memory (TM)

It is important for companies to familiarize themselves on how important it is to build a strong translation memory for their translation projects. They do not always realize the large number of real benefits it can bring if it is used in the most efficient way. More particularly, they do not take into consideration the importance of TM management as a fundamental criterion in the selection of their translator provider. The problem is that many translator providers do not indicate nor offer advice on the required attention to the creation and maintenance of a strong TM.

Problems tend to arise when:

• There is a lack of discipline to update TMs with the most recent changes made during proofreading and therefore critical information and corrections made by the reviewer may be lost. By not having an updated list, the TM is composed of inaccurate content that can cause potential mistakes in future translations.

• They keep a master TM that encompasses a mismatch of all segments (a melting pot) containing all their client’s terminology and style and therefore, neglecting to personalise each TM by client.

This unorganized way of managing TMs does not allow for the full benefits for which it was originally intended. It’s essence and reason for being is to store quality linguistic data that will serve to ensure efficiency and better quality in future translations.

In order to maximize the use of TMs:

• One TM per client: It is a good idea to ask your translator provider to ensure that they build a TM specifically for your company. You can go so far as to ask they do so for each of your divisions or product groups (if necessary).

• Verified Quality Process: Make sure your translator provider has a consistent quality pro-cess when it comes to TM maintenance. This means that they do regular updates for all your new projects that include every change made during proofreading.

• Costs/Access: Ask your translator providers if there are fees to maintain the TM and if this includes access to it anytime.

• Past Projects: You may want to consider asking your translator provider if they can create a TM based on past translation projects. They may be able to build it for you if you can provide them with a quality document.

You will come to find that there are many benefits to building a strong TM. This will allow your future projects to have:

• Faster turnaround times

• Increased cost effectiveness

• High quality and consistency

• Preservation of your company terminology and writing style

We hope you find this information useful.  We are always searching for ways to improve our work, so of you have any feedback, please do not hesitate to contact us at [email protected] 

Take a systematic approach to preparing the translation

Having an inquisitive translator will prove useful — no-one gives your texts more careful attention than your translator. As they progress through your document, he or she is likely to identify uncertain issues — sections where clarification may be needed. This is a good thing! It will give you the opportunity to improve your original document. The kind of translator you want (the good ones) take your sentences apart entirely before they create new ones in the target language. Expect them to ask questions along the way.

Your translator should:

• Read and understand the entire body of the text before starting the translation.

• Make a list of terms or phrases that they do not understand in order to obtain clarifications.

• Use a spell-check program, if available.

• Check for text enhancements: italics, underlined text or bolded text.

• Check for capitalization, punctuation, and typographical errors.

• Verify the new format they created against the original version you provided. They need to account for every paragraph, bullet, box and format feature that was contained in the original version.

• Foresee adequate time to have the materials reviewed by the proofreader.

• Once the proofreader has made recommendation and suggested changes, the translator must evaluate if appropriate.

•Provide one final review of the translation one more time before publishing.

Beware of expansion and contraction factors

Word count can change when translating into other languages from English. This is known as the ‘expansion factor’ or ‘contraction factor’. For example, when translating from English to Russian, you can be certain that the word count will increase. Conversely, many Asian languages use scripts that require less space than English.

This means that when you are having a brochure, website or any other material translated into a new language, be prepared for the fact that it may become considerably longer or significantly shorter. Therefore, be sure to check how your translator charges for their service and whether they base their fees on the source or target language as this can make a difference in your final costs.

Consider that typography varies from one language to another — many printers and office staff may be tempted to ‘adjust’ foreign language texts to bring them into line with their own standards. This should be verified and avoided. French has a space between a word and the colon that follows and uses « » for quotation marks. In German, all nouns take capital letters. In Spanish and French, neither months nor days of the week take an initial capital. Not to mention, it’s not alright to type just an “n” when Spanish requires an “ñ”. This may seem like minor things, but the cumulative effect is off-putting for foreign-language readers. Make sure your translator respects the typographical conventions of the language you need working into.

Beware of machine translations

Language translation: pas de problème! Just pop your text into an automatic machine or software translation, right? Not quite! With budgets being tightened, it may seem fitting to use this type of translation to save money and time, but it will most always offer a translation filled with mistakes. This could potentially do you more harm than you think. Automatic translations don’t think for themselves and can’t grasp the important nuances of a language; they most often get it wrong. You will have no way of verifying if this translation is appropriate before it is too late.

By offering a less than perfect translation to your customers, it gives the impression that they are not worthy of you taking the time and making the effort to have proper text for them understand. This could mean a negative effect on your organisation’s reputation.

If you must use machine translation — use it when you need to get just an idea of some-thing for your own use. Machine Translation (MT) can be useful in these circumstances since it is free and quick.

While machine translation (MT) such as Google Translate and Babelfish have come a long way over the years, use it sparingly. It should not be used for your business communication. Machine translation (MT) should not be confused with computer aided translation since it basically substitutes words from one language to another without considering nuance.

Some of the negative results of using machine translation include:

• The tool generates one meaning of a word in the target language, but the translated word can be out of context.

• Sentence structures are no longer recognisable in the target language.

• Grammar is generally overlooked; a sentence in the past tense might end up in the simple past form.

Areas where machine translation can be useful:

• Translation of emails to understand the basic communication.

• Quick translation of text from a website.

• To get an overall meaning of a letter received.

Areas where machine translation should never be used:

• Printing or publishing of documents

• Court cases

• Corporate marketing

• Patent applications

• Submitting tenders

• Contracts/agreements

• Medical documents

What about translation software? As I mentioned earlier, if you’re pressed for time and want to get the essence of something for your own use, than translation software may be helpful. It is certainly quick, and you can’t get much cheaper than free. But as a general rule of thumb, raw computer output should never be used by your translator for anything out-bound, especially without your express agreement beforehand. There are simply too many associated risks. Careful editing of machine output by skilled human translators could be an option, however, many translators will not accept such assignments as they believe that it’s faster to start from scratch.

Finally, keeping up to date in current events and current slang needs to be considered by both the translator and your company. These can vary from one language to another and must be translated in the right context. We often provide our translators with texts containing new expressions that are trendy or have just crept into the language from everyday occurrences (social media). We need to ensure that our translators get the essence of our intended use.

In the next blog we will look at the next step – Review Translation.

We hope you find this information useful.  We are always searching for ways to improve our work, so of you have any feedback, please do not hesitate to contact us at [email protected] 

Ensure there is a comprehensive instruction to the translation provider

The preparation of the specification discussed in the previous section is the starting point for briefing your service provider. Key things for the service provider are an understanding of the target country, language and dialect(s), the audience, the timelines, the formats and key instructions that you want followed. This is all part of your specification.

Keep your service provider up to date with your project and any potential changes that might happen. This allows them to prepare and be more responsive.

 

Organize your file submissions

To ensure the most effective use of your service provider, don’t just send through all of the materials you may have. Make sure that you have organised your materials to help them. Include all the relevant files in a logical order and don’t include any materials that you don’t want translated. This saves the translator time and effort by not having to sift through mate-rials looking for relevant content or translating material that you don’t need. If the translator has to sort your documentation it will likely delay your project.

Also provide files in a suitable format. Whilst most translation service providers can handle many formats it takes longer to translate from hard copy.

 

Tell the translator what it’s for

Different types of documents need different styles of translations. A technical article is not a travel brochure, and a press release requires a different style from a legal contract. It is therefore essential to be clear to your translation provider what the translation is for and your expectations for tone, word choice, sentence length, phrasing and degree of formality.

You also need to inform your translation provider about your target audience. Different age groups and education backgrounds in your target audiences will require different approaches and tone.

If your translation is a technical subject, it is important that your translation provider under-stands that subject. They need to articulate the subject accurately in a way that is clear and readable to the audience, and people familiar with the subject are likely to produce better text.

An experienced translator is likely to ask for such information and the different requirements in quality have a direct effect on the cost and completion times. For many translations the successful expression of the meaning is more important than an exact translation of the source text, so the translation provider has to make difficult decisions on the style and meaning. As your translation provider gains understanding of your business strategy, products, audiences and preferences, the better their translations will be. If you translation provider is not comfortable with your subjects and audiences, it is time to change your suppliers. You need your foreign language text to have the maximum impact and a provider that can deliver that.

 

Provide all the details to your translator

The more informed your translation provider is, the better prepared they can be and the better service you will receive. The greater the clarity the translation provider has, the more chance there is of choosing a translator who has the appropriate experience in the area.

We have discussed already ensuring the translation provider knows the intended audience, use, style, etc. of your translation, but you also need to think about the quality criteria that have to be met. Some of the questions you need to consider are:

Will a second translator be involved in the editing or proofreading? Is it client’s responsibility, or will a separate reviewer be assigned? The quality of the translated text will be much better if it is reviewed and enhanced by a second translator and in some cases this quality control is a must. However, it may cost extra or have an effect on deadlines so this must be agreed upfront with your translation provider.

Is the overseas representative for your company going to have a look at it as well? If yes, at what stage of the process would this take place? Who is responsible for managing this, the translation provider or yourself?

What will be the format of the final file (PDF, etc), and how will the translation company deliver the file? Who will ensure that all corrections are incorporated and how many revision cycles are included in the price? How do you want to communicate revision requirements to the translation provider?

Finally, it is worth considering what happens to the text after it has been translated. If post-translation work, such as typesetting, is required for the project, it is possible for some translation companies to undertake this as well. Similarly, if the translation is required for recorded speech, the translation company may have services to provide this.

In the next blog we will look at preparing your translation.

We hope you find this information useful.  We are always searching for ways to improve our work, so of you have any feedback, please do not hesitate to contact us at [email protected]