Red Dot Award for software platform Pexcite

Pexcite from Uhlmann Pac-Systeme wins award for user experience (UX)

The Red Dot Award jury honors Uhlmann Pac-Systeme's software platform Pexcite for its outstanding user experience (UX). This makes the company, based in Laupheim, Germany, one of the very few mechanical engineering companies to receive a Red Dot Award for a digital solution. Uhlmann Pac-Systeme is one of the world's leading system suppliers for packaging pharmaceuticals in blister packs, bottles and cartons. Pexcite went live in 2021 and is currently used on more than 30 production lines.

Exceptionally easy to use thanks to reduced complexity

The Red Dot jury awards Pexcite for the outstanding quality of its user experience concept and its implementation. Pexcite is an open software platform that gives users in the pharmaceutical and biotech industries the ability to link machines, production equipment and applications from any manufacturer. It provides the capability to collect, collate, display and analyze data and information from all areas of the production and packaging process. Depending on the requirements, it can be used to perform various tasks such as implementing Track & Trace specifications along the entire process chain, monitoring the productivity of machines and processes, digital tool management, or centralized control and management of all production processes and elements.

When conceptualizing and designing the architecture and interface of Pexcite, the team from Uhlmann Pac-Systeme and Cadera Design worked with determination to reach one single goal: namely, to give users with different levels of competence and access rights the ability to learn how to use the user interface confidently, intuitively and quickly in their day-to-day work. The benchmark for the team's solution consisted of the aesthetics and user guidance that most users are accustomed to from their routine digital activities. This also includes being able to use Pexcite on any digital device involved in the production process, such as desktop devices, tablets and smartphones. That means the interface needs to enable autoscaling and access needs to be web-based.

Thomas Kreutle, Director of Development & Operations Digital Solutions at Uhlmann Pac-Systeme, stated: "More than anything else, achieving a visually attractive design and the simple, friendly look and feel of the Pexcite UX means reducing the complexity for Pexcite users. People have to like working with our product and not be afraid of doing something wrong or breaking anything. The UX is a key factor in this. To achieve a truly good result, usability must be considered from the very beginning in the system architecture stage. Many digitization solutions in the pharmaceutical industry, and not there alone, clearly show that developers did not focus on usability and reducing complexity."

High regulatory requirements as a design challenge

The high regulatory requirements in the pharmaceutical industry pose a significant challenge for the Pexcite UX development team. Incorporating these into a streamlined, intuitive user interface without sacrificing usability is what makes the Pexcite solution so unique. The Pexcite platform is expected to trigger a technology shift in the industry. Instead of having multiple systems, the idea is to offer a uniform operating concept along the entire value chain. This is why Pexcite's UX has an agnostic design – the design of the UX focuses on the ability to be used for different manufacturers and machines with varying requirements.

The Red Dot Award was granted in Berlin on October 28, 2022. Representing Uhlmann Pac-Systeme, Gabi Bauer, Thomas Kreutle and Alexander Reisser accepted the award there together with Tom Cadera from Cadera Design.

Press release [PDF]
Press photos [ZIP]

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ABOUT UHLMANN
Uhlmann Pac-Systeme GmbH & Co KG is one of the world's leading system suppliers for the packaging of pharmaceuticals in blisters, bottles and cartons. In addition to its innovative packaging lines, Uhlmann offers consulting, project management, comprehensive services and digital solutions from a single source. The company is part of the Uhlmann Group, which generated sales of EUR 428 million in the 2021/22 financial year, with around 2604 employees. Other companies in the Uhlmann Group include KOCH Pac-Systeme, Cremer Speciaalmachines, Wonder Packing Machinery and Axito.
Find out more at: www.uhlmann.de and at www.uhlmann-group.com