About Laboratório Edol
Founded as a Lisbon pharmacy in 1952, Laboratório Edol today specializes in the development, manufacture and sale of medicines, medical devices, cosmetic products and food supplements. Their research is focused in the fields of ophthalmology, dermatology, otorhinolaryngology and dermocosmetics.
This pharmaceutical company currently produces about 5.6 million units per year and has a settled capacity of about 7.2 million units per shift. Always working to surpass the quality and safety standards of their clients, Laboratório Edol continually strives to modernize, innovate and optimize their products.
The Challenges
Based in Laboratório Edol’s state-of-the-art Portuguese facility, the graphic design team creates PDF artwork for the packaging and labeling of their products. Part of their responsibilities includes ensuring the vast amount of text required for their product labels is clear and error-free.
Previously, the PDF artwork approval process involved many people proofreading the same document and did not ensure 100% accuracy, due to human error. While this proofreading process was necessary, it was not optimal: Either the entire text had to be read manually many times by many people or it was sent to production and eventually rejected. Catching errors so late in their workflow was contrary to Laboratório Edol’s innovative methodology and resulted in additional costs.
The graphic design team at Laboratório Edol identified their artwork review process as inefficient. They felt a new process was needed that would catch errors and inconsistencies at an early stage in the workflow.
Choosing TVT®, the Text Verification Tool®
Laboratório Edol knew that manually proofreading PDF artwork guaranteed risk – they needed a tool that would replace this manual process. When a Laboratório Edol employee read about TVT, the Text Verification Tool, they immediately realized it would be advantageous for them. TVT is a user-friendly text and graphic proofreading software that could easily be implemented into their artwork review process.
“We needed a computer software that could compare text and detect deviations. It also needed to be capable of identifying differences in font and identifying special characters such as measuring units,” explains Joana Novais, Graphic Designer – Image & Creativity. Her team usually compared Word or PDF files against Adobe Illustrator. These files might be in Portuguese, English, French or other more complex languages, such as Arabic or Azeri.
As the national sales leader in the field of ophthalmology, Laboratório Edol is sensitive to how strenuous and taxing manual proofreading can be to the human eye. Mrs. Novais explains her company’s decision to implement TVT: “We choose TVT because we work with documents that include a lot of text. Before documents can be printed, they need to be approved by many people. In detecting deviations, TVT does a faster and more reliable job than the human eye.”
The graphic design team at Laboratório Edol feels a weight has been lifted from their shoulders, and view TVT as their safety net. Since implementing TVT, all teams involved in the packaging and labeling of Laboratório Edol’s pharmaceuticals and cosmetic products have experienced a more efficient workflow and accelerated approval process.
“When we work with big pieces of text, we run it through TVT and it detects all deviations quickly and easily,” said Mrs. Novais. Before implementing TVT, Laboratório Edol had limited control over some of the artwork for export products since final approval was the responsibility of the local operating companies. Since implementing TVT, PDF artwork can be verified before they are sent for approval – ensuring accuracy on all products across the globe. “TVT allows us to make changes early on and guarantees that the best is sent for approval. It also saves us time, which is a huge benefit.”
To learn more about Laboratório Edol, please visit: https://edol.pt/en/
