Both Pharmaceutical Research organisations and Engineering houses designing and building facilities use Knowledge Management Systems to store their technical know-how, allowing easy retrieval and global sharing of data.

Computer based 3D models are used in detailed designing of Pharmaceutical facilities to ensure that all building and process plant items fit first time. The virtual model allows operators and engineers to 'walk through the facility' to check the design works and meets the need of the operators. Behind the virtual plant an engineering database holds details of all the parts, which are used to create construction drawings and material orders for plant erection.

Research teams also use computers to generate new molecules. To combat a particular disease, these molecules have to have the right shape and chemical properties. Having generated some new molecules, the scientists can use computer models to screen them. During the screening, they pick out the ones that are likely to have the right properties.

Using the computers, they can generate and screen up to 10 000 new molecules a year. Without computers, it would take up to ten years to generate and screen this many molecules.

One example is the inhaler. The medicine is released in a fine spray or a powder and passes directly into a patient's lungs. This allows asthma sufferers to get fast relief from breathing difficulties

• counters to ensure the correct number of tablets go in a container
• cameras that 'check' if blister packs of capsules are full
• electronic weighbridges to ensure that cartons are full of tubes of creams
• devices that detect unwanted microscopic particles of metal in tablets
• optical sensors to check that bottles have been filled to the proper levels
• pH sensors to check acidity.

Many of these systems appear in the case studies in chapter 5 and chapter 6.