HMH Systems: A Custom HMI for Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Equipment

HMH Systems spent nearly two years searching the market for a Human-Machine Interface (HMI) that could meet the demands of its pharmaceutical manufacturing equipment. Nothing measured up. That’s how McFile came to build a custom HMI from the ground up — and, in the process, formally opened a new line of business: custom industrial software development.

This case study shows how a highly specific requirement — one no off-the-shelf solution could fully address — turned into a product that now runs on machines in production across Europe and North America.

Client: HMH Systems AG
Headquarters: Hünenberg, Switzerland
Industry: Pharmaceutical manufacturing equipment
Solution: Custom HMI (Human-Machine Interface) development

What Is an HMI (Human-Machine Interface)?

Some context before we get into the project. An HMI is the screen — usually a touchscreen — through which an operator monitors, controls, and adjusts a machine or industrial process. It’s the operating panel where commands like start, stop, or selecting which product to package are carried out.

The HMI works alongside a second processing unit, the PLC, which communicates directly with motors, sensors, and safety systems. Designed well, it stops being just a screen and becomes a strategic tool for the operation: clearer visual information, safer operation, real-time data-driven decisions, and less unplanned downtime.

About the Company

HMH Systems AG is a Swiss machine builder serving the pharmaceutical sector, specializing in high-precision, high-performance solid dose feeders. In practical terms, these are the machines that place the tablets into the blister packs behind the products you find on any pharmacy shelf.

A feeder is a complex machine. It drives dozens of motors and connects to the full pharmaceutical packaging line — the blister machines that form the plastic or aluminum, create the cavities for the tablets, feed the product, run quality control, seal the blisters, print, cut, and pack.

Each machine has hundreds of settings, defined per blister machine model or per product, all stored in a database. And there’s more: every setting change or command has to be recorded in an audit trail — a non-negotiable in the pharmaceutical industry.

O desafio: dois anos em busca de uma IHM que o mercado não entregava

For roughly two years, HMH searched the market for a solution that met all of its objectives. Major vendors were consulted, each with its own technologies and protocol support, but none fully covered what the company needed in an HMI.

The complexity came from a set of constraints that stacked on top of one another. The new HMI had to do all of the following at once:

• Comunicar-se com a unidade PLC já existente, em um protocolo específico;
• Oferecer operação por tela sensível ao toque em diferentes sistemas operacionais, como Android, Linux e Windows;
• Integrar-se a outros sistemas corporativos, como Windows Server e sistemas SCADA;
• Prover requisitos avançados de segurança, com autenticação, assinatura digital e auditoria, exigências inegociáveis na indústria farmacêutica.

That was the knot no off-the-shelf solution could fully untie.

Por que uma solução sob medida

When a process is both critical and highly specific, off-the-shelf software rarely covers every angle. That was exactly HMH’s situation: integration with a legacy PLC, cross-platform touch support, SCADA communication, and robust security and audit layers, all in a single product. The answer to that kind of requirement is custom development: building the HMI around the real process, instead of the other way around.

Why McFile

The choice was no accident. HMH had already been a McFile client on the document management (DMS) side for several years. That relationship, combined with the team’s track record for quality delivery, certifications, and security, was what revealed McFile’s capacity to take on custom HMI.

Development was carried out together with Destaque Gestão Documental, the company that provides support for McFile’s DMS platform in Brazil. That combination was what made it possible to align cost, expertise, and security with the demands of the project.

“Where off-the-shelf software reaches its limits, we build custom solutions that work reliably — and that’s exactly what we proved successfully, alongside the McFile team in Brazil.”
— Alex Martinez, responsible for machine programming at HMH Systems AG, including motors, sensors, and all other components (translated from the German original)

The Technology: Qt, C++, and JavaScript

The platform chosen for the interface was Qt, built on C++ with UI components written in JavaScript. Qt was originally used by Nokia in its mobile phones and is today an independent, mature framework with a strong presence in HMIs for hospital and automotive equipment, a track record that provides the reliability a regulated environment like pharma demands.

Compliance: ISO 9001 and 21 CFR Part 11

In the pharmaceutical industry, two standards are baseline prerequisites. Without compliance with both, you don’t work in the sector:

• ISO 9001: a norma de qualidade mais conhecida do mercado, sob a qual a McFile, junto à Destaque Gestão Documental, certifica seu desenvolvimento.
• CFR 21 Parte 11: conjunto de regras para o tratamento de registros digitais, que define como os dados de operação devem ser gerados, manipulados e arquivados.

Not by chance, McFile’s expertise, built up over years in document management, mapped perfectly onto the requirements of the HMI.

Inside the project

Development followed a Lean and Agile methodology, with the McFile and Destaque teams working directly with HMH’s product team. Once the core requirements were defined, the first HMI screens took shape, built on three pillars:

• Modelagem de interface UX/UI, para uma operação clara e intuitiva;
• Padrões de desenvolvimento e segurança (security by design);
• Testes automatizados e revisão de código.

One unexpected outcome: while building the HMI for the solid-dose feeder, the need emerged to run other machines on the same protocol. The product elevator (built around a robotic arm) and the damaged-tablet inspection chute were the first units to get the new HMI.

The first version of the HMI took about a year to build. Today, the team is coding the first full release, targeting the Sypro, one of the machines in HMH’s lineup. Launch is scheduled for early 2027, bringing total development to roughly two and a half years from the start of the project.

Resultados: de um projeto a um produto

The first machines with panels running McFile’s HMI were delivered successfully and on tight deadlines. Today, they’re in production at customer sites across Europe and North America.

The first feeder equipped with McFile’s HMI was unveiled at Interpack in Düsseldorf, Germany — the world’s largest packaging trade fair — and will ship on HMH’s new feeders starting in 2027.

What started as a one-off project became a product. And it opened a new front for McFile: a software development team available to companies that need specific solutions — the kind no off-the-shelf platform can deliver.

Your company might need a custom solution if…

• A sua operação tem um processo crítico que nenhum software de prateleira atende bem;
• Você precisa integrar sistemas diferentes que hoje não conversam entre si;
• Você quer construir uma IHM ou interface customizada para uma máquina ou linha de produção;
• O seu time gasta tempo demais em tarefas que poderiam ser automatizadas com uma solução própria.

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If your company has a software challenge that calls for a custom solution, let’s talk.

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