Ryan Schroeder is the president and chief executive officer of CRB, an engineering, architecture, construction and consulting company.
Metastatic melanoma. Sickle cell disease. ALS. As I write this, promising new cell and gene therapies targeting each of these diseases are on the verge of FDA approval. In fact, 2023 and 2024 may be record-setting years for FDA decisions on advanced therapies.
For these novel therapies to reach the patients who need them, life science innovators have to improve their manufacturing efficiency. To do that, they’re evolving their warehouses, cleanrooms and QC labs into holistic, technology-driven ecosystems in which physical, digital and virtual inputs converge to enable scalability and drive growth. There’s a name for this evolution: Industry 4.0.
As President and CEO of CRB, I’m watching this transformation firsthand as our architecture, engineering and design experts help drug and biotech manufacturers integrate 4.0 concepts and embrace true digital maturity. But this move isn’t limited to life sciences; companies across all markets are investing in Industry 4.0. How can they ensure a return on that investment?
From what I’ve observed in my conversations with senior leaders in the life science industry, it comes down to three core principles.
1. Prioritize Industry 4.0 In The C-Suite
If you’re serious about your Industry 4.0 future, don’t simply delegate it to an internal department. You may see incremental progress with this approach, but driving real change will be next to impossible—and without a high level of coordination, you could find yourself quickly outpaced by competitors.
Instead, give your Industry 4.0 project the horsepower it needs by initiating it in the C-suite. There are a few ways to achieve this. When my team surveyed 500 life science innovators earlier this year, for example, we learned that nearly 40% assign responsibility for data and artificial intelligence initiatives to the CIO, while 25% place it with the CTO. Whatever your approach, the point is to identify a leader with the experience to:
• Analyze and solve gaps in your digitalization strategy.
• Identify areas where your investment will have the greatest impact on overall safety, efficiency, agility and operational control.
• Drive cultural change and empower your workforce to embrace innovation and advocate for digitally driven solutions.
You may notice something about these criteria: They’re not specific to life sciences. People buy into a leader before they buy into a vision, as the saying goes—and this applies across all companies implementing Industry 4.0 initiatives, regardless of industry.
Over here in the field of architecture, engineering and construction, where my company operates, the gap is widening between those who dabble and those who are giving these initiatives primacy in the executive boardroom. It’s not easy. Candidly, our team is currently working on the right answer for our own C-suite. We need to get this right, given all that’s riding on the successful implementation of our long-term plan. That takes time.
For life science innovators, investing this time upfront can be challenging—especially when high-profile pharma companies are making headlines for their commitment to digital transformation, generating pressure that’s felt across the competitive landscape. But whatever your industry, it doesn’t help to move fast if you aren’t following a plan, and the most effective plan starts at the top.
2. Build Room For Emerging Technologies Into Your Scalability Strategy
“We’ve developed the skill of moving fast, even without all the answers.” That’s what I heard from a client of ours, a pioneer in cell therapy development when I asked about their Industry 4.0 strategy. I couldn’t have said it better.
Like leaders in any industry, our clients face uncertainty on the road to digital maturity. How do you design a “forever facility” that can accommodate technologies that don’t yet exist? What if you don’t have the capital for full AI integration today, but that’s where you’re heading? The key to pressing forward in the face of these questions is to adopt an “Industry 4.0 mindset.”
To see that mindset in action, picture two R&D life science labs planning their leap to commercial operations. Both rely on manual processing.
One is focused on reaching the market as quickly as possible, which gets them to regulatory approval first—a big win. However, their processes leave them without the ability to scale production or expedite technology transfer to a manufacturing partner.
The other lab lays the groundwork for future scalability. They keep digital production records, and they’re careful to select flasks and other consumables that are right-sized for robotic handling. They even designed their future facility to accommodate automated guided vehicles in their corridors and AI-driven inventory management in their warehouse.
Which company will achieve sustainable success in the marketplace?
Planning for future integrations and laying the groundwork for a flexible, strategically sound pathway to digital maturity will almost always pay off in the long term.
3. Keep Humans At The Center Of Your Vision
All this talk of digitalization conjures images of the “lights out” factory, in which machines handle the full manufacturing life cycle, and humans are redundant. However, what I’m actually seeing in the marketplace stands quite apart from that dystopian vision.
Rather than replacing people, companies are leveraging Industry 4.0 to empower their workforce with better insights, smarter instruments and more time for high-value tasks. The result is an unstoppable convergence of data (generated in real time by machines) and intuition (generated over millennia by the human mind).
I don’t see this as a threat—instead, I see it as the key to addressing some of humanity’s most pressing problems.
From Novelty To Table Stakes
As Industry 4.0 establishes itself as a driver of future success across industries, that sense of optimism appears to be catching on.
When I ask our life science clients about their vision, they describe harnessing machine learning and AI to enable faster discovery, shorter manufacturing turnaround times and better outcomes for patients facing rare and previously “un-druggable” diseases.
Whether you’re in this industry or you’re applying Industry 4.0 in another vertical, the takeaway is clear: The moment has come to embrace Industry 4.0 and secure your position among tomorrow’s history makers.
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