Future of Manufacturing (Edition 2) - Q4 2021

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Q4 2021 | A promotional supplement distributed on behalf of Mediaplanet, which takes sole responsibility for its content

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Future of Manufacturing Edition 2

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“Factory 5.0 takes the principles of Factory 4.0 and adds on sustainability.”

Matt Moran, Director, BioPharmaChem Ireland

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“Manufacturing members have set a total of 2,779 sustainability targets and established 13,600 initiatives between the years 2012 - 2021.” ~Deirdre Ryan, Director of Origin Green, Bord Bia

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Automation and AI,

what does the future hold for human workers?

With the inexorable rise of AI and automation in workplaces, the future for workers in manufacturing is set to change.

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OVID has accelerated both digitalisation and automation in industry, trends that already threatened to transform or eliminate millions of jobs across many sectors. Many commentators contend that COVID has brought forward change by five or more years.

Micheál Cassidy CTO, Irish Manufacturing Research

Data is key AI and humans share a trait, in that they generally improve performance over time through learning and experience. In teams and organisations, the collation and sharing of accumulated experiential knowledge and knowhow has often been a challenge that acts as a barrier to productivity.

A recurring pattern of history Technologies are now available that support the Some fear that technological revolutions only destroy enterprise-wide capture and sharing of tacit knowledge in jobs, however previous research from self-organising platforms using intelligent McKinsey suggests that typically jobs systems. AR and VR technologies are also have changed to adapt to the new status a key part of the upskilling paradigm, quo. Technology advancements saw the providing accelerated learning of complex AI and humans share percentage of the workforce employed tasks and processes, with immediate in agriculture drop from over 60% to less feedback and progressive learning. a trait, in that they than 5% in most developed economies generally improve over the last few hundred years, yet more Human flexibility jobs were created elsewhere in industry performance over time None of this negates the need to develop and services. More recent technological and nurture fundamentally human skills through learning and disruptions have accelerated the speed at such as critical thinking, innovation, experience. which jobs are lost or transformed. creativity and teamwork. AI and automation are not infinitely flexible Retraining and upskilling nor adaptable to new tasks. In certain environments A critical response to this disruption is retraining and and for certain tasks, they are orders of magnitude more upskilling, however even this is shifting. Technology is efficient and productive than humans, but they are still now developing so fast that standard learning models fundamentally tools that augment the work of humans. A struggle to keep pace. A traditional post-secondary key aspect of future manufacturing will be the design of education or apprenticeship program may be quickly human machine interactions and interfaces that enable out of date in respect of specific technical content. New the best of both worlds, to automate certain tasks, but models are needed that support delivery and recognition also to provide humans with rich information to make of micro-training, rapidly deployed and quickly applied informed, strategic decisions. to real world challenges.

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Reflecting on lessons learned from vaccine development Lesson learned during the COVID-19 pandemic could see the pharmaceutical industry look at new business models for research and development of news drugs and vaccines.

T Paul Duffy VP Small Molecule Operations, Pfizer

WRITTEN BY Mark Nicholls

he manufacture and development of the COVID-19 vaccine was a massive learning process for pharmaceutical companies and saw traditional procedures replaced by new approaches due to the urgency.

For organisations such as Pfizer, several processes that would traditionally have occurred sequentially were run in parallel, explains Paul Duffy, who is the company’s VP (Small Molecule Operations).

However, he also acknowledges that the business discovered there was a huge amount to be gained from that switch.

Learning experience Pfizer’s Grange Castle site is a world leading biologics manufacturing facility, and the team were involved from the outset in working with other plants in the network to undertake quality testing. Pfizer’s Ringaskiddy and Newbridge sites have also been playing a role in scaling up manufacturing for Pfizer’s investigational antiviral treatment and the company has invested USD 1 billion at risk to support the manufacturing and distribution of this investigational treatment.

“The biggest learning has been the vaccine story,” explains Duffy. “The ability to move from vaccine discovery to manufacturing and on to supplying doses at such pace has been extraordinary.”

“Our recognition that good science demands rigor, our

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commitment to patient safety and our close partnership with regulators were hugely pivotal in achieving success with our vaccine.”

Taking on financial risk There was, however, a financial risk; pharmaceutical companies traditionally wait for approval before investing in manufacturing. But in the case of the COVID vaccine, Pfizer invested USD 2 billion in manufacturing before it was proven to be effective and approved.

“That was a very big bet, but we would not have been able to supply the vaccines so quickly without making it,” Duffy acknowledges.

Future of the company He remains positive about the future of the company both globally and in Ireland. From relatively small beginnings in 1969 when the company established a citric acid manufacturing plant in Ringaskiddy, Pfizer has grown to employ more than 4,000 people across five facilities in Cork, Kildare and Dublin.

“Our pipeline is vast, and I am very optimistic about our ability to move new medicines through the pipeline safely, reliably and successfully,” he says. “It is significant that the production of the mRNA drug substance for the COVID-19 vaccine will be done at our Grange Castle facility. It is really exciting to think about the role that mRNA can play in future medicines.”

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Supporting the pharmaceutical industry to adopt Factory 5.0 A consortium of companies are working to drive digitisation and sustainability within the biopharma small molecule active pharmaceutical ingredients sector by adopting the principles of Factory 5.0.

F Matt Moran Director, BioPharmaChem Ireland (BCPI)

actory 5.0 takes the principles of Factory 4.0 and adds on sustainability and the need to ensure the needs of the employee are incorporated. It is important for the biopharma sector as it offers the opportunity for sites to become more competitive through digitisation of their operations and also facilitates the sites becoming more sustainable – key as we witness the finalisation of the COP26 negotiations.

A roadmap to support API sector A consortium of companies led by J&J and supported by BPCI and IDA Ireland has been established to develop a roadmap to support an ecosystem to bring the small molecule active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) sector towards the principles that underpin Factory 5.0.

The cluster comprises a number of captive API companies including Janssen, Pfizer, MSD, Merck, Eli Lilly etc. a range of contract development and manufacturing organisations (CDMOs) including SK Biotek and Thermofisher as well as some technology companies including Analog devices and Siemens Healthcare.

Creation of business opportunities Each of the API companies in the cluster have been assessed by Irish SME Innopharma to gauge their level of maturity along the road to Factory 5.0. A portal for collaboration and new business opportunities has been built. The group will now strive to build an eco-system that

can be rolled out to the rest of the industry including drug product and biotech manufacturers.

Each site will be at a different stage in the process so it is important to design a roadmap that the entire sector can follow and share expertise and knowledge. Innopharma have played a key role in conducting maturity assessment for a number of pilot sites.

Factory 5.0 takes the principles of Factory 4.0 and adds on sustainability and the need to ensure the needs of the employee are incorporated.

Keeping Ireland manufacturing attractive There is no doubt that as the projects unfold additional skills and talent development requirements will emerge.

BPCI intend to roll out the project to drug product and biotech facilities in time. The support of Government through IDA Ireland and Enterprise Ireland is welcome and important. Given the supply chain challenges that the pandemic revealed resulting in shortages of some medicines, it is likely that the EU will look to reshore some manufacturing – a project like this can ensure that the sector in Ireland will be attractive for this.

Supporting food and drink businesses to drive down emissions Ireland’s pioneering food and drink sustainability programme, operating on a national scale, is bringing together government, the private sector and the full supply chain from farmers to food producers.

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rigin Green is the world’s only national food and drink sustainability programme. It has enabled businesses across Ireland to set and achieve measurable sustainability targets that respect the environment and serve local communities more effectively.

Deirdre Ryan Director of Origin Green, Bord Bia

Sustainability achievements Currently, the programme collaborates with over 300 leading Irish food and drink companies to prove and improve the sustainability of the food they produce to meet the evolving needs of customers and consumers globally. Our members have achieved significant milestones across the supply chain, and account for 90% of our food and drink exports. Manufacturing members have set a total of 2,779 sustainability targets and established 13,600 initiatives between the years 2012 – 2021.

In addition to supporting our members in measuring and monitoring sustainability performance across the supply chain, we have continually introduced new services and resources to support manufacturing members in driving further improvements to drive down emissions from the sector.

Recognising sustainability performance As part of this programme evolution, in 2020, we introduced a new Gold Membership, recognising members who are performing at a high level or excelling

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in their sustainability performance. The number of Gold Members increased by almost 100% in 2021, with 51 companies announced this year. To attain Origin Green Gold Membership, a company must demonstrate exceptional annual performance in areas such as raw material sourcing; water and energy efficiency; waste reduction; packaging; and social sustainability.

Pathways to net zero In March 2021, Bord Bia published Pathways to Net Zero, highlighting new procedures and guidelines that put carbon emission targets on a mandatory footing for food and drink manufacturers as the sector seeks to accelerate its contribution to the programme for Government’s aim of carbon neutrality by 2050. This marked a significant shift for the programme and will see member companies go beyond reductions of energy-related emissions, to include a more comprehensive assessment of their entire carbon footprint, including value chain emissions which incorporates indirect emissions associated with food manufacturing.

Looking to the future, we will continue to demonstrate leadership in food sustainability, providing the food and drink sector in Ireland with the knowledge and guidance to embed sustainability into their businesses, helping to bring a competitive advantage to the Irish food and drink industry and forging a reputation for innovative leadership internationally.

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