Two projects. Two category winners. One overall Facility of the Year (FOYA) Award.

Planning excellence! Using Monte Carlo-based modeling allowed the team to simulate thousands of possible outcomes of potential problems and predict the likelihood and severity of schedule and cost impacts, the project team then proactively developed mitigation plans that prevented the issues from ever happening.

This is one of many innovative examples and reasons Shire, a global biotechnology leader, captured three FOYA awards from the International Society of Pharmaceutical Engineering (ISPE) in early November for two projects located in Los Angeles:

• Los Angeles Building 8 was named Overall Winner and Category Winner for Facility Integration.
• Shire Los Angeles Quality Control Laboratory project won for Operational Excellence.

The FOYA was developed by ISPE to recognize the best pharmaceutical science and manufacturing industry projects in the world. This program showcases accomplishments in facility design, construction, and operation, and shares both new technologies and advanced applications of existing technology. The committee of judges is made up of senior industry leaders with global experience across all sectors of the pharmaceutical and biotechnology manufacturing industry.

Los Angeles Building 8: 2018 FOYA Winner and Category Winner for Facility Integration

What started in 1986 with a small team of entrepreneurs seeking solutions to unmet medical needs has led to a global biotechnology leader in rare disease. With medicines available in more than 100 countries, Shire is helping patients and families around the world in several therapeutic areas, including Hematology, Immunology, Neuroscience, Lysosomal Storage Disorders, and Hereditary Angioedema. Many of the Shire products developed to treat rare diseases are derived from human plasma, and as such, Shire operates one of the largest plasma fractionation sites in the world at their Los Angeles campus.

Building 8 purifies, processes, and supplies best-in-class commercial products to address these highly specialized conditions. This winning building project leveraged cutting-edge technology to diminish project challenges. Construction took place right in the center of a congested 11-acre campus, with the new 120,000-sq.-ft. purification facility replacing an aging 1930s-era building. The team converted challenges into opportunities for creativity and innovation via the use of Lean Construction concepts and technological advances. Building 8 became the first of its kind to be a virtually paperless project.

Building 8 has space constraints in every direction, with the new building being constructed within 6” of an existing structure. The project team used building information modeling (BIM) and resolved over 10,000 clashes per week during the design phase. Trimble Total Station was also used to save countless man hours and increase accuracy over traditional methods.

The quest for an uncompromising sustainable design resulted in the building also being awarded the LEED Silver Certification by the US Green Building Council. Water conserving sanitary fixtures and irrigation systems reduced water usage by 50%. Energy efficiency strategies were implemented resulting in a total reduction of 20% from baseline energy calculations. A construction waste management plan diverted 75% of the total construction waste from landfill disposal.

Per the ISPE, the “application of excellent and innovative design practices as well as superior planning led to the successful integration of this new facility into an existing operational campus, and the reason Shire was selected as the 2018 Facility of the Year Awards Overall Winner.” Learn more here.

Shire Los Angeles Quality Control Laboratory: Category Winner for Operational Excellence

Internal quality control is key to achieving Shire’s mission. Enter the construction of a “next generation Quality Control Lab” to address the ever-increasing, global demand for their therapies and to meet the goal of better, faster, and more economical delivery to patients worldwide. This 16,000-sq.-ft. laboratory is the category winner for Operational Excellence.

The new lab was chosen as the winning facility for a variety of reasons, including the thoughtful application of lean principles not only to deployment, but also to the design of actual daily operations of the lab. The judging committee particularly praised the application of organic Kaizen principles aimed at improving efficiency and decreasing waste. Using Kaizen as a guide and with the application of lean principles to every aspect of the facility design, the team was able to optimize the layout and operational aspects of the lab to reinforce teamwork, minimize expenditures, and allow for easy access to daily supervisory oversight—all key to decreasing latency times and modernizing quality control operations.

The new lab now supports multiple manufacturing operations at significantly reduced capital and operational costs, thereby improving value to Shire, its patients, and the industry as a whole. The goal of redesigning the lab while also delivering a space that allowed for the real-time sharing of ideas resulted in the creation of an advanced facility that also changed the lab’s culture for the better by trimming operational waste and increasing synergy and operational excellence. It is for these reasons that the judging committee selected the Shire Los Angeles Quality Control Laboratory as the category winner for Operational Excellence.

Did you know? In addition to the Shire projects, DPR Construction was also the builder for the Genentech CCP-2 Project, which won the 2016 FOYA in the Process Innovation category. DPR also built the Genentech Oceanside Production Operations facility, which won the ISPE’s 2007 FOYA in the Project Execution category and the overall 2007 Facility of the Year award.