Rule #1: Don’t lose the forest for the trees
Manufacturing facility start-up is a fact of life in the lifecycle of any biotech, pharmaceutical, or medical device company. Whether it be a parent company that does manufacturing in house or a CMO, at some point in time during the lifecycle of a life sciences company a manufacturing facility will need to be built/acquired in order to manufacture the product. When it comes to growing life sciences companies that have focused on small scale R&D type manufacturing, large scale facility start-up can seem like a daunting task. To be sure, facility start-ups are large scale, complex projects that require careful coordination between multiple stakeholders both internal and external to life sciences companies. However, the task can be much more manageable and much less daunting if you keep in mind these four simple rules.
1) Don’t lose the forest for the trees
2) Keep your air in balance
3) Remember Humpty Dumpty
4) The law of “The Jungle”
Now you’re probably thinking, “What in the world do these 4 rules have to do with facility start-up?” Over the next four weeks we’ll explore what each of these rules means and how they can set you up for a successful facility start-up. We will start with the rule that is probably easiest to interpret:
“Don’t lose the forest for the trees” – This oft used colloquialism is especially apropos of a start-up. Due to the inherent complexity of start-ups there is a tendency to want to detail every activity and put it in a project plan so that nothing “slips through the cracks.” While it is certainly beneficial to have a detailed project plan it is important to keep in mind that it must have an APPROPRIATE level of detail – that is, be detailed, but not too detailed. Let’s explain further.
It easy to understand why having too little detail allows for things to be missed since a lack of detail inherently implies that something is missing. But how can too much detail be negative? Often times an overly detailed schedule leads to too much schedule management (which is a non-value added activity) and detracts from project execution which is value add. But even in the case where there are sufficient resources to manage a schedule, “over detail” leads to a false sense of security that everything is in the schedule and therefore nothing has been missed when something important truly is missing.
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