Amgen Rhode Island | Overall Excellence | More than 500 Employees
“We have a mantra, ‘Serving every patient, every time.’ It’s the rally cry of our organization,” said Tia Bush, vice president of Amgen Inc.’s Rhode Island and Woburn, Mass., operations.
“It’s there when we evaluate our work, get our products to patients and make appropriate investments so the patient doesn’t have to go without medications they need,” she said.
For the drug manufacturer to serve every patient, every time, is a mission with fine-tuned logistics at play. In addition, Amgen aggressively researches and educates itself about growth opportunities on its horizon.
Amgen revenue for 2017 remained flat but showed increases in seven product areas, according to a company press release. Its goal is to increase investments to fuel more growth of novel medications in large patient populations – one of those investments being a new manufacturing plant.
A new product pipeline for Amgen involves the drug Repatha, made here in Rhode Island. It’s shown success clearing the liver of LDL (bad cholesterol) and has great possibility in other ways.
Robert A. Bradway, Amgen chairman and CEO, spoke about the drug in a recent press release: “We expect several developments to provide an additional boost for these products, most notably the recent inclusion of cardiovascular outcomes data in the Repatha … information.”
Growth, risk-taking and innovation are a few of the factors in Amgen’s success, along with committed employees and constant, careful examination of its operations.
Lean manufacturing, a practice at Amgen for over a decade, is a cornerstone of company culture and a driver of strong employee engagement.
“We’ve been focused on the cultural aspect of it, how we work and focus on concepts and practices of continuous improvement,” said Bush. “We keep this as our true north. It allows us to really understand … opportunities for improvement to empower staff in their roles around listening to what their ideas are.”
Taking the soliciting of feedback and implementing employee ideas a step further, Senior Manager of Corporate Affairs Tara Griggs Urban said employees get appropriate recognition for their efforts at Amgen. First-, second- and third-place winners are chosen from each plant for an Innovation Award, for example, with final winners selected at company headquarters in California.
Another method of improving efficiency comes in equipment – saving money and downtime – with Amgen’s use of predictive analysis.
In December, the company performed maintenance optimization of all its major manufacturing equipment. Converting its maintenance schedule from calendar-based to usage-based has been a huge saver of time and money: with a 45 percent drop in maintenance hours needed and 22 percent less in materials costs since 2014, according to the company.
This year, the manufacturer plans to use a system of statistical analysis techniques to be able to analyze real-time data that will help it better predict when an equipment system might fail or have an issue, such as a weak valve, for example. A pilot program at one site was a success, so the method will now be expanded, said Bush.
Doing things better, more efficiently and faster is only part of continuous improvement at Amgen. The innovation doesn’t stop there. The environment is a priority, as well, with a sustainability plan and an environment, health, safety and sustainability director in place.
“Everything in our café is compostable, from forks, knives, plates, cups,” said Urban.
“Even in my own personal situation, it’s raised my level of understanding on what can be recycled,” said Bush.
With a presence in more than 100 countries, Amgen leaves no stone unturned when it comes to problem-solving or strengthening its impact for seriously ill patients around the globe.
Augmented-reality technology, which superimposes a computer-generated image on goggles worn by the user, is being explored as a tool for these long-distance collaborations, for example, said Urban.
“So far, it’s been very promising,” she said. “If someone in Singapore has an issue, here in Rhode Island an engineer can put the glasses on, see what they are seeing and help them repair or tune up a piece of equipment.”