«Since start-up, we have improved the uptime of our production lines at our ten largest sites by an average of 8%, with in some cases performance gains of more than 40%.“, assures Brendan O’Callaghan, executive vice president of Industrial Affairs at Sanofi. Before discussing the three key ideas inspired by McLaren’s technologies and approach: “standardize, simplify and digitalize».
With 300 sensors on board each F1, around 2 terabytes of data analyzed per race and simulations initiated every 18 seconds to adapt in real time to racing and car conditions, McLaren has a certain expertise in processing and the use of data. For several years, the team has set up a specific unit, McLaren Accelerator, which offers services to other industrial players, such as Unilever or Google. But no collaboration “is only as intense as with Sanofi“, describes Nawaz Sumar, chief engineer at McLaren Accelerator. Which even states that “McLaren would probably never have won the 2024 constructors’ title» which had eluded him since 1998, «sans Sanofi“. Because the challenges proposed by the laboratory in turn allow the team to improve its digital tools and analytical methodologies. Like the design of a new racing simulator, boosted by comments from Sanofi employees.
McLaren solutions in 200 Sanofi production lines
The first beneficiary, however, remains Sanofi, which is logical given its position as a customer. Far from the race tracks, in the heart of the factories, McLaren has helped change the situation. At the start of the adventure, “we were looking to improve productivity“, recalls Brendan O’Callaghan. “We wanted to understand and reduce all downtime on the lines. McLaren came in and applied some of its technologies to determine the causes of downtime and find solutions.” Started on 5 production lines in factories in Hungary, Germany and Ireland, this collaboration is now deployed on more than 200 Sanofi lines around the world.
McLaren expertise allows the laboratory to improve the efficiency of production changes on the same line, which require cleaning and machine modification operations. Brendan O’Callaghan talks about how his teams based themselves “on the principle of a Formula 1 pit-stop, which the McLaren teams manage to do in 2 seconds. The question focused on how we could apply their approach and their technology to analyze everything that happens during a production change on a line, identify all the steps and then reorganize everything so that our teams carry out these steps with more efficiency, particularly with operations carried out in parallel and less sequentially. In some cases we have managed to reduce changeover time by more than 30%».
Sanofi draws inspiration from McLaren culture and team spirit
The collaboration with McLaren also led to the implementation of a visualization of operational efficiency, via a digital performance measurement system for all production lines. Using sensors, Sanofi was able to develop a real dashboard offering real-time visibility on production sites, which can compare their results, live, with those of other sites hosting similar lines.
This system also serves to emulate troops with a little competition, but based on “a learning and non-punitive culture, centered on exchange and collaboration, this state of mind which gives McLaren that little magic touch», Specifies Brendan O’Callaghan. Sanofi has even initiated an in-house championship between the different production sites, with annual trophies. This year, Oscar Piastri, the Australian McLaren driver who finished fourth in the 2024 championship, presented miniatures of his helmet to the winning teams during a celebration in mid-December at the Sanofi Campus in Gentilly (Val-de-Marne). .
Cameras and sensors installed on the lines
The best example is the Sanofi factory producing insulin cartridges in Frankfurt, Germany. In the segment dedicated to sealing caps on cartridges, operators were regularly confronted with problems with glass vials breaking, leading to equipment shutdowns several times a day. On this high-speed line, capable of producing 600 units per minute, it is impossible for the human eye to keep pace and detect faults. McLaren then deployed a camera system, used on the nose of their Formula 1 car to measure, from sensors placed on the side of the front wing, vibration and deflection parameters leading to effects on speed, at each turn. “We have installed cameras on the line to track the route of each traffic jam and report live to operators of any deviations from the trajectory and at specific locations.», Explains Paul Wallace, in charge of the technical direction of McLaren Accelerator. This work has since made it possible to correct the system, intervene more quickly, and increase the operating time of the line by 47%. Per year, this involves 5 million additional doses of insulin produced.
A camera system was also installed on a very high-speed packaging line in the group’s factory in Csanyikvölgy, Hungary. After filling, glass syringes sometimes found themselves stuck in the conveyors or even fell from them. The images made it possible to detect all the technical causes and to remedy them. In Ireland, the Sanofi factory in Waterford has also integrated high-precision cameras to measure all parameters during the labeling process on doses of injectable drugs. This made it possible to reduce validation times for this production stage and therefore marketing. In addition to camera systems, McLaren has sometimes enhanced these diagnostic steps with acoustic sensors, providing additional detection data in low-light areas on production lines.
Sanofi aims to become biopharma champion
After four years of collaboration, Sanofi continues the adventure with McLaren. Improving industrial productivity remains within the fields of application, but other horizons are also opening up. The laboratory could integrate solutions from the stable to better adapt other processes, such as better anticipation of drug orders by country, or better coordination of all teams in the context of the launch of a new drug. With the aim of following the example of McLaren, 2024 constructors’ champion, and making Sanofi, according to Brendan O’Callaghan, “the champion of biopharma».
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