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Meet Abbott - 2017 FOYA Operational Excellence Category Winner
Abbott
Facility of the Year Awards - An ISPE Program Banner

Abbott is the 2017 ISPE Facility of the Year Category Winner for Operational Excellence for their project “A New Quality Approach” at their diagnostics facility in Longford, Ireland.

Projects selected in the Operational Excellence category exemplify the application of modern management techniques aimed to improve operating efficiencies, promote excellent quality and consistency, and yield competitive cost of goods from existing and new facilities, processes, and manufacturing operations.

A global, broad-based healthcare company devoted to discovering new medicines, technologies, and ways to manage health., Abbott is committed to helping people live the best possible life through good health. For more than 125 years, Abbott has introduced various products and technologies to the world – in nutrition, diagnostics, medical devices, and branded generic pharmaceuticals – that create more possibilities for more people at all stages of life.

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Abbott’s Longford facility is a 135,000-square foot building established in 2004 on a 20-acre greenfield where more than 350 employees design, develop, and manufacture in-vitro diagnostic products, or reagents, for distribution to laboratories and hospital around the world. The facility has undergone several modifications to ensure that it supports the site’s focus on Operational Excellence. Their recent modification, the New Quality Approach project, initiated in 2012, had the objective of creating a sustainable continuous improvement culture which would deliver high quality, safe, and effective diagnostic products. Motivated by a shared commitment and dedication of all employees to enhance patient health and safety, this objective was realized through the successful application of Abbott systems and tools, deployment of lean Six Sigma strategies, facility modifications to support continuous improvement projects, and embedding of the Shingo principles of operational excellence.

Through a focus on Operational Excellence, the site has increased productivity, reduced cost per unit, reduced cycle times, reduced equipment down-time, improved changeover efficiencies, eliminated backorders, reduced inventory holdings, and improved product quality. For its numerous outstanding achievements, the facility has been recognized both internally and externally. ISPE congratulates Abbott’s Longford, Ireland team for their achievements and their FOYA award-winning entry for Operational Excellence. Learn more about the 2017 FOYA Operational Excellence Category winner. Has your company recently designed, built, or renovated a state-of-the-art pharmaceutical or biotechnology facility that is best in its class? Submit an entry into the 2018 ISPE Facility of the Year Awards (FOYA) Program, and your facility may win a coveted Facility of the Year Award.

Facility of the Year Awards Banquet Join ISPE and prominent industry leaders as we recognize the 2017 Facility of the Year Awards (FOYA) Category Winners for their innovation and creativity in pharmaceutical and biotechnology facility design, construction, and operation, at the FOYA Banquet on the evening of Tuesday, 6 June 2017 in Arlington, VA, USA, during the ISPE/FDA/PQRI Quality Manufacturing Conference.