Category: Innovation
-
Improving Life Science Productivity
The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) has caused unprecedented disruptions in the world economies and societies. It has been apparent that our ability to limit its damages hinges on the speed of developing and delivering effective vaccines to reduce widespread infections, safe and efficacious medicines to treat patients, and rapid, accurate tests to diagnose the disease. Despite…
-
Is Your Process in Control?
In 1980, the American Society for Quality (ASQ) republished Walter Shewhart’s seminal book Economic Control of Quality of Manufactured Product as a 50th anniversary edition. In his Dedication to this commemorative issue, W. Edwards Deming wrote: “There was never before greater need for statistical methods in industry and in research.” I’d say the same today,…
-
My First-hand Experience in Innovation
As I look forward to the new year, I learned that ProtoArray protein microarray by ThermoFisher Scientific would be discontinued at the end of 2018. ProtoArray is special to me because I spent the first six years of my industry career developing it from a concept from Mike Synder’s lab at Yale, to a global…
-
A Foundation for Success
Do you want to increase productivity, lead in innovation, improve employee morale, and attract and retain talent? Who doesn’t? But how? For over a decade, I have used many management methodologies for business improvement, e.g. Lean, Six Sigma, Enterprise Process Management, Change Management, etc. One of the biggest lessons I learned is that no matter…
-
The Role of Processes in Innovation
Do processes enable or stifle innovation? As a scientist and Operational Excellence (OpEx) practitioner in life science R&D, I have seen many perspectives. Typically, OpEx professionals stress how process design, management, and continuous improvement help reduce variation and waste and increase quality and productivity. Scientists often see the drawbacks — processes being rigid, overly prescriptive,…