Operational Excellence: Crafting a Champion Out of an Athlete

In this webinar, the Operational Excellence experts of Ajinomoto Bio-Pharma Services US and Belgium will discuss how the Lean Sigma Management philosophy is implemented throughout the company as part of Aji Bio-Pharma’s journey towards Operational Excellence.

Building a strong Operational Excellence foundation within a company starts with investing in a learning culture and is then supported by people, driven by customer focus and oriented towards continuous improvement. The path to Operational Excellence maturity will be a collaborative effort taken step by step, just as an athlete grows to become a champion.

To facilitate this employee involvement and growth, we have introduced the Operational Excellence journey leading all departments (operational and non-operational) towards higher standards. This maturity matrix contains nine different disciplines in which development to the highest level can be pursued. Following the path, the departmental teams are motivated to progress along the journey with the goal of achieving Operational Excellence throughout the company.

In this webinar, featured speakers will discuss two disciplines of Aji Bio-Pharma’s operational excellence journey program in more detail and illustrate the practice through case studies, including:

• Visual Controls and Key Performance Management

Visual controls and key performance indicators (KPIs) facilitate the close monitoring of key operational processes. At Aji Bio-Pharma, utilization of visual controls has helped to optimize processes, reach targets and meet service level agreements (SLA).

• Continuous Improvement

Continuous improvement at Aji Bio-Pharma involves all employees looking for opportunities to improve, streamline, and make our processes more efficient while incorporating feedback and building value for our clients.

Actively implementing these two disciplines throughout an organisation is only the beginning of an exciting journey towards Operational Excellence and a lean culture. But rest assured, the increasing employee engagement and client experience will make all efforts worth it.

Speakers

Bruno Flour, VP of Business Systems, IT & Operational Excellence, Ajinomoto Bio-Pharma Services, Belgium

Bruno Flour is VP for Business Systems, ICT and Operational Excellence for Aji Bio-Pharma Services Europe. He has worked for the company for 37 years in different roles in small molecules production, site leadership, operational excellence, SHE and quality compliance and ICT. He has an Engineering degree in Bio-Chemistry and is a certified Lean Sigma Green Belt. Bruno has successfully rolled out the operational excellence program in the Belgian sites of Aji Bio-Pharma, following a model that is widely referenced within the Ajinomoto group.

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Melissa Rosness, MBA, Sr. Director of Operational Excellence & Training, Ajinomoto Bio-Pharma Services, US

Melissa Rosness is the Director of Operational Excellence and Training for Ajinomoto Bio-Pharma Services in San Diego, CA. Melissa leads the OE and Training team at the San Diego site, driving continuous improvement initiatives, integrating the OE philosophy and tools, obtaining and integrating client feedback into OE opportunities, and driving employee training throughout the site. Melissa has a Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry and a Master’s degree in Business Administration from the University of San Diego. She has over 20 years of industry experience, previously holding roles within GMP operations, supply chain, and project management.

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Katrien Laurier, PhD Chemistry, Head of Operational Excellence, Ajinomoto Bio-Pharma Services, Belgium

Katrien Laurier is the Head of Operational Excellence (OE) for the Ajinomoto Bio-Pharma Services sites in Belgium. She leads the OE team at the Belgian sites. Together, they actively drive continuous improvement initiatives and propagate the OE philosophy and tools so that it becomes embedded in the organization. Katrien has a Master of Science in Chemistry from the Belgian university, KU Leuven, and is a trained Six Sigma Black belt. She has 7 years of OE experience within the chemical and pharmaceutical industry, holding roles within process technology and process engineering.

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