One of our long-standing consumer products clients recently acquired several product lines from a global healthcare company’s consumer health division. To expand further in the Latin American markets, they wanted to create a production facility in Mexico. After a recommendation from a general contracting partner in Mexico, they short-listed our team to provide design engineering services and ultimately hired us based on our knowledge of Lean tools and delivery methods, our relationship with the client’s U.S. counterparts, and our ability to work locally.

Still underway, the new three-story, 50,000 SF freestanding facility is being built in a fully Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) environment. Although we’ve completed projects at varying degrees of Lean intensity, this is SSOE’s first Integrated Form of Agreement (IFOA)—a contract that incorporates Lean practices and establishes shared risk and reward with our client and three trade partners to tie team success to project success.

The SSOE-designed facility will produce solid oral dose tablets for over-the-counter distribution in a growing market on our client’s existing campus. Our team is also providing process design, validation, and start-up services, bringing in a resource in product development to assist with formulation transfers and technology selections. By having project activities occur concurrently, it is allowing and engaging early contribution of knowledge and expertise of contractors in key trades.

The design phase is complete and construction is underway. SSOE has a full-time engineering resource on-site as a single point of contact for the trade partners and client. This full-time presence is a significant investment, but we believe the time savings associated with rapid information flow and increased quality control makes this a cost and time savings approach.