Maximizing Efficiency with Compliant Control of Engineering Information

Challenge

AbbVie is a research-driven global biopharmaceutical company committed to developing innovative, advanced therapies for some of the world’s most complex and critical conditions. Founded in 2013 after separating from Abbott, the company’s mission is to use its expertise, dedicated people, and unique approach to innovation to markedly improve treatments across four primary therapeutic areas: immunology, oncology, virology and neuroscience.

During the split from Abbott, AbbVie had to decide whether to copy, continue to use, implement new, or utilize an alternate for each of the 130 corporate engineering IT applications. The company needed an engineering platform that was centralized, could be rolled out quickly globally, and addressed standardization requirements. Some of the challenges included:

  • Lack of workflows and consistencies in business processes across sites
  • IT and support burdens due to disparate, disjointed systems
  • Inability for Maintenance to view asset-related drawings on mobile devices

Solution

Because of the successful use of Meridian at Abbott, the AbbVie team decided to clone Abbott’s instance of Meridian and create a standardized version to be rolled out, centralized, and integrated with IBM Maximo across all global manufacturing sites. Today, around 625 AbbVie employees across departments use Meridian to access and manage more than 300,000 CAD drawings and other files such as vendor catalogs, equipment supply manuals, P&IDs, and asset metadata.

  • Integration with Maximo for viewing all asset-related files stored in Meridian
  • Single sign-on for automatic and secure user authentication
  • Automated file approval through e-signatures and email notification processes

Results

The ongoing global rollout and centralization of Meridian allows AbbVie to share documents and align business processes across manufacturing sites worldwide. AbbVie now maintains vital compliance with FDA 21 CFR Part 11 throughout the drawing and asset lifecycle, and the IBM Maximo integration provides smooth access to critical asset data for Maintenance.

  • Improved maintenance and change efficiencies with on-the-go access to asset data
  • Increased collaboration among Engineering, Maintenance, Project Management and Quality Departments
  • Cost savings from consolidated hardware, software, and support
  • Standardized applications and near 50% reduction in engineering IT systems
  • Streamlined audits with reduced risk of noncompliance

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Pharmaceuticals / Biotech

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