Eurofins Lancaster Labs’ newly opened largest building expansion is Lean and Green

by Lisa Bamford, Manager of Communications, Eurofins BioPharma Product Testing

Every inch of Lancaster’s 168,000 ft² new building addition is designed with a LEAN concept to help analysts work smarter, not harder. The five-story state-of-the-art testing facility also began with firm roots in Green and Sustainability motives. And continually emerging technologies in the industry served as the impetus to expand and onboard next generation instrumentation and analytical techniques. To that, this new expansion along with renovations to existing labs broaden and enhance testing services such as Gene Therapy with expanded BSL2 capacity, Antibody Drug Conjugates (ADCs), Extractables and Leachables for both pharmaceutical and medical device products, Microbiology Sterile & Non-sterile and medical device products, and Method Development and Testing for small molecule products. This 13th expansion in the company’s nearly 60-year history adds 50% more capacity to Lancaster’s existing 330,000 square foot facility for a total of more than 1/2 million square feet.

Lean improves the client experience - During the architectural planning of all new additions or renovations of existing laboratories, facility engineers and designers engaged and collaborated with analysts performing the testing to determine the optimal work flow. Streamlining operations from sample administration/pickup to glassware and chemical storage to instrumentation - all parts of the workflow are optimised through a Lean process to improve quality and TAT for clients.

Green is good for the environment and bottom line - What began as a grass-roots employee Green Team several years ago to find ways to reduce waste, water, and energy usage, has blossomed to a formal Sustainability Programme. This programme has become vital to the company’s recycling and conservation designs to the facility and surrounding campus. Some of the new building’s Green design features include: magnetic driven chillers that require 30-50% less energy than other chiller plants, 100% capture of roof water for reuse of building chiller plants, 100% LED light package, white PVC roof to reflect heat away from the building, building vertical allows for four acres of usable space on a one-acre footprint, utilisation of condensing hot water boilers, use of point source exhaust to reduce the number of hoods/ Ventilated Balance Enclosures (VBEs), increased usage of VBEs instead of hoods to reduce exhaust from the building, exhaust heat recovery on exhaust fans to pre-heat the make-up air for the lab areas.

The “IT” factor for data quality - In addition to expanding and improving the physical lab designs, Eurofins Lancaster Laboratories invests significantly in IT infrastructure and security-supporting systems. As part of Eurofins BioPharma Product Testing, the largest network of harmonised GMP product testing laboratories worldwide with four facilities in the U.S. and 31 throughout Europe and Asia Pacific, all facilities in this integrated network have the same LEAN systems, customised proprietary Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS), and harmonised quality systems in place. Likely some of the company’s strongest differentiators in continually driving down TAT and improving data quality has been through its innovative Electronic Lab Notebook system and secure online data access tool LabAccess.com.

For more information visit: www.Eurofins.com/bpt