Andrew Skibo's Knowledge, Wisdom, And Insight Creates Connection With Readers
By Rob Wright, Chief Editor, Life Science Leader
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When I sat down with Andrew Skibo, regional VP of supply biologics, global engineering, and real estate at AstraZeneca (AZ), I had the rare opportunity to experience firsthand the subtle differences between knowledge, wisdom, and insight. Often used synonymously each of these words have important distinctions best summed up as follows: “Knowledge is measuring that a desert path is 12.4 miles long. Wisdom is packing enough water for the hike. Insight is building a lemonade stand at mile 6.” Though you may have gathered some knowledge from reading the May 2014 cover feature of Life Science Leader magazine, or gathered some of his additional wisdom incorporated in the Editor’s Note, Skibo had some additional (unpublished) insight on the manufacturing facility renovation decision.
Don’t Let Your Feel-Good Renovation Become A Financial Tar Pit
One of the questions I asked Skibo that never made it into print was, “What advice would you have for an executive considering whether to ’greenfield’ build versus renovate an existing plant?” I thought, perhaps, that he had some insight as to what is often missed when an executive is comparing the two. Considering Skibo’s tenure, as well as his impressive list of industry accomplishments (e.g., overseeing large-scale capital projects that garnered two ISPE facility of the year awards and two Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design Gold awards ) the question seemed appropriate. For those who have ever been involved in such a project, I imagine you would have liked to have gained Skibo’s insight prior to going down this path.
He said that sometimes even the best CFO can have a hard time letting go of expensive yet fully depreciated assets. As a result, teams try to accommodate this, and the consequence can be a real financial nightmare. “Once you get into the renovation process, you have no choice because you are committed,” he explains. He gave some examples of common challenges that often get overlooked when facing renovations. “To change an HVAC system, especially if roof mounted, we frequently wind up having to build additional structural steel to hold that up. Structural steel requires foundations. Foundations require ripping up the concrete slab, and under the slab are drain lines, which are huge portion of a bio-plant. I need to consider at what point am I cutting so many trenches in the slab that I basically just have to jackhammer the whole thing out. Bear in mind I’m inside a building. So I can’t use big cranes. I have to use fork trucks or little cranes. I’m trying to save part of the building, but I’m really gutting the rest. I have to hire $75/hour construction workers and tell them to be careful around this and that while they’re trying to rip out a section.. Taking the building down, starting over, and allowing those $75/hour construction workers to build quickly, is often the cheapest solution,” he shared.
Readers Connect To Skibo’s Communication Style
Not long after Skibo’s article was published, I began to get emails, phone calls, and tweets from readers. For example, one person said , “Reading about Mr. Skibo’s approach in applying a risk-based approach is fascinating in so much that he is trying to develop a foolproof model that takes speculation and rule-of-thumb away from decision-making process; in return, eliminating over/under capacity issues and making the manufacturing process more profitable. He is definitely an industry leader and pioneer.” Another commented , “My master’s thesis covered the topic of facility capacity constraints, and the research data I analyzed proved exactly as described by [Skibo} when it comes to the rate of capacity when you compare the simplistic model vs. actual model. Uncertainty and risk are bound in new product development, which is why flexible capacity is imperative to the manufacturing strategy in the pharmaceutical industry.”
I was not surprised by these comments; Skibo is a gifted communicator. What did surprise me was being contacted by a very senior-level manufacturing executive at a top 10 pharmaceutical company seeking my help in connecting them to Skibo. After vetting the opportunity I was happy to do so — for that is what we do! The vision of Life Science Connect is to help facilitate connections and foster collaborations in pharmaceutical and medical device development, to find ways to get more life-saving and life-improving therapies to market in an efficient manner. Our vision is to help you with your mission. Here are a variety of resources we have available to help you connect, collaborate, and contribute.