On Tuesday, April 26, Sanofi announced a partnership with McLaren Racing ” to accelerate the efficiency and performance of its production facilities and to support the company’s industrial ambition with a level of excellence corresponding to the best international standards. The two companies, which collaborated on a pilot project last year, have decided to extend their collaboration to several sites, in seven countries, on more than 100 production lines.

The Sanofi group is established in about 100 countries where it employs nearly 100,000 people. It has nearly 70 production sites and some 20 R&D sites.

Sanofi offers treatments focused on rare diseases, multiple sclerosis, cancer, diabetes and autoimmune, infectious and cardiovascular diseases, but also vaccines. The group, which is dedicated to ” improving people’s lives,” has not yet received the green light from health authorities to market its covid-19 vaccine, which was announced on February 3. As of December 2021, however, it had produced 100 million doses of those from competitors BioNTech/Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson. Sales of its flu vaccine have been boosted since the start of the pandemic, with people getting vaccinated in greater numbers to avoid having to fight covid and flu simultaneously. Sales of Doliprane, which it manufactures at its Compiègne and Lisieux plants, have also risen sharply during this period, and the plants have had to speed up their production lines to avoid shortages of the drug.

Optimizing production lines

The Sanofi-McLaren partnership does not aim to accelerate production rates, although it will undoubtedly contribute to this, but to deepen knowledge and develop best production practices, which will then be deployed throughout Sanofi’s industrial network.

Paul Hudson, Chief Executive Officer, of Sanofi states:

“We are delighted to partner with McLaren and learn from their winning spirit and culture of going above and beyond. I see a lot of common ground in our shared values to extend, with courage and determination, to maximize performance and operational excellence. We want to run our lines with the speed, precision and efficiency of an F1 team.”

As part of the partnership, McLaren Racing will collaborate with Sanofi’s Industrial Affairs team to achieve excellence in manufacturing operations, enabling Sanofi to meet the needs of patients around the world through more efficient use of its global network and to support the supply of its broad portfolio.

McLaren Racing Team: Data-driven innovation from the data center to the cloud to the edge

Racing has come a long way. Manufacturers are using AI, algorithms and specific calculation methods to improve the performance of their cars.

McLaren has set up its Accelerator program with Dell Technologies. A trackside data center is connected to a high-performance computing (HPC) infrastructure at headquarters, allowing for closed-loop performance analysis. McLaren is streamlining the aerodynamics of race cars using data-driven 3D digital twins and 3D printing models.

Data drives innovation at McLaren, according to Edward Green, Principal Digital Architect, at McLaren Racing, which considers its race cars to be fast, state-of-the-art devices. He states:

“Our cars broadcast hundreds of thousands of data points every second. Each car transmits key telemetry data in real time, and our Dell Technologies ground computing infrastructure passes it to our engineers at headquarters, who use our HPC and advanced simulations to find ways to improve performance even further. It’s a closed-loop innovation supported by Dell Technologies that keeps McLaren Racing ahead of the pack.”

McLaren Racing’s unique data-driven approach will bring its digital and analytical skills to Sanofi’s teams, enabling it to anticipate risks and avoid them.

McLaren’s Accelerator program and experience will be leveraged for loss analysis, modeling, production line scheduling simulation and product changes to improve production line performance.

According to Sanofi, ” This collaboration will pay particular attention to the human dimension of high performance. This partnership will also be an opportunity to develop a Formula 1 race-inspired culture of competition and speed to accelerate improvements, learning and sharing of best practices, individually and collectively, across all Sanofi sites, in order to cultivate a “one Sanofi” spirit.

Translated from Sanofi annonce un partenariat avec McLaren Racing pour améliorer ses lignes de production