Year: 2017-18

Company: Gilead Sciences

Liaison(s): Thomas Upton, Gerard Jensen

Gilead’s Technical Services (TS) department in La Verne, CA, is responsible for technical investigations as a result of equipment and product failures as well as large scale manufacturing changes. Our Team Master’s Project was responsible for three major milestones:

1. Electronic record transfer of equipment and assets from San Dimas to La Verne site.
2. Job Hazard Analysis (JHA) through interviews of TS employees.
3. Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) that address use of new assets as well as mitigation of job hazards in the workplace.

Electronic transfer of equipment to La Verne was necessary to keep the equipment maintained and calibrated at the new site. To carry out this task, equipment was deactivated at San Dimas and activated in the La Verne systems. In addition to existing Gilead assets, new assets were also activated with calibration and maintenance plans.

JHA is a technique used for identification and minimization of workplace hazards. It focuses on studying interactions between employees and the tasks they perform along with instrumentation used to complete these tasks. In collaboration with the Environmental Health & Safety department, changes resulting from JHA were implemented in newly composed SOPs.

SOPs were composed after gap analysis of asset use procedures and JHA completion. Additionally, new equipment and activities required new corresponding SOPs as well. Gilead and TS operate on two separate and shared SOP databases. Our task was to prioritize and author the necessary SOPs for TS to operate smoothly and safely at their new facility.