Operational Innovation | 2021 Health for Humanity Report

Beyond the innovation we deliver in our Pharmaceutical, MedTech and Consumer Health business segments (see section: R&D Innovation), innovation underpins the way we work, the way we manage our operational facilities and the value we create across every business function. In 2021, as in every year, we advanced multiple innovations throughout our operations. Some examples follow:

Advanced manufacturing technologies

In 2021, Johnson & Johnson received three new World Economic Forum Global Lighthouse designations for its use of advanced manufacturing technologies.

Vision Care order-fulfillment operations, in London, UK, developed a dynamic virtual call center that relies on advanced technology such as intelligence-based call routing and auto answer. The technology anticipates customer reorder behaviors and reserves lenses for them, which improves customer service levels.

Consumer Health, in Helsingborg, Sweden, addressed customer needs through increased agility using digital twins, robotics and high-tech tracking and tracing to enable volume growth, accelerated time to market and cost reductions, alongside investments in green tech, to become Johnson & Johnson’s first-ever carbon neutral facility.

DePuy Synthes Advance Case Management Lighthouse, in North America, leveraged open application programming interface architecture, machine-learning algorithms and a suite of digital tools across our hips and knees restoration implant portfolio value chain. This enabled a reduction of the number of instrument trays in operating rooms, simplified inventory management for healthcare providers and shortened the time to set up operating rooms, saving valuable hospital resources.

Reducing release times for medicines

Janssen developed and adopted a new process for real-time product quality release based on surrogate dissolution modeling. This model calculates the expected dissolution of a tablet without the need to physically dissolve the tablet in dissolution media, significantly decreasing release times by up to 50%, reducing the standard deviation of product release by up to 90%, optimizing inventory levels by up to 15% and reducing operational costs across all product lines. This is the first use in the pharmaceutical industry of real-time release testing in established batch-manufacturing processes in place of traditional laboratory release testing andhas been approved by the FDA FDA U.S. Food and Drug Administration , the EMA EMA European Medicines Agency and Health Canada for use in different products. We plan to roll out this innovative process globally in 2022.

Expanding smart manufacturing

Through our collaboration with Microsoft, Johnson & Johnson’s Supply Chain Technology organization continues to accelerate the efficiency of our processes as part of digital manufacturing transformation. Using a range of digital and cloud-based capabilities, we are enabling business innovation and improving agility and disaster recovery while reducing overall operational costs. See our suite of smart manufacturing capabilities represented in the graphic below:

We are in an era of unprecedented product and process complexity, along with increased customer expectations and new demand. We are transforming our manufacturing capabilities to be increasingly connected, intelligent, lean and networked.

Arun Kumar Bhaskara-Baba

Vice President, Global Manufacturing Technology, Johnson & Johnson

Doctor explaining report on tablet computer to family in clinic

Personalized MedTech solutions

We leveraged state-of-the-art solutions throughout our Johnson & Johnson MedTech manufacturing and supply chain, following the implementation of innovative manufacturing capabilities at 14 Johnson & Johnson MedTech sites. Implemented in collaboration with Jabil Healthcare’s Medical Devices sector, this transformation included personalized medicine solutions, allowing for the manufacture of implants that are customized for the patient at several facilities. For example, at our Mezzovico site in Switzerland, operating surgeons can now provide scans for individual patients that enable the production of patient-specific craniofacial and mandible implants in less than two days.

Improving access to healthcare information

Johnson & Johnson became the first healthcare company to introduce an Enterprise e-labeling solution based on the GS1 Digital Link Standard to provide electronic information across the industry. Initially implemented to support the launch of a key oncology product in Singapore, scanning a barcode on our product enables users to view its electronic leaflet containing important healthcare information. Instant digital access to information enables HCPs HCPs Healthcare professional to make informed decisions when treating their patients and contributes to patient safety, enhanced supply chain security, efficiency and accurate data sharing.