Aldevron Accelerates Growth Using Operations Research in Biomanufacturing

In the biomanufacturing industry, production and planning decisions are often challenging because of batch-to-batch variability and uncertainty in the production yield, quality, cost, and lead times. To improve biomanufacturing efficiency, a multidisciplinary team of researchers collaborated over five years to develop a portfolio of decision support tools. The tools developed provide a data-driven, operations research–based approach to reduce biomanufacturing costs and lead times. These decision support tools comprise multiple deterministic and stochastic optimization models to optimize production and planning decisions. To optimize production decisions related to fermentation and protein purification, optimization tools were developed to provide a decision support mechanism that links the underlying biological and chemical processes with business risks and financial trade-offs. To optimize planning decisions, interactive scheduling and capacity planning tools were developed to enable efficient use of expensive and limited resources. Although developed in collaboration with Aldevron, these tools address common industry challenges, and they have been shared with a wider industry community through working group sessions.