Rock Star FMO Team Keeps Catalent’s Critical Equipment Running through Brutal Winter

Companies like Catalent Pharma Solutions hold consumer health in their hands – the development and delivery of the drugs they make are critical to saving lives. They face strenuous government regulations and strict operating procedures, so having facility equipment fail is serious and can lead to disastrous loss of product and profit.

Thanks to the above-and-beyond diligence of the P1 Service Facility Maintenance Operations (FMO) team at Catalent, there were no fails and it was “business as usual”, even throughout the brutal winter.

“The P1 Service employees working for Catalent made the extra effort to make sure everything was running through the night on the coldest night of the season, and all through the year,” John Brown, Catalent Senior Manager/Facilities, said.

Lead by Lead Craftsman Earl Brown, the P1 Service FMO team works in shifts 24/7, and they are responsible for the whole campus.

On particularly cold nights and weekends, there is high risk for air handlers and chillers to freeze up, or for pressurized rooms to lose the critical temperatures they must maintain.

Failure could lead to the loss of millions of dollars in product.

Enter the P1 Service FMO team. In extreme weather situations, they provide extra staff to work around the clock on nights and weekends to keep a close eye on all equipment. They constantly check systems, pressures, etc. to ensure no mishaps.

Catalent General Manager Matthew Mollan praised the work of P1 Service.

“The preparation and thinking of the P1 Service team allowed us to stay open through a really cold night. This is not just ‘we got lucky today’ – efforts into planning, making upgrades to add to performance, and having team members ready to respond is how we avoid issues,” he said.

“We strive for boring ‘business as usual’.  As our site has expanded, it is critical, and will only continue to gain in importance, that we avoid anything that shuts down activities as every day comes with a big price in potential missing revenues or the inability to get product out to patients,” Matthew explained. 

“It takes continued investment, ownership of the site, deep understanding of how it runs, and strategic thought into what we fix/upgrade next, and the P1 Service team is on it!”

John points out why the attention to detail makes all the difference.

“The team has been an integral part of keeping Catalent running so patients can get help with illnesses from the drugs manufactured here,” he said.     “None of those drugs could be made without the utility systems we maintain and repair. We are all part of the “patient first” motto for Catalent.”