Member spotlight: meet Emerson
Emerson partners with biopharmaceutical companies to drive innovation, efficiency, and compliance in life sciences manufacturing through cutting-edge automation and process expertise. As a new BIA member, Emerson is committed to helping manufacturers streamline production, ensure product quality, and accelerate time to market for life-saving therapies. In this Q&A, David Cooper, UK Project Pursuit at Emerson, shares insights into the company’s mission and impact on the industry.
Tell us about your company and ambitions
Emerson is a global automation leader, combining advanced technologies and industry-leading expertise to create sustainable solutions for our customers across all industries. We support life science and medical device manufacturers in creating innovative and reliable products that help bring life-saving medicines to market. These efforts empower people to lead healthier lives through access to treatment.
We recognise that life sciences applications must become more flexible and cost-effective to meet the growing demand for reliable and agile biomanufacturing. That’s why we partner with OEMs, EPCs, and end-users to deliver tailored solutions at every stage of production and utility management. From streamlining batch production, to providing automation software that delivers real-time insights, we help scale operations while ensuring adherence to industry standards for product purity and quality consistency.
To enable this flexibility and easy implementation, we see the future of automation being software defined. Less hardware and physical wiring and infrastructure, more seamless data flow and data access. Software defined automation is the key to breaking down data silo’s and enabling the operational gains of digital transformation for manufacturers. This is Emerson’s ambition of Boundless Automation.
What is your company’s biggest achievement so far?
A recent standout achievement is receiving the IoT Innovation of the Year Award for our new cloud-based workflow solution, DeltaV Workflow Management.
This solution is designed specifically for companies in early-stage development with limited IT infrastructure, providing a digital alternative to paper-based drug recipe workflow data. By transitioning to digital records, we help organisations improve efficiency and reduce errors, enabling faster and more reliable manufacturing processes and release processes.
What are some of the priorities that you’re currently working on?
We see automation as a critical enabler for medicine manufacturers, addressing three key areas:
- Pipeline Acceleration: Speeding up the development process to bring therapies to market faster.
- Product Release: Ensuring quality and compliance to facilitate timely product launches.
- Cost of Manufacture & Operational Certainty: Reducing manufacturing costs while enhancing reliability and consistency.
Our product portfolio is continuously evolving through collaborative working groups with our customers. This approach ensures that our innovations address real-world challenges and deliver meaningful value to the people and organisations we serve.
However, as a business, we are aware that manufacturers need more than just automation technology to enable their operational dreams. For this reason, we are looking to work more closely with equipment manufacturers as collaboration between vendors supplying into this environment is also key to a cohesive, easy to implement manufacturing space.
What has been the greatest benefit of being a BIA member?
Emerson is a new member of the BIA, and the primary attraction was the unparalleled access to a well-established network. Having attended BIA events in the past, it’s evident that the conversations you facilitate attract a high calibre of professionals. By joining the BIA, we aim to be part of these conversations—to learn, grow, and contribute to the advancement of the life sciences sector.
What excites you about the UK life sciences sector?
The UK life sciences sector is undeniably one of the most dynamic and rewarding industries to work in. Collaborating with companies at the forefront of curing complex diseases and conditions is both inspiring and motivating.
The emergence of Advanced Therapy Medicinal Products (ATMPs) and their regenerative capabilities marks an exciting turning point in patient care. These innovations have the potential to significantly improve quality of life and redefine modern medicine – including for people who may have had no hope of treatment. Being part of this transformation is what drives our commitment to the sector.