The following is a guest post from Kathryn Wengel, Worldwide VP and Chief Supply Chain Officer at Johnson & Johnson
Every company wants to be an innovator, and during my time at Johnson & Johnson, I’ve found innovation begins with a company’s people and culture.
Our shared history shows just how powerful a culture that embraces change can be. Depending on where you lived, for most of recorded history the average human life span topped out at roughly 40 years. It fluctuated some, but stayed pretty much the same until the late 1800s. That’s when scientists and doctors – including those in my own company – realized that controlling germs, slowing the spread of disease and preventing infections from the simplest of wounds could prolong many lives.
Since then, we have managed to double life expectancy – a feat never before accomplished in the history of humanity. And, it’s likely to almost double again in a shorter amount of time.
Thanks to advances in medicine and technology-enabled medical devices, children born today could live to 140 years of age. Think about that for a minute … living a life more than double what most of us expect today. The social and economic implications are enormous.
A look inside: Promoting culture change for a new future
Those of us in healthcare are the ones building towards this reality, working in new ways and with different partners.
Science and technology are merging in ways that are being reinvented every day, and our Supply Chain, along with our partners in Research & Development, is at the forefront of this change. We will need to capitalize on the changes brought by technological advances, and use the needs and insights from our patients and customers today to find the best ways to meet the new needs of tomorrow.
Embracing this change begins with culture, which is why we started our journey toward this new future by opening Johnson & Johnson’s aperture.
Our shared history shows just how powerful a culture that embraces change can be.
Kathryn Wengel
Worldwide VP and Chief Supply Chain Officer, Johnson & Johnson
We realized that the best ideas aren’t necessarily inside our own four walls, or even in healthcare. For example, by collaborating with the electronics industry, we made significant advancements on time and speed, and transitioned from off-line Quality Control testing to integrated in-line Quality Management through the introduction of new advanced technologies.
To do this, it takes time and speed, in a way not normally applied to healthcare. But transformational change does not come part-time – so we have dedicated a small segment of our workforce to work full-time with a clear focus on our most important needs. In this way, the team can really carve out time and resources to focus on breakthrough innovation.
We also opened our doors and our minds to finding the best ideas – anywhere – bringing in new and diverse talent, and looking for the best concepts anywhere on the planet. Techniques like crowd-sourcing and design-thinking helped us merge these ideas with unmet needs in the market. We are also focused on scaling great ideas more quickly, taking lessons from one channel (i.e. retail) into other channels (i.e. hospital).
Our journey has taught us that, no matter how innovative of a company you are, you often need to embark on culture change and look to the outside to maintain a competitive edge.
Embracing our new reality
Digital transformation is a lot more than a catch-phrase and most industries, including healthcare, are leveraging the power of digitization but not yet realizing its full potential. It’s not just a matter of implementing technology – your workforce must be involved from the get-go.
For example, it is still rare to be able to fully trace every element of a product from origin through to individual patient outcomes via digital health records and real-world evidence. My own organization experienced a learning curve to embrace this new reality, and we’re starting to see the results of allowing our best talent to be bolder and focused on ideas that can have the biggest impact for our customers and enhance their experience with us.
No matter how innovative of a company you are, you often need to embark on culture change and look to the outside to maintain a competitive edge.
Kathryn Wengel
Worldwide VP and Chief Supply Chain Officer, Johnson & Johnson
The rapid advancements in computing, Big Data and technology are enabling rapid innovation in a way I have not seen in my career. We’re not just making products anymore. We also make a product’s digital twin. This twin is the basis for how we collaborate across the healthcare supply chain to create a digital thread that will allow our healthcare systems to shift over time from a pay by use to pay for outcomes.
We’re already seeing the fruits of some of these new ways of working. For example, we’ve moved decisively to use augmented reality using QR codes and mobile technology to accelerate changeovers. We started with a test-and-learn at our Vision Care plant in Jacksonville, Florida, and ported the learning there to more than 80 locations around our global supply chain.
By embracing change, Johnson & Johnson’s Supply Chain innovates and delivers to one billion people every day. Yet, there are billions more people around the world who want and need this science and technology. Evolving how we work with R&D, commercial partners and our customers moves us along everyday so our children or grandchildren can look forward to not just a healthy and meaningful life, but also a longer one.
Kathy Wengel is currently Worldwide Vice President, Johnson & Johnson Supply Chain (JJSC). She is the corporation’s Chief Supply Chain Officer and a member of the Johnson & Johnson Management Committee. She is also a J&J leadership member of the Regulatory Compliance & Government Affairs Committee and the Science, Technology & Sustainability Committee of the Johnson & Johnson Board of Directors.
