Fast-growing Penumbra, Inc., a medical device company headquartered in Alameda, California, manufactures devices to treat blood clot removals in the brain. The environment is equipped with systems to control temperature, humidity, and air quality. These controls are essential for manufacturing processes and to maintain the stability of products.
Cleanrooms are used to control particulate contamination. These controlled environments are maintained with high levels of air filtration to prevent the introduction of contaminants that could compromise the quality of products.
Penumbra’s facilities team is responsible for ensuring that the sensitive manufacturing environment is maintained as well as the all the usual things people talk about concerning facility management including building repairs, security, and employee health and safety.
Penumbra’s facilities team is led by Chris Faber, Vice President of Site Services, and includes Erin Lucas, Facilities Maintenance Supervisor, and Paul Van Hecke, Senior Facilities Maintenance Technician.
“Our facilities team is responsible for maintaining the manufacturing environment and takes care of all the usual things people talk about concerning facility management including maintenance, repairs, security, and employee health and safety,” said Chris.
The company, which recently expanded from one to nine buildings at the Alameda site, has a dedicated facilities team who must retain a vast amount of knowledge from documentation.
“It’s critical to be able to access plans, scopes of work, and troubleshoot HVAC equipment,” said Erin. “Given how much ground we have to cover every day, we don’t have time to physically go back into a maintenance room and dig through a pile of blueprints.”
Because the facilities team is constantly on the go, the company sought out a way to make critical building and equipment easily accessible using tablets.
With the ARC Facilities platform, team members can make changes on the job, onsite, in the environment, and in the moment.
“I’m happy that we’re able to support our team by giving them the right technology tools to do their jobs better,” said Chris. “Now, they’re asking what else can I do to further my performance, and make my job more fulfilling, and fun.”
“Now, we can gather information in moments vs. hours or days,” said Paul. “It’s all digitized, at our fingertips, readily accessible.”
With long hours the norm, the organization offers the staff a modern, clean, and friendly fitness center.
Maximizing the team’s time and helping them be more efficient in their work are critical for the organization.
“Before gowning up and entering a clean room, you’ve got to understand the contents of thousands of documents,” said Chris. “This responsibility adds to the complexity of maintaining buildings and building equipment, in addition to the clean room environment.”
Being able to make changes on the job, and quickly locate floor plans, shut-off valves, camera locations and fire extinguisher locations on mobile devices, live and in the moment has transformed operations at Penumbra.
Penumbra's commitment to technological advancement, employee well-being, and operational efficiency underscores its position as an industry leader in medical manufacturing with innovative practices and dynamic growth.
Penumbra, Inc.
Chris Faber, Vice President of Site Services, for Penumbra, a rapidly growing global medical device manufacturer whose facilities team deals with a massive amount of documentation, discusses the benefits of having the right tools to make decisions in the moment, make their work more fulfilling and even fun. No one has time to go back to maintenance rooms to physically dig through blueprints. Instead, they’re using their tablets to bring up critical building and equipment information in seconds vs. hours or days. Watch the video to hear from the Penumbra facilities team.