Ireland’s first and only Biologics Drug Substance Single-Use Commercialisation Facility — a site that accelerates the delivery of new medicines using flexible single-use technologies, supported by Lean Touch Solutions across multiple high-value project phases since the facility’s inception.
Last Planner® System
Takt Planning
Direct Observation
Process Mapping
Lean Behaviours
When MSD chose Dunboyne, Co. Meath as the site for its Biologics Drug Substance Single-Use Commercialisation Facility, it was making a global statement about Ireland's pharmaceutical manufacturing capability. This was not just a new facility — it was a new category of facility for Ireland, pioneering the use of flexible single-use bioreactor technology at commercial scale. The lean construction programme that Lean Touch Solutions has delivered across multiple project phases at Dunboyne has been central to maintaining the operational speed, agility, and GMP compliance that single-use biologics commercialisation demands.
| Project Value | Project Duration | Teams Collaborated with | Systems Installed & Comissioned | Partners Trained & Certified |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| € 650K | 12 Months | 12 | 126 | 150 |
| Project Value | € 650K |
|---|---|
| Duration | 12 Months |
| Teams Collaborated with | 12 |
| Systems Installed & Commissioned | 126 |
| Partners Trained & Certified | 150 |
MSD Dunboyne is a state-of-the-art biologics manufacturing facility in County Meath — and Ireland’s most innovative pharmaceutical manufacturing site. It holds a unique distinction in Ireland’s life sciences landscape: it is the country’s first Biologics Drug Substance Single-Use Commercialisation Facility — a category of pharmaceutical manufacturing that did not previously exist in Ireland before this site was established.
The facility’s core innovation is its use of single-use bioreactor technologies — a flexible, modular approach to biologics manufacturing that dramatically accelerates the commercial launch of new medicines. Instead of the fixed stainless steel vessels used in traditional biologics plants, single-use facilities use disposable bioprocess containers and systems that can be rapidly configured, cleaned, and redeployed for different drug substances. This flexibility enables MSD to bring life-saving therapies to patients faster than conventional manufacturing approaches would allow.
Lean Touch Solutions has been a trusted lean construction partner at MSD Dunboyne across multiple project phases — supporting the facility from initial construction through automation upgrades, new equipment installations, and GMP compliance enhancements. This long-term partnership model reflects the unique nature of the Dunboyne site: a living, evolving facility that continuously adapts to meet commercial demand, and that therefore requires a lean partner capable of matching its pace and agility.
Ireland’s First: The only Biologics Drug Substance Single-Use Commercialisation Facility in Ireland — no equivalent existed in the country before MSD Dunboyne was established.
The Ongoing Partnership model: Unlike the large single-programme engagements in the rest of Lean Touch Solutions’ MSD portfolio, Dunboyne represents a long-term, multi-phase partnership. Each phase may involve automation enhancements, new system installations, or facility upgrades — and each demands the same lean construction rigour, applied with the agility to respond to a site that is continuously evolving to meet global pharmaceutical demand.
Single-use technology (SUT) replaces the traditional stainless steel vessels, piping, and equipment of biologics manufacturing with disposable, pre-sterilised plastic systems. Bioreactors, storage bags, tubing, and process connections are used once and then safely disposed of — eliminating the lengthy cleaning, steaming, and validation cycles required between production runs in traditional facilities. The benefits are transformative: faster product changeover, reduced contamination risk, lower facility footprint, and — critically — the ability to rapidly respond to commercial demand for new biologics. For the lean construction programme, single-use technology creates unique challenges: systems are highly interconnected and sensitive, installation sequences are critical, and GMP validation requirements are exacting. This is precisely why lean construction — with its collaborative planning, systematic constraint management, and structured problem-solving — is the right delivery model for a facility like Dunboyne.
Our partnership at MSD Dunboyne spans the full lifecycle of a rapidly evolving pharmaceutical site — from initial facility construction through sustained ongoing upgrade and enhancement programmes.
Lean construction programme from ground-breaking — embedding Last Planner® System, 5S, and VSM across all trade teams for the initial single-use biologics facility construction.
Lean support for automation enhancement projects — applying agile lean principles to fast-paced, high-precision automation installations within the operational facility environment.
Lean delivery of new advanced equipment — each installation phase planned and executed with the same Last Planner® rigour applied to the original facility build.
Lean support for facility-wide GMP compliance enhancement programmes — ensuring upgrades are delivered to regulatory standard with zero disruption to ongoing biologics production.
Lean commissioning support across 126+ complex systems — applying pull planning and collaborative scheduling to accelerate the path from installation to GMP-qualified operational readiness.
Ongoing lean culture maintenance — sustaining the 5S organisation, PPC measurement, and A3 problem-solving capability across the site through each successive project phase.
An ongoing relationship with a continuously evolving pharmaceutical site — not a single programme but a trusted lean partner that grows with the facility.
Because our practitioners know the site, the teams, the systems, and the culture — delivering lean at speed without the learning curve of a new engagement.
Consistent lean standards, trained teams, embedded behaviours, and a site-wide lean culture that gets stronger with every successive project phase.
Our Lean Programme –
Lean Touch Solutions’ lean programme at MSD Dunboyne is standardised yet highly flexible. The same proven lean construction implementation framework that we deploy on large capital projects is applied here — but adapted with an agility that matches the pace and commercial urgency of a single-use biologics facility that is continuously growing to meet patient needs.
Because the facility evolves rapidly to meet commercial demand, our lean support must be equally responsive. We streamline complex workflows, reduce disruptions, and maintain high-quality delivery across all phases — whether involving automation upgrades, new equipment installation, or facility-wide enhancements. In every engagement, our lean approach ensures timely, safe, and GMP-compliant delivery.
On a site that is continuously adapting to commercial demand, lean cannot be rigid. The same Last Planner® System and VSM tools are deployed — but with a planning cadence and constraint management process calibrated to the faster, more fluid project phases that characterise a single-use biologics facility. Agile lean at Dunboyne means shorter planning horizons, faster kaizen cycles, and A3 problem solving that resolves issues in hours rather than days — enabling each successive project phase to be delivered with the speed the facility's commercial obligations demand, without compromising on GMP compliance or quality.
Reliable and predictable scheduling across all 12 project teams — with look-ahead planning calibrated to the faster pace of automation and equipment upgrade projects alongside the original facility programme.
Identifying and eliminating inefficiencies in installation and commissioning workflows — with particular focus on the unique material handling and GMP compliance requirements of single-use biologics systems.
Clean, organised, and safe workspaces maintained across all construction and installation areas — essential on a live biologics manufacturing site where construction activities must not compromise ongoing pharmaceutical production.
Structured, rapid-resolution problem solving — addressing the complex system integration and GMP compliance challenges that arise across successive project phases at a fast-moving single-use biologics site.
Implementation Approach –
Our lean construction strategy at MSD Dunboyne is designed around the distinctive reality of the site — a facility that continuously evolves to meet commercial demand. From the outset, we collaborated with MSD’s leadership, engineering teams, and technology providers to build an adaptive delivery model that functions consistently across project phases of all types and scales.
The Dunboyne model: Because collaboration is the foundation of lean, we prioritise alignment between MSD, project managers, and trade partners at the start of every phase — regardless of its size. This ensures consistency in planning, execution, and outcomes across the full multi-phase engagement, and maintains the site-wide lean culture that has been built over years of partnership.
At the start of each new project phase, we conduct a rapid stakeholder alignment session — re-establishing planning commitments with MSD leadership, engineering teams, and all trade partners. Because our practitioners already know the site and the teams, this alignment is faster and more effective than a new engagement could achieve.
Last Planner® System planning cycles activated for the phase — pull planning sessions to build the phase schedule, look-ahead plans calibrated to the phase's specific complexity, and weekly work planning with structured constraint removal. PPC tracking initiated from the first planning week.
6S site organisation deployed or refreshed for the phase work areas — ensuring the construction and installation zones maintain the clean, organised, GMP-compliant standards that the Dunboyne biologics facility requires. Visual management boards installed to provide real-time progress visibility to all teams and MSD site management.
VSM sessions conducted on the phase's critical installation or commissioning workflows — identifying waste and optimising processes before they become constraints. A3 problem solving deployed throughout the phase for rapid resolution of technical issues. Kaizen events run as needed to address persistent bottlenecks.
As each phase reaches completion, lessons learned are captured and shared across the site team. Lean behaviours and capabilities built during the phase are consolidated into the site's ongoing lean culture — ensuring that Dunboyne's lean maturity grows with every successive engagement, and the site's overall capability to deliver at pace strengthens over time.
Outcomes & Results –
The lean programme at MSD Dunboyne delivers consistent results across every project phase — maintaining the schedule reliability, quality, and GMP compliance that Ireland’s first single-use biologics commercialisation facility requires to fulfil its global pharmaceutical supply commitments.
Complex systems installed & commissioned to GMP standard across phases
Partners trained & certified in lean construction and continuous improvement
Project teams coordinated through a unified lean planning system across phases
Years of LTS lean construction expertise supporting MSD Ireland's facilities
Lean for Single-Use Biologics –
Single-use biologics manufacturing facilities are unique in the pharmaceutical construction world. Unlike conventional biologics plants with fixed infrastructure, single-use facilities are designed for speed and flexibility — which means the construction and commissioning programmes must match that speed and flexibility. A planning approach that creates delays is not just a schedule problem; it is a commercial problem, because every day a new drug substance cannot be produced represents patients waiting for potentially life-saving therapies.
The Last Planner® System’s commitment-based planning discipline — and the agile lean approach that Lean Touch Solutions has developed for Dunboyne — ensures that each project phase at the facility is delivered at the pace the site demands. When 12 project teams must coordinate complex system installations without disrupting live biologics production, lean planning is the only viable delivery model.
Lean Touch Solutions’ long-term partnership with MSD Dunboyne is evidence of what happens when lean construction is embedded as the way a site operates — not as an intervention on a single project, but as the sustainable, cultural foundation of continuous improvement and reliable delivery. We are an LCI-registered lean construction trainer in Ireland, and Dunboyne is proof of what that means in practice.
Long-term lean partnership is our speciality. Whether you need a programme lean strategy or ongoing phase-by-phase support, we can help.
Ireland’s first single-use biologics commercialisation facility — supported across multiple phases by the lean construction expertise that keeps it at the frontier of pharmaceutical manufacturing speed and agility.
Single-use biologics manufacturing demands a lean construction approach that matches its pace. The facility is designed for speed and flexibility — and every construction or installation project on site must deliver at that same speed. Last Planner® System gives the planning infrastructure; agile lean gives the adaptability.
Most pharmaceutical construction lean programmes end when the building is handed over. At MSD Dunboyne, Lean Touch Solutions has been the lean partner across the full lifecycle of the site’s development — from initial construction through successive automation, equipment, and GMP upgrade phases.
This long-term model delivers compounding benefits: practitioners who know the site’s systems, culture, and team; lean behaviours that grow stronger with every phase; and a site-wide lean capability that makes every successive engagement faster, smoother, and more effective. This is the Dunboyne model — and it is what long-term lean partnership looks like in practice.
MSD Dunboyne’s status as Ireland’s first Biologics Drug Substance Single-Use Commercialisation Facility is not just a commercial achievement — it is a proof of concept for what Irish pharmaceutical manufacturing can do at the global frontier. The facility’s ability to rapidly bring new biologics to commercial scale depends on every phase of its ongoing development being delivered at pace, to standard, and without disruption.
Lean Touch Solutions has been the lean construction partner that enables this. Our LCI-registered practitioners bring the same commitment to lean excellence on a €650K automation upgrade that they bring to a €1Bn biologics facility build — because lean quality does not scale with project value.
Lean Touch Solutions is based in Naas, Co. Kildare — well positioned to serve pharmaceutical construction projects across Co. Meath, Dublin, Leinster, and the rest of Ireland. Our MSD Dunboyne engagement demonstrates our capability across every scale of pharmaceutical project — from major capital programmes to targeted operational enhancements.
As Ireland’s LCI-registered lean construction trainers, we bring the same lean rigour and practitioner depth to every engagement. If you are managing a biologics, pharmaceutical, or life sciences construction or upgrade programme in Ireland, contact our team to discuss how lean construction can transform your delivery.
