Luis Roman talks J&J’s digital transformation
Hello, and welcome to this week’s edition of Straight Talk. Inside, we discuss:
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Investing in digital transformation
Digital transformations can mean many things to many people. One of the issues when an organization sets its sights on a digital transformation is what does that mean? A CEO or broad decries that a digital transformation shall take place. A budget is put in place. And … that is it. It is now up to the individual departments to execute. The only issue is they don’t really know what the CEO wants. And frankly, sometimes the CEO doesn’t know either.
So, it is with that as a backdrop that I dive into the first Straight Talk newsletter of 2025. I’ve been fortunate enough to have spoken twice in recent months with Luis Roman, vice president of MedTech Supply Chain at Johnson & Johnson. The first time I spoke with him was at our NextGen Supply Chain conference in Chicago back in October. I also just spoke with him to record an upcoming episode of the Talking Supply Chain podcast. That will be released in less than a week. But, I wanted to give my Straight Talk readers a chance to see some of what Roman talked about when it comes to digital transformation. (I’d encourage you to listen to the podcast episode when it comes out on Jan. 9 where he expands on the topic as well as some of the cool projects Johnson & Johnson has undertaken).
(Questions and answers have been edited for length and clarity).
Question: Digital transformation can mean different things to different people, so what does mean to you and the Johnson & Johnson team?
Roman: “For us, digital innovation is viewed as an integral part of improving patient outcomes by enhancing efficiencies and effectiveness of our supply chain. But we do that by ensuring that products reach our customers in a reliable and timely manner. At J&J, we’ve recognized the need to transition from legacy manual approaches to more digitalized capabilities to enhance agility and responsiveness across multi-dimensions of our business, including risk within supply chain. Digital innovation is really seen as crucial in building resilience within our supply chain, enabling us to quantify risk, improve visibility into areas of previously hidden vulnerabilities, which ultimately are ensuring continuity of supply.”
Question: You’ve talked about J&J’s Digital Performance Management platform. What is that?
Roman: “Our Digital Performance Management takes real-time data flows from the manufacturing floor and feeds them directly into analytics hubs, which provide detailed dashboards and really give a live overview of manufacturing performance. These dashboards are displayed all over the screens within manufacturing and strategic locations around the site and … they’re really used in all key performance meetings, which include shift handovers, daily escalation meetings, and weekly performance reviews. … It gives employees and our site leadership real-time detailed understanding of their performance of how manufacturing is performing, and it allows them to react faster to issues and deep dive on problems, but all while maintaining focus on safety, quality and compliance.”
"At J&J, we’ve recognized the need to transition from legacy manual approaches to more digitalized capabilities to enhance agility and responsiveness across multi-dimensions of our business, including risk within supply chain. Digital innovation is really seen as crucial in building resilience within our supply chain, enabling us to quantify risk, improve visibility into areas of previously hidden vulnerabilities, which ultimately are ensuring continuity of supply.”
Question: One of the challenges companies face with digital transformation is the investment in both people and resources. Your DPM was initiated by a very small team. But, despite J&J’s size, many of your projects are started on a smaller scale. Can you talk about that?
Roman: “I think in this case with DPM, it was I think five or less focused associates on this, and obviously the investment was minimal. I think it’s how we approach these [pilots], how we prioritize, and how we scale them at the end of the day. But coming up with solutions for us, it doesn’t have to be these massive programs that we deploy over multiple years.”
Question: Robotics is changing the medtech supply chain space, and Johnson & Johnson has been investing in this area, from manufacturing all the way to patient surgery. So what is Johnson & Johnson doing currently with robotics? And I think for our audience specifically, in what ways has that changed the way your supply chain supports these efforts?
Roman: “An incredible question, Brian. One that I am so excited about. Yes, we are focused on developing a robotic surgical solution for laparoscopic or soft tissue surgeries. Our solution is called OTTAVA. OTTAVA is the only robotic system with unified architecture, which basically means the four robotic arms are incorporated into the surgical bed, and when the arms aren’t in use, they stow invisibly. It allows surgeons to really use the operating room for any procedure rather than dedicating it for one room for procedures based on the robot’s capabilities. Just an incredible, sleek solution and one that for me is cutting edge in terms of user interface.
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“Our supply chain, to meet this need, has evolved significantly to support the development of OTTAVA and on multiple fronts. First, we understand that improving time to market would require completely redesigning the robotics supply chain. So, we’ve leveraged our expertise across J&J MedTech to achieve goals and took really a unique approach to sourcing, strategy, planning, manufacturing, and delivery of everything associated with the supply chain. And we’ve really built it as a solutions team rather than a support team. We’ve designed this so that each functional unit is interconnected efficiently, communicating information to everyone so all angles feed into the supply chain simultaneously. We fully integrated supply chain to support the rapid product iteration during development, while obviously maintaining our quality standards, but yielding a scalable design for accelerated ramp up in the upcoming years.
“Another dimension of this has been how closely we’ve been working with our suppliers and external partners to really meet the rigorous compliance and quality standards associated with this type of design. Our external network of partners serve a dual purpose. We can leverage their advanced technical expertise to move more nimbly and swiftly to increase capacity, and eventually these close partnerships also enable us to transform the linear supply chain into an interconnected ecosystem with efficiencies and cost optimization.
“When you step back, given the compressed timeline, we really need to take an innovative approach to manufacturing, and the aim is to develop intelligent automation, digitization, and cutting-edge technology in world-class facilities. These capabilities will minimize human error. They’re going to improve data access, visualization and analysis. Our expanding manufacturing capacity is going to be designed to be flexible. It’s designed to be flexible and module, and it can be reconfigured according to the needs of the changing customer requirements that exist.”
I’ll have much more with Roman in this week’s episode of Talking Supply Chain. You can find the podcast here or wherever you get your podcasts.
Thoughts on 2025
Artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and sustainability/resilience are among the top areas of focus for supply chains in 2025 according to a selection of experts offering their opinions to Supply Chain Management Review. That is not to say that geopolitics and global trade are any less important. And don’t forget the annual quest for better visibility. While none of these should be a surprise to anyone in the industry, some of their comments offer some unique insight. We’ve collected some of the top predictions for 2025 from leaders at IBM, SAP Supply Chain, Fourkites, Cleo, Supplyframe, Propel Software, and more. You can find their thoughts here.
What shaped 2024?
Jeff Berman at our sister publication Logistics Management put together his list of the top 10 stories that shaped logistics and supply chain in 2024. As he explained, it is not a list of the most popular stories, but rather the ones that will leave an impression on the industry. The list includes Trump’s reelection, port strikes, tariffs, FedEx’s ongoing challenges, and a significant rail safety rule. See what else made the list here.
What I read this week
Cybersecurity concerns continue to grow within supply chain. Hexnode’s Apu Pavithran talks risk mitigation efforts. … Cost challenges have increased the interest in dedicated fleet operations. Gartner’s Nathan Lease explains the strategic approach to success. … Most trucking fleets (96%) say cutting other costs are a priority to combat rising regulatory costs. … Just two days before Christmas, FedEx announced it would spin off its LTL division as a standalone business. … Thousands of Amazon workers took to the picket lines ahead of Christmas to protest low pay and working conditions. … Intermodal volumes remained strong in November, according to the Intermodal Association of North America.
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Thank you for reading,
Brian