Continuous Manufacturing — faster and more responsive

I heard about the Novartis-MIT Center for Continuous Manufacturing through this startup pitch for Continuus Pharmaceuticals. They believe that if they can manufacture one bottle of pills at a time in a continuous process, they can be faster in delivering new drugs, and more cost efficient.

This idea is related in some way to the idea of software continuous delivery. In both cases, the machinery allows us to test and release one small item, which in the big picture makes us faster and more responsive. We don’t wait around to finish a big batch. This was the original insight of lean manufacturing in Japan, which still serves as an inspiration.