Beam Therapeutics strengthens research support through smarter facility management

Beam operates complex research and development (R&D) and good manufacturing practice/quality control (GMP/QC) labs where uptime is non-negotiable. “We have multiple types of mass specs, fume hoods, enclosures—devices that are critical for research flows,” said Ian Lee, an Operations Specialist at Beam. “If those devices experience downtime, research workflows can be significantly disrupted.”

Without a platform that could organize and track these data streams, Beam’s facility data, such as service contracts, maintenance schedules and recurring inspections, was spread across several disparate systems.

Asset location tracking was equally manual and time-consuming. If a piece of equipment moved between departments, he had to hunt it down and manually edit his floorplans.

"Having to do this on a manual basis is challenging and exhausting," Lee said.

Without a unified system, Beam’s facilities team struggled to:

• Maintain a holistic view of thousands of pieces of equipment across multiple sites
• Prioritize maintenance spend and plan lifecycle replacements
• Prove the volume and value of work being done by technicians
• Reduce the risk and cost of unplanned downtime in high-stakes labs

After an RFP process, Lee and his team evaluated multiple platforms and narrowed the field to two finalists. OpenBlue Workplace stood out “mostly because of the rigor behind it,” Lee explained.

They selected OpenBlue Workplace for several reasons:

• Robust asset and maintenance tracking to support lifecycle planning
• The ability to centralize service contracts, PM schedules and recurring tasks
• Flexible data structures to model complex lab and equipment relationships
• Bi-directional integration with AutoCAD and Revit for precise space and asset mapping

Beam faced a hard deadline: they had just four months—through the holidays—to roll out OpenBlue. “We did a 12-month implementation in four months because of how fast we had to move,” Lee recalled.

Working closely with the Johnson Controls team, Beam configured OpenBlue Workplace to reflect the unique nature of their organization:

• Two facilities with mixed office and highly regulated lab spaces
• Supervisors who are also technicians, and technicians who often act as supervisors
• R&D and GMP environments with strict safety, security and environmental requirements

The implementation partnership was hands-on and responsive. “Working with the OpenBlue team has been incredible,” Lee said. “They are incredibly proactive. They work with us, they email, they check in. It's not always me asking questions, it's them asking questions back to me to make sure the product fits the team's needs.”

A stronger, more effective system to power critical research

What used to be manual and fragmented is now centralized and measurable. Lee no longer relies on static floorplans and building walkthroughs to keep asset locations current. “With OpenBlue, we now have the ability to set up and identify equipment and where it’s located,” he said. “Now when I walk, I can check a serial number and asset tag and I can adjust it and move it to the space that it’s in. No longer myself clicking and dragging or redrawing or removing equipment from my personal floorplans.”

A culture shift from reactive to proactive decision-making

With centralized data and flexible reporting, Beam is beginning to shift to proactive planning. For example, if the work orders in Workplace show that a piece of equipment has had numerous issues over the last six months, Lee can proactively replace it or identify another piece of equipment that researchers can use to avoid a malfunction that may disrupt their work. “Having that predictability and understanding is incredibly important for our research lab ops teams,” he said. This foresight equips Beam leadership to execute better capital planning, smarter maintenance strategies and more efficient use of space and equipment.

Shining a light on the “invisible” work

“One of the challenges for us is developing KPIs and metrics that really showcase the work that we are doing,” Lee said. “Working with the OpenBlue team and identifying ways to build additional KPIs and metrics to show how fast we're responding to things or how quickly we're repairing things or the cost savings that we are creating is key for our team.”

OpenBlue Workplace also provides a place to house all of Beam’s service contracts and recurring maintenance schedules. Tasks like biweekly cleanings, gas checks and system inspections that weren’t recorded before are now tracked and reportable, giving technicians thorough documentation of their hard work.

A platform that scales with business needs

For a growing organization in a dynamic industry, Beam needed a system that could adapt as they evolve. In place of multiple static spreadsheets, the modular, configurable framework in Workplace allows them to:

• Maintain a single platform for asset, space and maintenance data across multiple facilities
• Connect siloed departments through shared facilities data
• Continuously refine workflows and permissions as roles and processes change

For facility leaders managing large, distributed portfolios, Beam’s experience highlights how a connected platform like OpenBlue Workplace can:

• Reduce manual effort in tracking assets, contracts and recurring work
• Improve uptime in mission-critical environments by enabling proactive maintenance
• Provide the data and metrics needed to justify investments and optimize operating costs

For Beam Therapeutics, these capabilities added together create a foundation that keeps life-changing science moving safely and efficiently.

Beam Therapeutics, launched in 2018, is a biotechnology company that uses base editing to develop a broad portfolio of advanced genetic medicines. Their groundbreaking base editing technology allows them to make permanent, specific edits to single bases in DNA and RNA, without cutting the strands. Base editor therapeutics represent a new class of “precision genetic medicines,” combining precision targeting of the genome with precision control of editing outcomes. Their mission is to provide life-long cures for patients suffering from serious diseases.