Colleague in the Spotlight – Vincent

Vincent is one of our junior consultants. Graduated Master in Biochemistry and Biotechnology, he has been working for two years as a consultant in GMP production environments. His first assignment was as project engineer on aseptic (sterile) production plants, a few months ago he started his second assignment at Trevalco as production engineer.

In this short interview, we let Vincent talk about the content of his duties as a production engineer.

What are your main duties as a production engineer?

Currently, my duties consist of investigating and handling deviations during the production process.

In fact, when there is a deviation from the validated procedure, a deviation will be started in our system. This event must then be investigated with the aim of identifying a correct Root Cause. In this way, we can then define targeted and concrete CAPA actions to avoid such deviations in the future. In addition, an Impact assessment is also performed to investigate what impact this deviation had on the product.

It is important that these examinations be performed thoroughly and efficiently to avoid any risk to the patient.

What do you like about this assignment?

What makes this assignment so fun is that you get to interact with different departments and different people during the investigations. You think about problems together to come to a good solution. The many events and deviations are also always different enough to keep it interesting.

Finally, each deviation is finished in a relatively short period of time. Which makes it easier to get a sense of accomplishment and “job well done” than projects that run over several months.

There must be disadvantages to the job too?

Not every deviation is as obvious. Sometimes you have to dig deep for a cause and depend on other people’s info so it is not always quick.

But overall, that’s not too bad.

You started two years ago as an entry-level student in Life Sciences. Why would you recommend this sector to recent graduates?

The Life Sciences are a wonderful sector. You have the aspect of science where new developments are constantly happening. On top of that, there are many jobs in the sector that can help patients. Maybe not as visible as, say, a doctor. But the people in Life Sciences are the supporting pillar to help thousands of patients every year.