Case Study

New England Biolabs – Communications Infrastructure

New England Biolabs^® (NEB^®) was founded by scientists committed to developing innovative products for the life sciences industry. Today, NEB is a recognized world leader in the discovery, development and commercialization of recombinant and native enzymes for genomic research. Their company is guided by deep commitment to product quality, environmental stewardship, scientific mentoring, humanities and the arts.

New cGMP Manufacturing Facility

When New England Biolabs leased an existing building in Rowley, MA to build its cGMP manufacturing facility, it was critical that the building be designed to reflect its values of quality and sustainability and enable continued growth and innovation. KTS was engaged to design and install the communications backbone of the facility, ensuring the critical operational systems were integrated and designed for optimal performance, reliability and scalability.

Challenges: Multiple Systems, Evolving Requirements and Multiple Parties

Four primary systems were essential to designing the communications infrastructure for the new manufacturing facility. Each system was being installed by a different contractor. KTS worked with each systems contractor and their New England Biolabs point person to identify requirements affecting the network design. Each system design fed into the communications infrastructure design including identifying equipment location, bandwidth demands and performance parameters. The same was true for identifying number and location of devices and number of people working in the facility and needing access to the key operational systems. Key inputs to the design included confirmation of location, bandwidth and performance requirements to recommend cabling recommendations and alternatives for consideration. With many points of contact and many moving parts, the vast majority of the effort was spent on design to accommodate the evolution of the below four primary system requirements affecting the communications infrastructure:

• Process Control System (PCS) – manufacturing controls
• Building Management System (BMS) – damper controls, A/C and heating systems
• Security System – card access, interior and exterior surveillance
• Data Network– including wireless access points (WAP), VOIP and Cat 6A cable to support 10 Gig applications.

KTS presented design alternatives including cost and performance analysis to assist in selecting the Cat 6A cable as the cable of choice to best meet the performance and bandwidth requirements for the facility.

Benefits of KTS:

New England Biolabs is committed to providing quality products that its customers can rely on for trusted research results. KTS provided two key benefits to the general contractor, Columbia Construction Company, and to NEB, as they designed and installed the communications infrastructure for the new cGMP manufacturing facility.

• One single point of contact to ensure the four essential systems were professionally and properly connected for reliability, security and optimal performance.
• One single point of accountability for all data cabling ensured there was clarity for all parties for both the design and installation.