There’s nothing quite like wrapping up a big project. There’s nothing quite like accomplishing a long-sought goal. There’s nothing quite like getting 12 hours of sleep the night that you finish with the busiest year of your life. So, there was no Friday in our lives quite like the one that ended with completion and assessment of our AKA certified GMP facility! Did it end on a high note? Only rationally. Emotionally and energetically, we were so drained, we merely deflated with the screaming imperative of productivity and trepidation removed. But once we had a bit of rest and received official approval, it was a fine day indeed. With a plate of chimis and some fine Mexican refreshments in front of us, it was Lou Reed’s proverbial “perfect day”.
For the last year we have been working to meet Good Manufacturing Practices standards, building out from a brand-new location selected for this purpose. GMP covers myriad aspects of how we not only manufacture but how we acquire product, the standards it must meet, testing and quarantine procedures, storage procedures and infrastructure, cleanliness and sanitation of the facility, standard operating procedures, equipment standards, facility requirements like sinks and closed system area for packaging and many more aspects of our facility and our procedures and policies. It is extraordinarily involved. Even obscure contingencies must be planned for, systematized and signed off on. AKA GMP demanded Jill write about 16” of policies and standard operating procedures. We spent hours reviewing and signing off on them in the days leading up to our assessment.
And for myself GMP looked like rapid aging. During the year leading up to the certification, we both clocked an unhealthy number of 12 hour days and I managed to experience my first and only 16 hour day (pic of that day to left, shortly before leaving the shop in the early AM on my longest work day ever).
But the end result is the most functional work environment I’ve ever seen. It’s a standard of accountability and cleanliness that precious few vendors in our industry meet and we are proud to complete this journey for you.
What’s worse than reading droll, technical documents? Writing them, a foot and a half of them. Lucky for me, I get all the fun writing.
-Brandon Bird
