Sanofi Digital Factory 4.0
Led the Web Application Platform and architected manufacturing applications for Sanofi's global smart factory initiative, delivering batch genealogy, control tower, and observability solutions.
Problem
Sanofi's manufacturing sites ran on fragmented systems. Eight ERPs, 500+ applications, no unified data layer. Shop-floor operators tracked batches on paper and spreadsheets. Compliance was manual, errors were expensive, and scaling digitization across 50+ sites was impossible without a common application platform.
Outcome
Led the Web Application Platform within the Industrial Affairs Digital Center (IADC). Implemented the C4 architecture model for manufacturing applications. Defined the testing strategy for GxP-validated systems. Built batch genealogy and factory control tower solutions on AWS private cloud. Integrated foundational services including status pages, web analytics, and cross-application alerting.
Impact
Batch genealogy removed 36,000 hours of manual tracking annually. North America cycle time improved 16x. Shop-floor automation delivered 50% productivity gains. Unplanned downtime dropped 50% through real observability.
Sanofi’s manufacturing network was a patchwork. Each site had its own tools, its own data silos, and its own way of working. The company wanted Industry 4.0. What it had was audit fatigue and missed batches.
I joined as a Software and Solution Architect. My job was not to run the entire program. It was to make the web application platform work, and to build the applications that operators actually used on the shop floor.
Web Application Platform
I led the Web Application Platform within IADC. This was the layer where manufacturing applications lived: batch genealogy, control tower, quality management, and shop-floor dashboards. I made architectural decisions that affected how every application was built, tested, and deployed.
Key decisions I drove:
- C4 architecture model. I implemented the C4 model (Context, Containers, Components, Code) across our application portfolio. This gave us a common language for architecture reviews. No more boxes and arrows that only one person understood.
- Testing strategy for GxP systems. I defined how we tested medical compliance systems. This meant automated test suites, traceability matrices, and validation evidence that auditors could follow. Agile GxP validation, not waterfall documentation dumps.
- AWS Cognito SSO. I pushed for single sign-on across all digital applications. Fragmented login flows kill adoption. One login, one session, no password fatigue.
- UI harmonization. I worked with the UX lead to standardize components, fonts, colors, and navigation across applications. Users should not relearn the interface every time they switch tools.
Applications I built
- Batch Genealogy. Tracked every batch from raw material to finished product across the manufacturing network. Replaced paper logs and spreadsheets. This alone removed 36,000 hours of manual labor annually.
- Factory Control Tower. A unified view of operations across sites. Real-time KPIs, alerts, and drill-down capabilities for line managers who needed to see problems before they became stoppages.
- Observability Platform. Monitoring and alerting that actually reduced unplanned downtime by 50%. Not just metrics dashboards. Actionable alerts with context.
Integration and foundations
I integrated foundational services into the application platform: a public status page (Cachet), web analytics (Matomo), and a transversal alert management system (AlertMe / Wisprs) that fed events and KPIs between applications. Most digital factory programs build silos and call it innovation. I made sure our applications talked to each other.
The result
The applications I built and the platform decisions I made delivered measurable shop-floor impact. North America saw a 16x cycle time improvement. Shop-floor automation cut manual work in half. The observability platform meant we found problems before they stopped production lines.
This was not a slide deck. It was software that operators used every shift.