18.12.2020
Written by Angela De Mirjyn
For the US subsidiary of IMV Technologies, 2020 started with a regulatory inspection. By mid-January, those of us in charge of compliance considered 2020, “the worst year ever.” Little did we know that the regulatory agency’s visit to our facilities would end up being one of the most benign events of the year!
Eleven months later, our group has practically revamped its documented quality management system (QMS) and made it compliant with applicable regulatory guidelines. Our group took crash courses in the pillars of metrics, medical device quality and document control. We have reviewed our processes, made them more efficient and documented them. We have set up scheduled control points that will allow us to measure our improvement. And finally, over the last few weeks, our newly minted compliance and quality assurance program manager has finalized the training of every employee involved in the handling or sale of regulated products.
At IMV Technologies, we have always considered ourselves experts at what we do: providing quality and uninterrupted supply of products and services to our customers. Today, we also are specialists in how we do, what we do. We have improved our methods and our metrics, the documentation, and evidence supporting our efforts. We are a better team today because while setting strict guidelines, we have increased our flexibility. By controlling documents, we have improved our communication. And by dissecting everyone’s actions, we now can rid ourselves of wasteful or dead-end activities that produce no discernible benefits.
As we prepare to close this fiscal year, I look back at the opportunities that 2020 brought with it. After more than 10 years of practice with IMV Technologies, I find that I know the company better than I ever did. I ponder at the work adaptations we made to mitigate our health risks and I find that I know my teammates better than I did before. I think about the growth opportunities that came my way and I know that I also learned more about myself than I would on any other year.
The year 2020 is definitely not the, “worst year ever.” In fact, we fared well while many may not have been as fortunate. My team and I had satisfying work to focus our time on; supporting teammates to talk to; understanding customers to serve, and one more common goal to unite us: Make it a great 2021!
We look forward to continuing this blog space in January. From the IMV Technologies family of companies, to you, have a happy and safe holiday season.
The views expressed in IMV Technologies’ blog do not necessarily represent the views of the IMV Technologies Group but solely those of the blog post’s author
