Astrid Friedrich is head of Automation and Digitalization at Rentschler Biopharma SE, one of the leading biopharma CDMOs. Before she held positions at Baxter and Novartis, gaining expertise in a wide range of manufacturing techniques. She has brought many operational research use cases and new process analytical technologies to the shop floor, using statistics and/or mathematical optimization among others. She led many yield improvement projects, stabilized processes, reduced inventory, optimized supply chains to name a few. Her current focus is on automation architecture and how an automation platform improves important KPIs like time to market, an important differentiator for our customers.