Devens 2012 Annual Report facilities and focusing the plants on what they each do  best. And as part of the Operational Excellence Transfor - mation initiative, sites across our network are embedding  analytical tools and business processes that optimize  operations and build continuous improvement into the way  they work. “Our teams are really embracing the continuous  improvement culture,” says Roberta McKee, senior vice  president, Global Manufacturing Science and Technol - ogy. “For example, our active product ingredient plants  in Ireland as well as our biologics plant in Devens have  identified ways to significantly reduce cycle times, which  increases capacity to support our growing pipeline.”  Efforts to improve processes also have been wide-ranging  and ongoing across every aspect of R&D. Every part of the  R&D organization has an important role to play. For exam - ple, Research and Pharmaceutical Development scientists  are seeking to replace liquid blood samples, which are dif - ficult to store and costly to ship, with dry samples. “It’s such  a great concept,” says Paul Biondi, senior vice president,  R&D Operations. “It doesn’t only reduce costs, but it also  allows our people to stay focused on research rather than  materials handling.” What’s more, changing how clinical  samples are collected, analyzed and stored is expected to  save the company more than $70 million a year. Additional  improvements under study range from an initiative to obtain  greater efficiencies in clinical site selection that could  enhance clinical trial startups, patient recruitment and reten- tion, to automating certain cell culture feeding processes  that could enhance multiple drug discovery efforts. r The goal of continuous improvement is doing our jobs  smarter, faster and better. And whether it is creating  organizational changes or finding new ways to become  more efficient, the ultimate aim of a culture of continuous  improvement is to ensure effective and efficient opera- tions, ones that also help enhance greater collaboration  across the entire company. A significant action in 2012 to drive greater efficiency and  effectiveness was the creation of the Enterprise Services  organization. “Its mission,” says Paul von Autenried, senior  vice president, Enterprise Services, and chief information  officer, “is to make it easier to get work done by delivering  global end-to-end services on which we all depend to per - form our jobs.” Through the consolidation of teams within  information technology, finance, human resources, pur- chasing, marketing and contracting, Enterprise Services  is building new capabilities and making improvements  to existing capabilities that enable and accelerate the  operation of the company. For example, in collaboration  with Global Manufacturing and Supply, Enterprise Services  completed a three-year project to provide a single global  system that standardizes and controls financial, manufac- turing, supply chain and order processing records across  Bristol-Myers Squibb. Global Manufacturing and Supply launched two important  initiatives in 2012 that focus on continuous improvement. The Plant Network Strategy aims at optimizing our entire  manufacturing network by increasing the utilization of our  Bristol-Myers Squibb  11 Working Smarter