0301. Why Asset Onboarding Gets Harder as Organizations Get Bigger
Wed Jan 28 2026
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Asset onboarding often feels like it should get easier with experience. But for many growing biopharma and manufacturing organizations, it does the opposite.
In this episode of Lean by Design, Oscar Gonzalez and Lawrence Wong explore why asset onboarding becomes more chaotic as organizations get bigger. Despite having SOPs, templates, and experienced teams, new equipment still arrives late or incomplete, ownership feels unclear, and validation, IT, EHS, and operations are forced to negotiate readiness in real time.
Rather than framing this as an execution or communication problem, the conversation reframes onboarding as a risk transition that is rarely designed explicitly. As organizations scale, experience masks risk, accountability becomes assumed, and operational teams quietly inherit fragility they never agreed to own.
This episode isn’t about best practices or speeding things up. It’s about understanding why onboarding chaos is predictable at scale—and why fixing it starts with seeing the risk clearly.
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Send us a text Asset onboarding often feels like it should get easier with experience. But for many growing biopharma and manufacturing organizations, it does the opposite. In this episode of Lean by Design, Oscar Gonzalez and Lawrence Wong explore why asset onboarding becomes more chaotic as organizations get bigger. Despite having SOPs, templates, and experienced teams, new equipment still arrives late or incomplete, ownership feels unclear, and validation, IT, EHS, and operations are forced to negotiate readiness in real time. Rather than framing this as an execution or communication problem, the conversation reframes onboarding as a risk transition that is rarely designed explicitly. As organizations scale, experience masks risk, accountability becomes assumed, and operational teams quietly inherit fragility they never agreed to own. This episode isn’t about best practices or speeding things up. It’s about understanding why onboarding chaos is predictable at scale—and why fixing it starts with seeing the risk clearly. Order Predictably Broken Now! https://books2read.com/predictablybroken Learn more about us by visiting: https://sigmalabconsulting.com/ Check out video episodes: https://www.youtube.com/@LeanByDesignPodcast Want our thoughts on a specific topic? Looking to sponsor this podcast to continue to generate content? Or maybe you have an idea and want to be on our show. Fill out our Interest Form and share your thoughts.