Owner Engineering for Lonza Ibex

At the Ibex site in Visp, Lonza is building five state-of-the-art production facilities across an area of 100,000 m². With an investment of more than 1 billion euros, Ibex is one of the largest life sciences projects in Europe. One of the products manufactured here is the Covid-19 Moderna vaccine.

The challenge

For the utilities building, known internally as Project NSYNC, Lonza selected an EPC contractor responsible for engineering, procurement and construction. On a project of this scale and complexity, the client wants certainty that progress, quality and compliance are monitored independently, separate from the contractor.

The role of FORZ

FORZ supplied a team of Owner Engineers who supervised on behalf of Lonza throughout the full realisation. Our specialists tracked progress against the schedule, checked the quality of the work delivered and monitored compliance with the applicable standards and regulations in a heavily regulated environment.

From construction to handover

The team was involved during construction, commissioning and the eventual handover. It is precisely in the transition from construction to operation that independent oversight is crucial: systems must demonstrably work as designed before they are taken into use.

Result

By deploying experienced Owner Engineers, Lonza kept a grip on a complex, capital-intensive project. FORZ connected the right specialists to a client who could not wait for talent, bringing substantive knowledge of life sciences and the compliance that comes with it.