Pharma: Improving Production Efficiency to Help More Patients

Production Efficiency Program (PEP) for a French pharmaceutical plant to increase filling-rate of thrombosis-therapeutics +32%, closing a growing gap between plant output and patient demand.

Situation:

The French site of a European pharmaceutical company found itself in a predicament: safety stocks of thrombosis drugs were declining faster than production could manufacture them. Urgent measures had to be taken to avoid undersupply, otherwise there was a risk that patients would not receive the drugs they needed.

Problem:

The combination of outdated equipment, unstable processes and talent losses resulted in a perfect storm. Production efficiency of sterile syringe filling and inspection dropped below 10%; losses exceeded a staggering 90%. The team was constantly battling machine breakdowns that brought production to a halt, while the mountain of pending process deviations grew larger every day, burning people out and rapidly consuming safety stock.

Solution:

Implement a focused Production Efficiency Program (PEP) based on Lean principles to ensure market supply by solving operational constraints, reducing process deviations, and up-skilling personnel in systematic root-cause elimination and agile performance management. In parallel, equipping critical machines with IOT tracking devices to bring real-time production efficiency information to everyone’s attention.

Impact:

Pharma production efficiency doubled during a 12-month period, throughput increased by 32% without spending capital, stock-outs and backlog cleared to zero, process deviations reduced by 25%, lead time shortened by nearly 50% from 140 days to 60-80 days, and key personnel were trained to sustain the production efficiency program, while maturing the site one step closer to Pharma Manufacturing Excellence per the Factory Audit.