While Lean management continues to be one of the most prevalent business improvement approaches in the pharma industry, unfortunately, sustainable success has been elusive. I have written an article published in the latest issue of “Pharmaceutical Manufacturing” that is a sequel to the series I began years ago, and continued in the January issue of this year on addressing the challenges to ensuring successful implementation.
This article addresses the root causes identified in the January issue, namely lack of senior management commitment and involvement; an emphasis on driving cost reduction benefits (primarily in labor force reduction) over revenue enhancement and strategic benefits; and the continued siloed focus on application to manufacturing rather than across the enterprise. I’ve utilized my learnings from leading large-scale lean implementations, conversations with lean experts like Richard Schonberger as well as industry executives, to detail the key elements that address the root causes of these challenges. Many thanks to Rob Fromuth for sharing his experiences and learnings.
I hope this article is of value, and please let me know if you have any comments/feedback.
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