+40 B
Annual revenue
Implementing a Maintenance Excellence Program to Unlock Production Capacity
A global pharmaceutical manufacturing company needed to improve operational efficiency and maintenance performance in its sterile production lines. Partnering with EFESO, the organization implemented a structured Maintenance Excellence Program to deploy world-class operational and maintenance practices.
Industry: Life Sciences
Service: Manufacturing
Service: Operations Strategy and Transformation
Service: Supply Chain
Our Client
A global pharmaceutical company providing manufacturing and development services for the healthcare industry, including sterile and aseptic production operations.
125 K
Employees worldwide
The Challenge
The organization aimed to improve maintenance performance and operational efficiency on critical sterile production lines while establishing a scalable maintenance excellence model.
- Limited visibility on maintenance performance: Need to assess maintenance maturity, processes, and organizational structure.
- Production inefficiencies and downtime: Setup times, breakdowns, and operational bottlenecks limited production capacity.
- Lack of standardized maintenance model: Need to structure processes, governance, and tools to enable consistent maintenance excellence.
- Need for scalable best practices: The client wanted a replicable model that could be rolled out beyond the pilot site.
Real Results Achieved Together
EFESO Maintenance Excellence Program enabled the client to enhance operational efficiency by successfully implementing world-class operational and maintenance practices
Up to 37%
Increase in effective production capacity through downtime and changeover reduction
29 days
Capacity gain achieved vs. 26-day agreed target
Zero
Deviations during production restart after shutdown (vs. 30 deviations previously)
Transformation Impact
- Reduced downtime, setup times, and microstops across sterile production lines
- Established standardized maintenance governance, processes, and organizational roles
- Maintenance Excellence Playbook established for continuous improvement and scalability and to enable replication across additional sites
- Organizational alignment and capability building, including validated roles, RACI, and KPIs to sustain the new approach.
Our Approach
EFESO partnered with the client to implement a three-phase Maintenance Excellence Program combining diagnostics, pilot execution, and scalable model design.
- Diagnostics (2 weeks)
- Conducted performance analysis (historical data, observations) to identify inefficiencies, waste, and bottlenecks.
- Collected qualitative data through interviews to map current maintenance processes and organization.
- Evaluated maturity and improvement potential; identified quick wins for pilot lines.
- Execution (3 months)
- Implemented quick-win initiatives on pilot lines to reduce downtime, setup time, and losses (SMED, AM/PM, predictive maintenance).
- Applied change management to ensure adoption of new maintenance practices.
- Validated results and created an expansion plan for remaining lines.
- Model Design & Mid-term Actions (6 months)
- Rolled out the Maintenance Excellence model site-wide and tuned processes to address organizational gaps.
- Defined methods, tools, and systems for scalability; established a Center of Excellence.
- Delivered a comprehensive Maintenance Excellence Playbook capturing lessons learned, best practices, and standardized procedures.
Key Methods & Tools Used
- Capacity release model applied on critical lines → increased production availability
- Shutdown optimization and evaluation → zero-deviation startups
- Maintenance organization model creation, validation, and tuning → aligned processes with organizational structure
- Playbook development → ensured standardized practices and knowledge transfer
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Facing Similar Maintenance and Capacity Challenges
- Experiencing downtime, setup losses, or hidden capacity constraints in critical production lines.
- Looking to implement a structured maintenance excellence model across manufacturing sites.
- Seeking to improve reliability, maintenance governance, and production capacity through standardized best practices.
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