€15B
Annual turnover
Restoring Operational Excellence to Scale Globally
A global consumer health company needed to internalize production from external manufacturers while creating a unified operational culture. EFESO worked with the in-house team to redesign the company’s operational excellence program across 23 plants in four countries. The transformation was delivering measurable improvements after just six months of implementation.
Life Sciences
Manufacturing
Operational Excellence
Operations Strategy and Transformation
People and Organization
Our Client
The company is a spinoff from three major pharmaceutical brands and specializes in non-prescription medicaments. It operates in five consumer health product categories and has a strong global presence. This strategic formation allows the company to focus specifically on consumer health while leveraging the combined expertise and infrastructure of its parent organizations.
23
Manufacturing plants globally
4
Countries with operations
55-60%
Current production internalized
“The CIL is improving the standards of my product line. We are increasing capacity and stabilizing operations.
“
The Challenge
The newly formed consumer health company faced complex operational and cultural transformation requirements across its global manufacturing network.
- Fragmented operational approaches: Plants operated with inconsistent methodologies for autonomous maintenance, progressive maintenance and OEE measurement – a legacy of combining operations from three different pharmaceutical companies
- External production dependency: With only 55-60% of production internalized and the remainder handled by contract manufacturers, rising costs demanded a shift to increase internal capacity utilization to 75-80%
- Cultural transformation needs: The organization needed to create a unified company culture, while shifting from a highly regulated pharmaceutical mindset to a consumer health approach that embraces continuous improvement
Real Results Achieved Together
Within six months of program implementation, the transformation delivered significant operational improvements and cultural shifts. The success of pilot lines demonstrated the program's potential for broader deployment across the global network.
30%
Reduction in unplanned stops
6
Months to initial results
2
Pilot lines transformed
Transformation Impact
- Increased employee engagement and understanding within teams of how daily activities connect to business stability
- Leadership buy-in with board-level recognition of operational excellence as a strategic driver
- Validated standards ready for global rollout across remaining plants and regions
Our Approach
We structured the transformation through three integrated blocks while maintaining continuity with existing efforts.
- In phase one, we redesigned the operational excellence program content, establishing strategic intent and creating pillar structures with clear capability centers.
- Secondly, we delivered tailored training at multiple organizational levels—from shop floor to global teams, pillar owners and leadership—ensuring each level understood their specific role.
- Finally, we implemented the program in a lead site, developing and validating standards through daily direction setting and run on target systems. This created standardized daily management for critical processes including centerline, CIL and changeovers.
Throughout the implementation we continuously aligned with internal stakeholders, building from existing foundations rather than replacing previous work.
The approach emphasized the creation of phases with clear endpoints, helping teams understand the journey toward increased capability and improved behaviors.
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Facing Similar Manufacturing Integration Challenges?
- Struggling with inconsistent operational practices across multiple sites from mergers or acquisitions
- Seeking to internalize production while dramatically improving capacity utilization and reducing costs
- Ready to build lasting operational excellence capability that transforms both culture and performance
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