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Lean Labs Project Improved Productivity by 33% across Pharmaceutical Product Portfolio

The client is a contract pharmaceutical manufacturer of Capsules for both Pharmaceutical as well as Health & Nutrition

Situation at the start

The client has involvement in the R&D of products including development of manufacturing and testing processes, for third parties. The company has a €15 Billion turnover with approximately 15,500 full-time employees based in more than 100 sites and offices worldwide.

The challenge

The client asked EFESO to implement their Lean Lab approach within one of their sites in France.

Production volumes were set to increase across the pharmaceutical product portfolio and the client needed to improve the productivity of the laboratories so that they could increase capacity without increasing headcount.

Putting strategy into action

EFESO implemented their Lean Lab approach by:

  • Developing appropriate levelling strategies for incoming workload by using:
    • Heijunka devices such as rhythm wheels and trains
    • Defining project workloads (with triaging) and milestones
    • Standard Work to define roles and achieve workload balancing
    • Identify wasteful practices and eliminate where appropriate

Deliver concrete results

  • Productivity Improvement – including 2-year production increase of 33% across pharmaceutical product portfolio
    • 19% improvement in Quality Control
    • 5% improvement in Analytical Development
  • Supported by Visual Management
    • Daily workload management through the use of White Boards
    • KPIs were determined and collection systems defined to foster ownership of lab processes, monitor the new systems of operation and encourage continuous improvement
    • A capacity management planning tool was delivered to project groups for the management of project resource and delivery of accurate commitment dates to the business

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