USE CASES
Adding value whilst making a difference
Throughout my career, I have designed and led several LEAN programmes successfully in some of the largest pharmaceutical companies globally and have generated over USD 200M in combined value (cost reduction and revenue growth) over a period of 22 years. I have achieved this for manufacturing sites, supply chain and support functions as Global Head of Operational Excellence and Transformation. I contracted several major consulting firms over this time to provide capabilities to assist me in scaling-up the Operational Excellence programmes across the organisations once I had defined the ambition and scope internally.
When operational efficiency is about engaging people first.
I joined a global pharmaceutical company which had had several failed attempts at deploying a LEAN transformation programme, despite hiring a leading consulting firm. The company had been experiencing high levels of absenteeism and poor manufacturing performance and rightly decided to deploy LEAN to address these challenges. One of the main reasons for these failed attempts however, was that the Unions had been working with employees to reject any sort of LEAN programme as they anticipated job losses as a result of its implementation.
My approach was to co-design a LEAN programme with the employees who had been opposed to it and involve the Unions. The programme had a strong focus on the challenges faced by these employees on the shopfloor. This programme created the momentum for a successful LEAN transformation. Employees were inspired and happy to contribute to the change and the Unions were satisfied that the company was working in the interests of its people.
Ownership and accountability for change is one of the major success factors in any LEAN transformation. The programme delivered over USD 20 M in cumulative revenue growth and cost reduction in less than 3 years.
Core process efficiency and accountability were critical for cashflow and cost control
I was hired by a Biotech company, (a spin off from a multi–billion pharmaceutical company), to launch a LEAN and Business Process Management programme in order to remove waste from its operations and standardise and improve its core processes.
Since its formation, the company had not yet been profitable and still required the financial support of its parent company.
The company was operating in a USD 8 billion market with some fierce competitors, it had limited time left to demonstrate success.
As the Executive Director of Operational Excellence, I set up the OPEX and Business Process Management teams, trained the Management team and defined the scope and ambition for the Lean transformation with them. Within 18 months, the programme I implemented had defined the company business process framework as well as the data governance for their efficient and effective management. This enabled the identification and resolution of critical operational issues such as; accounts payable and receivable late and inaccurate payments; disrupted supplies of raw materials and services to the company.
Within 18 months, USD 25 million in cash had been recovered and saved whilst relationships with suppliers had improved through respecting payment terms therefore eliminating the risk of disruption to supply.
Successful Operational Excellence programmes should focus on cross-functional processes. Unfortunately, many businesses implement programmes along departmental lines and whilst this helps to improve processes within the scope of the departments, it does not address issues which deliver critical value for customers. The end-to-end value stream or process approach is more likely to deliver substantial benefits to the company.
Balance strategy execution and constant crisis management
A medium sized Biotech company’s biggest concern was to execute its strategy whilst managing frequent crisis. The company had a complex portfolio of products and had had several product recalls due to sub-standard processes and risk management. I addressed several of the company’s short and long term challenges by implementing a business system and operations governance to ensure leaders and employees focused on the important topics and their resolution using LEAN Management principles, tools and framework.
A risk assessment of the high revenue streams, the set-up of a Lean approach for new product launches enabled management to identify investments required as well as executing its strategies for new product launches while continuously improving standards and operating procedures. Daily management of Operations also enabled the company to manage issues efficiently and drive accountabilities amongst different teams.
Often LEAN Business systems provide a framework for a company to deal with chaos whilst staying focused on its long term strategic priorities.
Focus on waste reduction and employee empowerment
Early in my career I designed and implemented a LEAN programme at a medium sized pharmaceutical device manufacturer. They were one of two major suppliers to a large global pharmaceutical company who was pressuring them to reduce their price. Although the company had already been through a restructuring to cut costs in an attempt to remain profitable and increase competitivity, there was a lack of operating standards and processes, this made the company very inefficient with significant operational waste. As a result of the LEAN approach I developed in house, the company was able to empower its employees to reduce waste by 15% in the first year of deployment and the organisation became the preferred supplier of devices.
Manage complexity and inefficiencies in Global Manufacturing Operations
With the fast growth of its operations, driven by increasing demand, a large biotech company struggled to scale-up its activities efficiently. Although the company was perceived as doing well, the right the first time rate was 0%. Product Leadtime was out of control with increasing quality issues. The company was adding more people to manage non standardised inefficient processes. As the global head of Operational Excellence, I was in charge of designing an OPEX programme to create a continuous improvement culture whilst addressing Quality and Manufacturing issues. The programme which involved deploying both Lean and Six Sigma became a success with 200 active leaders delivering USD 30M p.a. whilst fixing broken processes and introducing standard work.
Lean Management deployed for service activities
A large biotech company was reputed amongst its employees and suppliers to be bureaucratic with long waiting periods in its service operations. An employee’s onboarding would take on average, over 4 months. Contractors and employees had to wait several months before being given a laptop and smart phone in order to access the necessary business applications to carry out their work. Employees would become extremely frustrated and motivation was at a low after a few weeks in their new role. Suppliers were often paid late and consequently several critical suppliers experienced cashflow issues triggered by these inefficient processes.
The company had made several large acquisitions over the years without integrating these smaller entities, therefore many processes and systems were duplicated with no end-to-end processes. I designed and led LEAN Transformation which focused on all support functions and involved some main service suppliers. I hired, trained and coached a core team of LEAN leaders and teams in each support department. The ambition was to streamline, consolidate and improve service processes to ensure a seamless execution as well as reducing Leadtime and improving employees’ experience and retention. The budget process, accounts payable, management of tangible and intangible assets, hire to retire, Legal prosecution and litigations, market access are examples of critical areas where improvements were driven across departments. The main success factors were the ability to dedicate a team of Lean experts to the main issues as well as the drive and commitment of senior executives who sponsored the Operational Excellence journey. Benefits were measured in terms of Leadtime reduction with an average of 55% reduction for most service processes. 400 Lean workshops were carried out over a period of 24 months. Thanks to the Operational Excellence infrastructure I set up, the employees felt empowered to drive the changes successfully and addressed the issues which used to make the company an unpleasant place to work and an unreliable customer for its suppliers.
The OPEX standard principles and techniques to improve manufacturing operations also work very well for Service processes where waste is often well hidden.