TBM’s Approach: How it Rescued a Pharmaceutical Company from Ineffectiveness

The large pharmaceutical manufacturer was facing several challenges in their existing management system. Despite significant revenue growth, the company was not witnessing a corresponding increase in profits.

We were working with the pharmaceutical manufacturer to conduct Kaizen events for the laboratories when they discovered inefficiencies in the existing management system. At the request of the pharmaceutical senior leaders, TBM consultants conducted an assessment to identify the gaps and proposed their management system approach to address these issues. The pharmaceutical leaders agreed to revamp their management system and contracted with us to commence the implementation immediately.

Challenge

The large pharmaceutical manufacturer was facing several challenges in their existing management system. Despite significant revenue growth, the company was not witnessing a corresponding increase in profits.
  • Tier 1 (T1) and Tier 2 (T2) board reviews were in place, but they mainly focused on production completion against targets, lacking a holistic view of the operations.
  • Hour X Hour (Hr X Hr) reporting attempts failed due to poor buy-in from supervisors and line leaders, leading to ineffective metric tracking and lack of leadership accountability.
  • Frequent (4 times during the day shift) T1 board meetings caused a significant drain on management resources and line supervision time.
  • Lack of a process for reviewing open actions and poor support group accountability led to workforce frustration and delayed issue resolution.
  • Decision-making authority resided solely with VP and department managers, resulting in delayed actions and countermeasures due to a lack of empowerment.

Solution

TBM Consulting Group was conducting Kaizen events for the laboratories when they discovered inefficiencies in the existing management system. The pharmaceutical leaders agreed to revamp their management system and contracted with TBM to commence the implementation immediately.

To address the identified challenges and inefficiencies, TBM developed the following plan of activities and processes. The implementation took three months with another three months of coaching by TBM to sustain the process and discipline across their operations:

  • Development and deployment of strategic objectives
  • Implementation of Hour X Hour tracking
  • T1, T2, and T3 meetings and agendas
  • Steering Committee
  • Efficient Change-overs
  • Training in problem-solving tools
  • Data collection and reporting
  • Leader Standard Work

Results

After six months of implementing TBM’s Management System productivity increased by 17% as evidenced by a reduction in Direct Labour Cost per unit.

After six months the pharmaceutical manufacturer observed significant improvements: 

  • Changeover time reduced by 60% to 75%.
  • On-time delivery improved from 85% to 90%.
  • Backlog reduction of 100% within 6 months.
  • Inventory reduction of 13%.

These improvements demonstrated the effectiveness of the revamped management system in driving performance, continuous improvement throughout the organisation and will be on track with the financial achievement they are expecting.

 

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Topics in this Case Study

Performance Improvement

At a Glance

Client

Privately held large U.S. Pharmaceutical Manufacturer with $150M in revenue.

Results

After six months of implementing TBM’s Management System, the pharmaceutical manufacturer observed significant improvements: Productivity increased by 17% as evidenced by a reduction in Direct Labour Cost per unit, changeover time reduced by 60% to 75%, On-time delivery improved from 85% to 90%, backlog reduction by 100% within 6 months and
inventory reduction of 13%.

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