It is already widely known that pharmaceutical companies play a significant role in our national and global society. Not only do they develop and produce life-saving medications, but they also drive medical innovation and contribute to public health advancements. Therefore, it is critical that they have the best operations that are both efficient and effective to deliver the highest quality care and outcomes for patients.
Lean Six Sigma is a structured, data-driven process and continuous improvement methodology that has proven to have effectively streamlined and standardized operations across various industries, including the pharmaceutical industry.
Our client,a leading public-listed pharmaceutical company, has decided to embark on a Lean Six Sigma journey as part of its commitment to achieving operational excellence across the organization.
OBJECTIVE
The Lean Six Sigma initiative, structured for our client, has a two-pronged objective: to successfully deploy Lean Six Sigma methodology across diverse business units with demonstrated financial savings and to hone the competency and capability of select future leaders of the company.
The participants for this programme were handpicked by their Senior Management to be indoctrinated with the relevant knowledge, skills, and competencies associated with data-driven analytics and decision-making. It has been made very clear at the onset of the programme that they are expected to become the next generation leaders of their organization.
The improvement initiatives encompass a wide range of project portfolios, including but not limited to production output improvement, changeover reduction, defect reduction, financial cost optimization (OPEX, Cost Of Goods Sold, & Total Working Capital), inventory reduction, production cycle time reduction, and power consumption optimization.
APPROACH
To realize and achieve this objective, we developed a Lean Six Sigma Deployment Plan that stretched over three years.
The Lean Six Sigma deployment plan consists of two major sequential training and project delivery segments: initiation via a Lean Six Sigma Green Belt programme before continuation with the Lean Six Sigma Black Belt programme.
In order to be certified as a Lean Six Sigma Green Belt practitioner, participants are required to complete two Green Belt projects with a combined hard-saving of RM300K (in one year) along with the successful passing of their Lean Six Sigma Green Belt internal assessment. Upon the successful completion of the Lean Six Sigma Green Belt project delivery, each participant is required to complete four Black Belt projects with a combined hard saving of RM1 million (in two years), along with the successful passing of their Lean Six Sigma Black Belt internal assessment.
Lean Six Sigma methodologies, such as DMAIC and DMADV, have been considered for deployment depending on the need and merit of the project. Upon the completion of training modules for each Belt level, project leaders are further guided on project delivery via personal coaching sessions before they are allowed to present in Tollgate sessions, where the project deliverables are evaluated through a panel of Senior Management members.
RESULTS
By following the structured framework of the DMAIC methodology along with the coaching and tollgate sessions, the participants were able to conduct medium-to-high-impact projects aligned with the Lean Six Sigma Green Belt criteria and successfully brought them to fruition, beyond initial expectations.
By the end of the deployment, close to 50 projects were delivered with validated financial hard-savings of RM15 million. Along with the financial hard savings, soft savings and improvements in ESG metrics were also observed. On top of that, project leaders have also expressed encouraging feedback on the whole Lean Six Sigma deployment plan, whereby they appreciated the new experience and knowledge gained through our trainers.
