Lean Culture Transformation

US Pharmaceutical company

What was the problem?

This pharmaceutical company found itself growing at a significant pace and the management team knew that they needed to quickly improve their business processes and systems so that they would be ready for rapid introductions of new products. They recognised that introducing the concept of lean office would help to address this issue.

What did you do?

We identified three areas where the processes could be dramatically impacted to achieve results. These were Contracts, Sales Planning & Analysis and Customer Interface. We then conducted leadership workshops where 40 team leaders and facilitators were trained to ensure future sustainability.

What happened?

Participants received specific training in tools including: fomalised communication processes; critical work group metrics; continuous improvement action sheets; skill versatility; 20 keys of lean office and roles, responsibilities and accountabilities charting (RACI). The ‘current state’ of nearly 100 processes were mapped and each process was reviewed with stakeholders to identify improvement opportunities. Coaching the client to take complete responsibility for identifying, restructuring and implementing future business process improvements ensured that capability was developed internally and, at the same time, excitement and empowerment was generated among the employees.

What was the outcome?

Over $1.2 million cost reduction was realised and revenue was increased by more than $800,000 in less than six months. The time taken in-house to draft contracts was reduced by 65% from 46 days to just 16, while other paperwork functions were outsourced to shorten in-house work by 13 days (68% reduction). Attaining signatures on certain critical path documents was speeded up from 25 days to just 13 and insurance investigation was significantly reduced resulting in greater patient convenience.