Pharma X C2

Pharma X C2 = Continuous Improvement of Capability and Culture

The economic challenges facing the pharmaceutical industry are well documented. There are significant pressures to launch new products as patents expire and reduce costs – from overhead to promotion to manufacturing. At the same time, there is the pressure to improve compliance in an increasingly complex regulatory environment.

The Japanese word “Kaizen” is frequently used to describe the philosophy or practices that focus on continuous improvement. Regardless of the title used, the importance of establishing a continuous improvement framework and culture cannot be understated.

While the demands of daily operations and management can easily take up all your time, leaders cannot ignore the need and benefit of making time to reflect on how work is done and then focus on making improvements and changes to critical processes. This applies to all levels and functions of an organization and should not be regarded exclusively as a management activity or responsibility. Now, let’s focus on the core elements of establishing a continuous improvement capability and culture.

Here are some core concepts to establish a continuous improvement capability:

1. Focus your efforts on the most important improvement initiatives: Given today’s resource constraints, it is important that continuous improvement efforts are focused on the initiatives that will not only ensure regulatory compliance but will also have a strong ROI and positive impact on the business. The goals of the improvement efforts should be tied back directly to business goals and the benefits of the improvement project should be tracked and built into business plans. Establish a robust governance and stage-gate process to evaluate and then select critical improvement opportunities. Taking these strong initial steps in the improvement framework will both facilitate a healthy flow of good ideas while at the same time ensuring that the organization does not drown in too many simultaneous improvement initiatives.

2. Give people the tools and skills: Establishing a common process improvement framework and methodology is important. While employees assigned to improvement teams may have the technical knowledge of the functions targeted for improvement, it is just as critical that they are skilled in process improvement tools and techniques. Frameworks such as Lean Six Sigma can provide a common language and tool kit for assessing and improving business processes. Establishing a common improvement framework also enables cross functional teams to work collaboratively on improvement initiatives more effectively.

3. Make leadership visible and communicate progress: The importance of leadership is often not emphasized enough when it comes to continuous improvement. Attention is the currency of leadership. Staff pays attention to what their leaders pay care about. Leadership must build awareness and understanding across the organization regarding the purpose, goals and expectations of the continuous improvement efforts and reinforce their commitment with consistent and regular messaging about the importance of the initiatives to the business. Broad and frequent leadership communication should emphasize the expected benefits, organizational impacts, major milestones as they are achieved, and implementation timelines.

4. Establish a culture of continuous improvement: There is a saying, “culture eats strategy for lunch.” Regardless of how well thought out your continuous improvement strategy and programs are, success will depend on embedding continuous improvement into the fabric of the company. Continuous improvement should not be seen as just a program, but rather the way business is conducted. It is essential to celebrate, reward and recognize successes. At the same time, it is critical to have an environment that makes it okay to fail ― some ideas may not work and that is fine. Without the allowance for failure, you are in danger that ideas for change and improvement will not be offered or come forward, which puts your business in jeopardy of complacency or relying too heavily on the status quo.

Establishing an effective continuous improvement capability and mindset will be a differentiator in the future of your business. It is not just a “nice to have” but an essential for life science companies to compete and effectively address the industry challenges and pressures.

By John Cassimatis & Andrew Hunter | June 4, 2014 - TayganPoint Consulting Group

Image source:leansixsigmaexperts.comc

Slightly abridged from the source: http://www.pharmacompliancemonitor.com/pharma-x-c2-continuos-improvement-capability-culture/7023/