Your Plant is Your Capital

For economic viability and continuous success, it is enormously essential that your plant operates safely, efficiently and without problems over a long period.

Well, when you have a product portfolio that’s essentially categorized as ‘life-saving medicines’, you need to run your plant operations 24/7 and cannot slowdown production of scheduled batches, then all you need is to focus on:

1. Current Good Manufacturing Practice (cGMP),

2. Continuous improvement in processes,

3. Overall equipment effectiveness (OEE),

4. Maximum productivity and

5. Less downtime.

Janet Woodcock, Director, Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER) – FDA, US, once said, “We rely upon the manufacturing controls and standards to ensure that time and time again, lot after lot, year after year the same clinical profile will be delivered because the product will be the same in its quality…We have to think of the primary customers as people consuming that medicine and we have to think of the statute and what we are guaranteeing in there, that the drug will continue to be safe and effective and perform as described in the label.”

Simply to say, what she meant was product quality expectations concerning every unit, every batch and every day. Yes, in pharma industry, you have follow stringent standards and processes for producing safe, quality and effective products.

Next, continuous improvement in processes is only possibly through operational excellence (Opex) that focuses on:

1. Improving processes

2. Increasing productivity

3. Lowering costs

4. Simplifying procedures

5. Eliminating bottlenecks

Importantly, for achieving operational excellence (Opex), we have to identify key areas and take a right approach. While directing the improvement journey for the sake of operational excellence (Opex), think what can be changed, implemented, removed, increased, reduced, streamlined and tracked.

When you want to know how well and how frequently your production lines are working and where the costs can be reduced, then think of overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) that’s focused to remove waste in the form of downtime. When you have a OEE score of 100%, then that means perfect production, with no stop-time.

So, for scoring maximum OEE, think of tactics for improving OEE across your facility and production. 

Think of major losses that can be categorized and what improvement actions need to be taken to avoid production defects, delays, losses, rejects and stoppages.

Perhaps, to be more profitable in the business, rethink what ways you can apply to have maximum productivity and how effectively you can reduce costs. It doesn’t make sense when there are high costs, average productivity and marginal profits.

In conclusion, for achieving maximum productivity,

1. Assess your production environment, workflow and manpower usage,

2. Measure and improve overall equipment effectiveness (OEE),

3. Think of focused training to broaden employees’ learning capacities and enhance their work efficiency,

4. Know your customers’ expectations and align your commitments

5. Invest in improvements, innovations and imperatives.