Pharmaceutical Manufacturer

A world leading analgesic medicine manufacturer supplying Europe, Asia, Australasia and the Middle East. An increase in production was required to meet demand but no extra resource was available. The company had recently purchased new equipment to support the required increase in manufacture, but no standards or instructions had been set, so usage of the new equipment was at a minimum. Senior Management had been trying to implement a Lean Production System for 2 years but nothing had progressed.

Initial Observations

• Poor housekeeping
• Very poor reaction to breakdowns
• Operators had no clear priority list and no targets to achieve
• No work instructions in place, so employee absence led to machines being down, stopping manufacture
• Poor management of staff training
• Poor management control with regards to visual controls and KPI’s
• High volume of process waste
• Management were well versed in Lean techniques but had no practical experience of implementing Lean tools
• Numerous failed initiatives had created a negative atmosphere towards any attempt at change

Objectives

• Improve quality, cost and delivery
• Reduce waste
• Improve changeovers
• Change the culture
• Training and knowledge transfer

Actions

Lean Deployment
Method:- Practical demonstrations of how to successfully role out Lean tools and train a group of internal Lean co-ordinators. Create a plan to deploy techniques throughout the organisation.

Blue Sky

• Facilitated Senior Management to develop company strategy as a focus for achieving key objectives through policy deployment

Training

• All staff trained on each process giving the team more flexibility. train the trainers introduced on each shift

Communication

• A two way radio for each workstation directly linked to the maintenance workshop for immediate response and improved response time on breakdowns

Weekly Problem & Countermeasure

• Daily Meetings were set up between work teams and management. Each day the teams would report the status of each issue directly to the management. This resulted in improved teamwork and lead to issues being responded immediately

5S

• Used 5’s to maintain a clean environment, ensuring that clean tools were stored in the correct location at each work station

Visual Factory

• Visual status boards were introduced to show KPI’s, production targets, work in progress and any issues which could have an effect on production. To identify any deviance from the production schedule, “Work To Lists” were published in work areas

Standardise Process

• Process review and waste elimination to improve capacity, changeovers and efficiency

Kamishibai

• (T Card system) introduced to create TPM (Total Preventative Maintenance)

Results

• 110 standardised work documents created and approved by senior engineering team
• Process times reduced by up to 70%
• Downstream process concerns reduced from 24 per annum to 0
• 185 items of deficient or end-of-life equipment identified and replaced