PharmaCo*, a leading pharmaceutical company, faced a daunting challenge in achieving its ambitious objective to provide comprehensive support services at a global level. Although they had successfully established a global support service team, the team was operating at full capacity, leaving no room for expansion without significantly increasing costs and resources. That’s where Leanscape stepped in, applying meticulously tailored Lean principles to enhance productivity which led to an impressive 25% increase in capacity availability.
Creating Room for Growth
Leanscape approached PharmaCo’s predicament with a meticulously crafted three-phase strategy to standardise, optimise, and automate processes. This method was pivotal in constructing the requisite additional capacity across 10 diverse service lines.
The remarkable 25% uptick in total capacity meant that PharmaCo could enrich its service catalogue and strategically redeploy local resources to focus on business expansion and customer engagement.
The predicament faced by PharmaCo was one of uniformity; various regional operations from Europe to Australia had “picked & dropped” a mishmash of support services, each with conspicuous regional variances, leading to up to 15 disparate processes for identical services.
For PharmaCo, realigning strategy meant:
- Harmonising processes across the different regional markets.
- Refining key procedures for greater efficiency.
- Implementing automation wherever feasible.
In response, PharmaCo brought in Leanscape to guide these three critical areas. Showing their commitment and understanding of the task, Leanscape had consultants directly involved on the ground for five months to support and helm the entire project.
Groundbreaking Results
The systemic approach adopted by Leanscape bore fruit, carving out an additional 25% capacity within the PharmaCo team. This strategic move empowered the company to scale up its global services.
The drive engaged by the team brought about a brainstorm of 228 credible improvement suggestions, with a structured rollout plan emerging post-engagement.
The enhancements weren’t just internal. Nine global services received upgrades, paving the path for PharmaCo’s comprehensive expansion into South American and Asian markets—an incredible leap towards its strategic global aspirations.
Refining the Strategy
Leanscape first embarked on the mission by tackling the various processes, working hand in glove with the teams to pinpoint disparities and commonalities among countries. A striking observation was that teams dedicated to specific country clusters were often in the dark about their counterpart’s workflows. These sessions naturally spurred a plethora of standardisation ideas ripe for harvesting from within.
After aligning the internal processes, Leanscape architected an optimised pathway and pursued alignment between country clusters, achieving a commendable 85% process standardisation. This enhanced standardisation facilitated:
- The agility of team members in supporting cross-country operations.
Jira modifications for improved tracking, management, and control over KPI performance. - Streamlining service expansion to correspond with PharmaCo’s strategic priorities.
- With an eye on the future, Leanscape then turned to technology, utilising Robotic Process Automation and workflow management tools to commence automation on the newly optimised processes.
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In summary, Leanscape’s intervention has been a game-changer for PharmaCo, enabling the company to honour its global mandate. For businesses seeking process improvement, this case study serves as a beacon for strategic planning and execution.
*Name is used for illustrative purposes only.
