Lean and Six Sigma

While Lean management continues to be one of the most prevalent business improvement approaches in the pharma industry, unfortunately, sustainable success has been elusive.   I have written an article published in the latest issue of  “Pharmaceutical Manufacturing” that is a sequel to the series I began years ago, and continued in the January issue of this year on addressing the challenges to ensuring successful implementation.

This article addresses the root causes identified in the January issue, namely lack of senior management commitment and involvement; an emphasis on driving cost reduction benefits (primarily in labor force reduction) over revenue enhancement and strategic benefits; and the continued siloed focus on application to manufacturing rather than across the enterprise.  I’ve utilized my learnings from leading large-scale lean implementations, conversations with lean experts like Richard Schonberger as well as industry executives, to detail the key elements that address the root causes of these challenges.    Many thanks to Rob Fromuth for sharing his experiences and learnings.

I hope this article is of value, and please let me know if you have any comments/feedback.

This was just released by my company, Clarkston Consulting.   Interesting insights into the developing areas, specifically  Artificial Intelligence, Personalization and Digital.    

I hope this is of interest and value to you.

2018 Pharmaceutical and Life Sciences Trends

I hope everyone is having a great holiday!   First a heads-up that the article I referred to in my previous post, “Lean Laggards” has been published in the December 2017 issue of Pharmaceutical Manufacturing.   If you didn’t read my last post, this is an article updating how the Pharma industry has progressed in the last 5 years or so in terms of becoming more “lean” and is a sequel of sorts to a previous article written some years ago.   While lean programs have become an increasingly popular approach to addressing key strategic challenges in the pharma industry, including greater throughput, higher quality and reduced costs, unfortunately the industry has seen little overall progress.   This article explores the root causes of why this has occurred and how it can be addressed.

Speaking of root causes, a recent conversation I had with a colleague prompted me to share a story and a key learning about the importance of spending enough time upfront before beginning an improvement effort before starting.   Some years ago I had a job interview with a company that specialized in Lean/Six Sigma implementations.  One of the interview questions I was asked was, “Which phase of DMAIC (“Define/Measure/Analyze/Improve/Control”) is most important?”

For those not familiar with the term, DMAIC is Six Sigma’s core improvement methodology.   Essentially you define the problem (“Define”), determine the baseline of the current state (“Measure”), identify, validate and select the root cause(s) to resolve (“Analyze”), test and implement solutions (“Improve”), and finally ensure that metrics are in place to monitor the improvement and ensure sustainability (“Control”).

My answer to the interview question was “Define.”   More than a decade later my answer has not changed.  In fact, I am even more certain.  What I have seen a number of times in my career is the lack of adequate time spent upfront prior to beginning improvement efforts on defining just what exactly what is intended to be accomplished (“Where are we going?”), and aligning key stakeholders on the goals/objectives and plan (“How do we intend to get there?”)

The results of not taking the proper steps to ensure success with the above can be at best loss of time/money and at worst, a failed project.

There’s an old expression I was taught when I first started consulting: “If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will take you there.”

Before starting an improvement effort it needs to be clearly and precisely defined just what precisely do you intend to accomplish?   I can recall a number of times where I’ve talked to someone at a company undertaking one of these efforts and one of the first questions I ask is, “What do you intend to accomplish with this project?”  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard, “to improve,” or “get better.”  Those times where there is a more specific answer such as “improve quality” or “change our culture” I then ask, “Okay, so what exactly does that mean?  How will you measure the change?”

If you can’t clearly and precisely define where you want to go and how you will measure progress you need to do more work upfront before starting.  Another challenge I see all too often is that different stakeholders have different opinions on what “success” looks like.   This is a recipe for disaster!

So what should be done to avoid these issues?  One great tool to use is a project charter.  The process of creating a charter and putting words on paper will force a clear articulation of the challenge to be resolved.   The charter should be discussed with every key stakeholder to ensure alignment.   If you don’t have alignment, don’t proceed with the project!   Spend the time upfront via alignment workshops.  It will take more time on the front end, but you will save time/money and reduce the risk of failure.

Food for thought on this for those who are in the process of undertaking improvement efforts such as Lean, Lean/Six Sigma, Operational Excellence, etc:  if asked what defines “success” for these efforts, would everyone in your organization give the same answer?  Of key importance: are your leaders all aligned?

A heads up that I have an article due for publication in the December issue of “Pharmaceutical Manufacturing” updating how the Pharma industry has progressed in the last 5 years or so in terms of becoming more “lean.”

This is a sequel of sorts to the article I wrote some years ago on the same topic.  Despite all the published case studies and conferences dedicated to this topic, the degree of progress (or lack thereof) is likely to be surprising to many.   This article will show how this lack of progress is evidenced in the trend of pharma company inventory turns, and detail the root causes for the stagnation, and in some cases, regression.

I am in the progress of writing a follow-up article due for publication in the first quarter of 2018 that will detail an approach to address these root causes.

One other note of interest:  in the course of writing this article I conducted some research on the progress of non-Pharma companies in terms of becoming more “lean.”  The results were surprising.  

Hope this is of interest.

Have you ever heard of Derreck Kayongo?  I had not until I began reading a book published recently called “Visual Intelligence.”   According to the book, the author, Amy Herman, has taught the FBI, the State Department, Fortune 500 companies, and the military how to hone their “visual intelligence,” which is described as the ability to better see and understand details of what’s going on around you.

There’s an anecdote in the book about Derreck Kayongo.  Kyongo was born in Uganda just as Idi Amin’s dictatorship began.  As violence spread through the country and civil war erupted, Kayongo and his family became refugees in Kenya. He later immigrated to America to attend university.

On his first day in America, Derreck Kayongo was preparing to take a shower in his hotel when he discovered the many different kinds of soap in his room: hand soap, face soap, body soap, shampoo, conditioner. He had never seen so much soap for one person! After a few days, he began to wonder what happened to the partially used soap that disappeared from his room each day.   Unlike the slivers of soap used in the African refugee camps he had grown up in, the bar from his shower was fairly substantial; it seemed almost brand new after he had used it.

He asked the concierge what happened to the old bars and was shocked to hear they were thrown away.    In Kayongo’s mind this was a waste no one could afford, not when he knew more than two million people, most of them toddlers, still died every year from diarrheal disease, a condition that was easily prevented by washing one’s hands with soap.   Soap was a luxury item in Africa that many could not afford, yet in America it was simply thrown away.   Kayongo then decided to try to do something with what he found to help his old country:  he drove to local hotels and asked if he could have their used soap.

Kayongo found a recycling facility to scrape, melt and disinfect the bars of soap he collected.  He and his wife Sarah eventually created a life-changing international aid organization that collects discarded soap from hotels, reprocesses it and distributes it to vulnerable populations worldwide. This simple idea fights the #1 killers of children in many at-risk communities: hygiene-related diseases. Active in 32 countries, Global Soap has given millions of bars of soap to refugees and people affected by natural disasters like the earthquakes in Haiti and Nepal. Global Soap recently partnered with Clean the World. These organizations have contributed to an amazing 30% reduction in child deaths, globally, since 2009 and are expanding Kayongo’s original vision to include micro-loans and training for soap makers in communities around the world. In fact, the city of Atlanta designated May 5 as annual Global Soap Project Day.

What do we learn from this story?  Solutions to difficult problems can come from being able to really see and paying attention to details that you may often go unnoticed.