Company profile:
- Producer of Schedule II, III & IV drugs
- Sales: > $6 billion
- Three shift operation, seven days per week
Business situation
The company took over an existing production facility from a competitor with stated reliability and production rates that were not currently being observed. The initial performance was 13% of the promised rate.
While FDA requirements were being met, very few other processes were consistently followed within each shift and across the shifts. Departments acted in silos with engineering controlling operations.
Equipment often stopped or broke down with leadership not actively enabling employees to improve other areas. Modifications were made to the equipment constantly without verifying effects and no traceability of who made what changes.
Through brute force the client was making improvements of 137 more syringes per week. At the cost of 50% over-time and tens of thousands of dollars for OEM vendors each quarter.
Their competitor had been forced out of the market by the FDA but was expected to re-enter the market the following year.
Solution
Trained and coached leadership team on using visual management and effective use of problem solving. Developed cross-functional teams to address commodity and equipment issues. Guided the leadership in developing standard work for all functional areas. Employed process mapping to highlight bottlenecks, focusing cross-function teams on one problem at a time.
Benefits
Our ten-week engagement increased weekly output from 9670 syringes per week to over 16,00 with a continued weekly increase of 540 syringes per week. Overtime was cut to 10% from 50% and
OEM visit costs were down to zero.
