3 Benefits of Lean Six Sigma in Pharma Industry

​Lean Six Sigma is a management philosophy that was invented in the 1990s by Toyota and Motorola, two giant manufacturing firms. Due to its wide applicability, Lean Six Sigma soon began to be accepted by firms in various countries and by businesses of all sizes.

The focus of Lean Six Sigma is to increase customer satisfaction and minimize costs by reducing the variability in non-desirable parameters. Lean Six Sigma also aims to reduce the resources employed on procedures that are not critical in the eyes of the customer; thus, bringing the customer to their focal attention.

The reason for across the board adoption of Lean Six Sigma has been the benefits it brings to businesses irrespective of their industry. According to studies conducted, companies that use Lean Six Sigma have been able to substantially reduce the percentage of defected products from their manufacturing processes.

Employee engagement through Lean Six Sigma has also gone up. Since employees are intimately linked with the production process and techniques they are integral parts of the change process involved in Lean Six Sigma.

The pharmaceutical industry can also benefit from the implementation of Lean Six Sigma. We discuss three of those benefits below.

​Prevent Defects and Variation

It is extremely important for businesses in the Pharma sector to make error-free products. Passing on damaged or ineffective medicine can have serious health consequences for the user. This is the reason why Pharma firms go through stringent legal checks by governmental agencies.

Although Pharma firms deploy strict checks and controls, bringing the risk of making such drugs down to zero would require manufacturing processes to be absolutely efficient and error-free. This is where Lean Six Sigma comes in. Many pharmaceutical companies, through implementation of Lean Six Sigma manufacturing, have been able to bring down their waste.
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They have been able to improve their product quality and compliance. By implementing end-to-end product testing, companies have been able to predict and eliminate errors giving a boost to their operational efficiency.

​Survive Increasing Competition

Pharma Industry has seen a huge increase in new entrants in the market. The ability to manufacture drugs whose patents have expired along with new technological inventions that allow less expensive, more effective production has allowed newer suppliers to penetrate the market.
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As market shares have reduced for all the firms, Pharma industry has experienced increasing price competition. To survive in such market conditions, businesses are required to minimize their wastage and bring down production costs. This can be achieved through the implementation of Lean Six Sigma practices in their manufacturing process. 

​Fight Generic Brands

Generic brands copy products of bigger companies. This has been discouraged so that businesses spend money on their own research of drugs and medicines. This is especially true for firms that export their products to international markets where the laws are more lax than the EU. This is a dangerous scenario for both consumers and producers of medicine. By executing lean operations, Pharma businesses have been able to research, innovate while still beat competition from Generic brands.

If you wish to learn more about the system of Lean Six Sigma, please check out LearningManager Lean Six Sigma.