Pharmaceutical companies look to lean manufacturing

Global pharmaceutical companies are borrowing "lean" manufacturing principles, which have long been used in other industries, to reduce the time and money it takes to release their products. Lean manufacturing is essentially removing non-value adding activities or waste from the production system.

Executives from pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical manufacturers recently attended a day-long meeting in Princeton, N.J., to learn of the latest concepts in lean manufacturing. Phil Emard, international speaker and leading authority on operational excellence, presented strategies for effective implementation and sustainability of lean initiatives, a core challenge for the pharmaceutical industry. Additional speakers presented rapid microbial detection as a lean solution and discussed strategies for streamlining the FDA regulatory approval process, a perceived implementation hurdle by many pharmaceutical companies.

"Regulatory agencies and pharmaceutical companies understand the benefits of embracing lean solutions such as rapid microbial detection,” said Richard Boehler, group leader at Luitpold Pharmaceuticals. "An achievable goal is the implementation of rapid methods as an alternative approach to the traditional microbial limits test for end release products, in process and raw materials. In the end, implementing rapid technology enables the faster release of safe product."

Celsis International plc, a Chicago-based life science products and services company, took a leadership role in this meeting in a continued effort to make pharmaceutical manufacturing management aware of the time and cost savings that lean solutions affords their operations. As the world's leading developer and manufacturer of rapid microbial detection systems, Celsis is committed to providing customers with solutions that provide significant economic value through a reduction in manufacturing lead times and working capital requirements. Furthermore, the Celsis system allows for earlier identification of contamination events and facilitates faster corrective action, minimizing the economic impact of these events when they occur.