Western pharmaceuticals companies are now being challenged by Asian—particularly, India and China—pharmaceuticals that are making significant headway in the field. The Asian companies have an edge in terms of low labor cost and minimal environmental requirements. Thus, the Western companies have to rethink their strategies. Many of them are now using Six Sigma to accomplish their new corporate strategies and face head on among other things, the Asian challenge.
Sanofi-Aventis, one of the world’s leading pharmaceuticals, is one of the Western companies that have embraced the Six Sigma methodology and have run their processes using DMAIC. Through Six Sigma, Sanofi-Aventis sped up run times and increased cost savings.
Dr. Ingolf Stückrath, who joined Sanofi_Aventis in 2000 as assistant plant manager, became Six Sigma Black Belt in 2002, headed the Six Sigma deployment at the Frankfurt Biotechnology site, and went on to become Six Sigma Master Black Belt.
Dr. Stückrath shares their Six Sigma deployment in a case study. In a nutshell, this is how the Six Sigma implementation goes:
Update:
Over at PharmaManufacturing.com, there’s a good discussion on the pathway to continuous improvement. It tells about how continuous improvement initiatives, such as Six Sigma, are increasing efficiency and productivity, and reducing cycle and setup times in manufacturing at pharmaceuticals.
