Optimization of ZENTIVA R&D Management
The pharmaceutical company Zentiva is a major player in the field of generic drugs. The company has a leading position on the Czech market and a significant position in Poland, Russia, Romania and Turkey.
The company's mission is to expand quality treatment, especially in primary care. The product line includes more than 400 products in 800 dosage forms and covers a wide range of therapeutic areas. Zentiva products are used to treat pain, cardiovascular disease, diseases of the central nervous system, digestive, urinary and genital diseases, and respiratory diseases. In the area of food supplements, they mainly deal in vitamin products.
Customer needs
The company wanted to introduce the principles of Operations Excellence in the Generic Drug Development Division in order to improve the efficiency of the development process and the management of available laboratory and professional capacities. The situation where a number of products are being developed from the active substance phase to the market launch on a timeline of almost ten years requires not only considerable knowledge of project management, but also the ability to respond quickly to changing conditions throughout the project. For these reasons, the company wanted to put in place management tools that would allow them to identify potential problems while also being able to respond to them quickly.
How we proceeded
On the basis of on analyses we carried out, we identified discontinuity in the area of performance monitoring, harmonization of the chosen strategy and fulfillment of partial goals in the required time. Given that the development of medicinal substances is in itself a very complex process, we proposed a model and management tools that would allow:
- Creating a sub-strategy for meeting medium-term goals and setting up activities leading to their fulfillment - We chose the proven Hoshin Kanri tool, which utilizes a simple matrix to enable linking the strategic breakthrough goals, annual goals, activities and specific actions together with responsible staff and indicators performance that help us measure and evaluate success in fulfilling the chosen strategy. Together with the team, we set the strategy for the current business year, set up a goal tracking system and personalized the responsibility for meeting them.
- Creating a model of response to changes in the development of generic drugs by using the created tool 12x12x12 - a combination of 3 time dimensions (12 years, 12 months and 12 rolling weeks) allowed us to narrow the time period for responding to changing conditions to a cadence of 1 week, which increased considerably the speed of reaction and at the same time improved the efficiency of the proposed measures. The process of managing individual projects has thus come under much better control. We have created a simple tool for planning and managing laboratory capacities, which are a bottleneck in the process of drug substance development.
- Re-design of the reporting model and creation of a structured Obeya room (War room) - We employed a tool that is commonly used in automotive technical development departments, inspired by the principles of TPS (Toyota Production System). The design of the Obeya Room meaningfully integrates strategic, tactical and operational elements of project management and goal fulfillment with the effect of initiating a response, following the principles of Operations Excellence and stimulating continuous improvement and stakeholder engagement.
Benefits for the Company
- Implementation of a tool for initiating a response to change
- Creating a tool for fulfilling the strategy
- Visualize the status of available capacities and improve their scheduling over time
- A comprehensive view of the implemented projects in real time
