The lean solution - Domingo Traver

Domingo Traver of Novartis Pharma Technical Operations talks about the satisfaction he derives from the successful implementation of Lean and Six Sigma in the pharmaceutical supply chain.

Healthcare markets around the world are rapidly evolving and pharmaceutical companies need to be prepared to address these changes. For example, regulators and payers are becoming more challenging while patients are taking a more active role in their disease management. All of this affects the pharmaceutical business, where increasing efficiencies can support the future growth.

As Domingo Traver explains, rather than reinventing the wheel, it makes sense for pharmaceutical companies to draw lessons from what their counterparts in other industries have already done. He describes how the processes of Lean and Six Sigma - pioneered by Toyota and Motorola respectively - have taken hold within Technical Operations organisation at Novartis Pharma, where he is Head of Supply Chain Excellence and IQP.

"The idea was first that we implement Lean to reduce waste in our processes, and then apply Six Sigma to reduce variability; it's a two-step process," he explains. "We have implemented the Lean phase, and in certain areas, such as quality assurance, we have also begun to apply Six Sigma. For example, Lean has been implemented in the different operational units, it is now time to link all of these units together. IQP is the internal name: innovation, quality and productivity for the operational excellence or continuous processing program."

In his role at Novartis Pharma, Traver looks after logistics and IQP, as well as leading the multimarket network for supply chain. He points to the fact that the current level of regulation and quality control within the pharmaceutical industry has a direct impact on the development and implementation of new efficiency processes. While regulation is necessary to ensure the safety of the end products, Lean and Six Sigma can additionally help to support the overall processes.

"For example," Traver points out, "existing procedures may show that a particular process takes eight hours. By understanding your internal processes and applying Lean techniques, you will be able to demonstrate improvements and hence reduce the time required. Lean, therefore, challenges your current processes and technologies while at the same time making them more efficient."

Another challenge can lie in implementing such changes across an entire organisation, which is why the Technical Operations unit at Novartis Pharma started with several pilot programs. After the successful implementation of these pilots, the initiative has now been rolled out across global functions, such as supply chain.

Creating change

Prior to taking up his current position, Traver was Functional Champion IQP for Novartis PharmOps Spain, where he was principally in charge of deploying IQP and aligning IQP efforts with the global Technical Operations vision and strategy. He was leader of the Lean - POO (Process Oriented Organisation) project that ended with the implementation of the new organisational structure in Barbera in May, 2007.

"It was a very interesting project, because it included two elements," he recalls. "One was the pure implementation of Lean Six Sigma - hence, applying the techniques and helping the teams understand what these techniques mean and how to use them. The other element was about POO, which was aimed at changing the organisation's culture and mindset in regard to how people approach business operations. Among others, this included a change in management tools as well as business understanding.

"We used the Kotter model, starting with the 'burning platform'. This allowed us to see how people behaved differently after POO had been initiated a number of weeks previously. This was really exciting to me, as you could see how the organisation as a whole had improved .

"You have different people behaving in different ways; for example, some may be afraid of change. Generally, there will always be 10 percent of people who are quite change resistant. However, you can manage these 10 percent by demonstrating how the other 90 percent benefited from new processes and a new culture. I was very happy that despite the challenges we managed the turn-around."

Traver feels that Lean and Six Sigma have a strong future within the pharmaceutical industry, as well as in other industries. He points out that there are many areas in which these concepts are yet to be introduced.

"Lean Six Sigma helps us to improve our processes and to reduce variability. It is really helpful in many industries, and yet there are parts of the world that still have not taken advantage of it. So I would say overall that there is a lot of future in this yet."

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The Kotter model

In 1995, Harvard Business School professor and change management guru John Kotter published a book entitled Leading Change, within which he outlined his now well-known eight-step change process:

1. Create sense of urgency
   Open an honest dialogue about what's happening in the marketplace
2. Form a guiding coalition
   Set up strong leadership by gaining support from key people
3. Create a vision
   Help people see for themselves what you're trying to achieve
4. Communicate the vision
   Talk often about and apply your vision as much as possible
5. Remove obstacles
   Check continually for barriers to change
6. Create short-term wins
   Give your people an early taste of victory
7. Build on change
   Keep looking for improvements
8. Anchor change in your culture
   Make sure change is embedded in every aspect of your organisation
   

Domingo Traver is Head of Supply Chain Excellence and IQP for Technical Operations at Novartis Pharma AG.