Analysis of the Implementation of Total Productive Maintenance, Total Quality Management, and Just-In-Time in Pharmaceutical Manufacturing

In the pharmaceutical industry, systems for improving operational effectiveness and efficiency are becoming more and more popular. In this paper, developments in the industry's improvements in operational effectiveness and efficiency have been analyzed. A holistic model is presented which builds the basis for the presented study results. The study includes data gathered from pharmaceutical production sites in surveys in 2004 and 2009. The analysis is divided according to the four subsystems: Total Productive Maintenance, Total Quality Management, Just-in-Time, and the Management System. For each sub-system, key performance indicators and associated elements (practices and instruments) from 2004 to 2009 are investigated. The data indicates that the industry did make continuous steps towards "Excellence in Operations" between 2004 and 2009. Pharmaceutical companies took control over their former low asset utilization and managed to improve the efficiency of their quality systems; however, they are still far away from having any kind of "continuous flow", smooth production scheduling or make-to-order manufacturing. It can be said that most of the companies are still working on the effectiveness side rather than focusing on the efficiency side.