Beat the Supply Chain Backlog

Time has always been a precious resource. It seems to have become even more scarce in today's global economy with higher demand and tighter timelines, where supply chains have been stressed by a variety of new challenges. With dedicated project management, teams can plan ahead to decrease lead time and meet delivery schedules that are imperative to their pharmaceutical business.

Reduce Time to Market

The pharmaceutical industry has been forced to adjust to a new normal. Facing a tight supply chain, finding ways to reduce or maintain project schedules at a time when costs are rising fast is imperative.  While price and quality are priorities, lead time is king when it comes to tight supply chains. The pressure mounts to meet the promised on-time in-full deliveries and having proactive conversations with the key suppliers is just one way to mitigate against schedule slippage. Engaging with suppliers early in the planning process is key to successfully navigating the delays many are seeing in the supply chain today and ultimately reducing time to market. 

Dedicated Project Management

By assembling a high-performing team with all stakeholders, including the equipment supplier, owner, and their engineering representative, a dialogue can begin that will position the team for success to avoid falling behind schedule. At the commencement of a project, a dedicated project team should be assembled before a proposal is even submitted. This team must proactively conduct a risk assessment to identify any potential commercial, technical and schedule risks that could impact the project objectives.

Together, a clear and concise engineering and design schedule that focuses on critical milestones can be identified. This should include testing and qualification scopes or schedules that leverage Factory Acceptance Testing to reduce field commissioning.

These steps allow leadership and management to implement strategies that can mitigate costs and other potential issues, even before a project is awarded to a supplier. A clear project team organization allows for set reporting and approval levels that include possible co-location of engineering personnel during the design and testing phases.

Build Strong Dialogue

Creating space for direct dialogue that brings all the appropriate parties to the table is crucial early in the project's inception. For example, in the early stages of project partnerships, there is opportunity and foresight to identify long-lead components and seek approval to order upon the commencement of the project, or even before project initiation. There is also an opportunity to determine alternate component suppliers and utilize design features that lend themselves to fabrication automation. It is integral and essential to helping achieve a project’s goal that the inability to engage on a meaningful level within the proposal stage will often lead to a risk profile that discourages participation from the onset. Producers can take significant steps in avoiding delays in timelines, and even accelerate them, by properly involving their suppliers and building strong dialogue to create clear execution plans.

Develop Customized Solutions

While demand and timetables impact so many in the pharmaceutical industry, there is no one size fits all solution to meet demand. That is why it is important to be strategic in vendor partnerships that can help develop customized solutions in production that will help meet or exceed goals. When these partners are brought in early, and management is consolidated, more control in the supply chain makes for a competitive advantage. Project performance is more fluid and consistent with fewer variables.

By assembling a high-performing team and engaging all parties in early discussions across the supply chain, pharmaceutical manufacturers can reduce the cost and schedule risks associated with their next capital project. Risk mitigation needs to start early and across inter-dependent parties (e.g. owner, engineering partners, and equipment suppliers) to identify potential pitfalls and counter-measure strategies to keep project schedules on track or ahead of schedule. 

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Dave Mitchell is Global Director of Life Science Product Line for JBT Corporation. He is responsible for the strategic direction of JBT's Life Science Market growth strategy and investment. With over 25 years of biopharma custom capital equipment experience, Dave specializes in biopharma, sterilization and process control, manufacturing, and international business development.