The ideals of reliability and quality (which I have come to learn is a metaphysical concept) are two distinct topics that have been top of mind lately. Perhaps it’s due to the fact that as I am getting older, my expectations for dependability have increased dramatically. Or perhaps it’s the fact that I just left my mechanic in a vapid attempt to solve a car problem that seems to defy all mechanical logic and human comprehension. So in embracing these two themes, it’s probably high time to evaluate recent manufacturing news and diagnose what is happening, or quite simply, what is not happening.
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Posts Tagged ‘Supply Chain’
Biopharmaceutical Manufacturing Gaffes in 2010: Why It’s Time To Learn From Failure
Monday, August 2nd, 2010Ensuring Launch Success through Supply Chain Readiness
Tuesday, July 20th, 2010Organizations and their supply chains that are preparing to launch a new compound (chemical or biologic) are often physically prepared to support the launch but are often relying on many non-supply related functional groups to provide key information and support. This puts both the plans and launch success at risk.
Life Sciences Takes Risk Management Much More Seriously, Right?
Monday, May 3rd, 2010Life Sciences companies undoubtedly put more effort into supply chain risk management than any other sector. We’re different. After all, patients’ lives are at stake. It’s more important to us. Isn’t it?
Over the last 6 months the MIT Center for Transportation and Logistics (CTL) conducted a worldwide survey of supply chain risk attitudes, opinions, and management practices. With 12 teams of researchers around the globe we collected 1500 valid survey responses from over 50 countries and 20 industries. Enough Life Sciences responses were obtained (103) to enable meaningful comparison between this industry and others especially industries who act as suppliers to Life Science companies.
3PL Strategies in Life Sciences – Important Points from Supply Chain Working Group Meeting
Monday, April 12th, 2010Almost all (if not all) life sciences companies outsource some portion of their Supply Chain. Among those capabilities most commonly outsourced are those associated with the downstream activities of shipping and distribution. Many companies come to the understanding very early on that to have these activities in-house is not something they want to invest in and, in doing so, turn to 3PL providers to be their partners (more…)
Can ERP be Used to Manage a Clinical Supply Chain?
Monday, March 22nd, 2010Some in the industry are of the opinion that ERP is not suited to manage a clinical supply chain; that there are enough unique differences between the commercial and clinical supply chain that a specialized application is required. Naturally the ERP evangelists of the world are going to say “Yes” while those with a background strictly in clinical will say “No” – but is there an absolute truth? Or even a middle ground?
Novartis’ Licensing and Alliance Deal With Proteus Biomedical: A Solution To Translating Downstream Patient Demand Within The Healthcare Value Chain?
Monday, January 25th, 2010Swiss biopharma giant Novartis has been on a tear lately on the M&A front. It’s recent bid to acquire Alcon for $50 billion to boost its eye care franchise (encompassing everything from pharmaceuticals to contact lenses to OTC products) certainly seems in line with the wave of large deal activity within the pharmaceutical sector. However, it was not until I picked up The Economist (January 16th-22nd 2010) this week and reviewed an article entitled “Pills Get Smart: Potential Encapsulated” that I noticed another recent Novartis deal that completely flew under the radar. Despite the lack of attention this deal received, the technology associated with the deal appears to have extraordinarily broad potential through a nascent yet disruptive technology. (more…)
How can “Supply Chain Thinking” impact Life Science Marketing?
Monday, December 7th, 2009I recently read the article “Marketers as Supply Chain Managers? You Bet!” (Sean Murphy, Supply Chain Management Review) regarding the “supply chain” that exists for marketing, and it got me thinking about the application of supply chain thinking to marketing in the life sciences industry. Here is a link to the article:
http://www.scmr.com/article/390672-Marketers_as_Supply_Chain_Mangers_You_Bet_.php
Product marketing is a huge component of pharmaceutical company spend, and the magnitude of that spend directed toward marketing materials is well documented and much debated. I’ll leave those debates to someone else’s blog, but what I wonder is how substantial are the savings that might be achieved if the “Marketing Supply Chain” at life science companies was managed by someone with a supply chain background?
Pull Based Manufacturing Systems for Life Science Companies – Can They Work?
Monday, November 30th, 2009On Thursday, November 19, I had the opportunity to attend Maxiom Group’s Supply Chain Working Group session at the Westin in Waltham. The speaker was Dan Wood, Vice President of Integration and Supply Chain at Gyrus AMCI (now part of Olympus). The topics discussed centered on the actions of the organization through a merger (Gyrus and AMCI) and some of the operational activities that the Supply Chain group undertook. The portion that I found most compelling was how they implemented a Pull based manufacturing system through their global network of facilities.
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