A true visionary leadership is required to drive the progress of operational excellence programs in biopharmaceutical organizations

In the April issue of BioPharm International, the article "BioPharmaceutical Operations Roadmap," provided a summary of the key industry gaps executives would like to close in the next 10 years. These goals came to my mind while I was attending Interphex this April in New York.

All contributors to the process should have a clear understanding of their capacity and see their work activities as a priority, regardless of where they fall on the critical path.

Recently, 22 vice presidents of biopharmaceutical operations met in Boston to develop the first operational roadmap for their industry. This special executive-level consortium was organized to discuss two key questions.

Better supplier management can begin in parallel to production-related improvements.

The overhead expense that comes along with each new enterprise application adds up quickly, and can be somewhat invisible to owners of the system.

. . . Popular consortium meetings have focused on successful use of tools to drive improvement in cycle time reduction, deviation reduction, and improved production efficiency.

The concept is not new. Companies comparing performance and practices and then mutually identifying the best solutions to common operational challenges has been a part of business for years. What is different is that this is happening in the biopharmaceutical industry, which, until recently, has been primarily focused on filling the pipeline and on improving the manufacturing processes themselves. This focus was not misguided- the biggest challenge facing biopharmaceutical companies until the last five years was convincing everyone that they were legitimate players that can develop and supply therapeutics consistently, and not isolated success stories.