The ongoing transformation of the Pharmaceutical and Medical Device Industries has a direct impact on their suppliers of original equipment and manufacturing solutions. Pharma and Medical OEM’s are experiencing a significant change in their customer base, once dominated almost exclusively by big pharmaceutical companies, and now including Generic Manufacturers and CMO’s who jointly comprises no less than 50% of sales.
To win in this new environment, Pharma and Medical OEM’s have to transform themselves, rethinking their business strategy, offering the right product to the right customer segments, producing equipment and parts quicker and more cost effectively and improving the organization’s overall service, flexibility and responsiveness. Achieving this degree of transformation is not easy, but keeping the status quo is not an option.
Areas of Argo Consulting Expertise
Argo brings fresh insight to the application of proven tools, such as VA/VE, helping medical equipment and pharmaceutical companies transform R&D effectiveness, acquisition integration, supply chain transformation, asset productivity and margin improvement.
Our global team of consultants, and our industry partners such as Biocom, have a depth of technical operations expertise and a proven track record of leading and implementing successful transformations through Pharmaceuticals Equipment Manufacturing Consulting. Our people bring a wide range of professional experience from some of the most operationally excellent companies in the world in several areas of Medical Technologies.
Our global team of consultants has a depth of technical operations expertise and a proven track record of leading and implementing successful transformations. Our people bring a wide range of professional experience from some of the most operationally excellent companies in the world.
We bring Argo’s worldwide experienced and success across many healthcare sectors to each client engagement. Our focus is always to achieve and sustain superior levels of performance through:
Improve effectiveness and efficiency of R&D spend, using Lean Product Development techniques
- Reduce time to market in the context of increased regulatory scrutiny through implementing effective design controls as part of the company’s quality system
- Increase project throughput of the R&D system – do more innovation in the same timeframe
- Implement lean product development practices to reduce time to market for innovations
Reduce product costs using value engineering processes – medical technology companies can no longer just pass along increased costs to their customers
- Apply different material science and/or processing methods to accomplish the required functions of the medical devices
- Implement lean product development practices to reduce time to market for innovations
CMO (Contract Manufacturing) and CPO (Contract Packaging) Management and Optimization, from outsourcing strategy, footprint development, supplier qualification, and the master service agreement (MSA) deployment to CMO / CPO Management
- Develop platform strategies for the machine solutions, reutilizing common components or harmonizing sourcing strategies
- Filling accuracy and efficiency
- Provider selection and start up execution
Quality and FDA compliance
- CRO (Contract Research) Management and Optimization – how are processes affected if companies outsource their research? What research gets outsourced? How does this compare to “open innovation”, which is a tool we can implement as part of our PIVM offering?
- Optimization of testing and quality management for new biological medicines
- Optimize lab processes
- Yield maximization and process stability using 6 Sigma methods
- Signal testing
Optimizing Merger and Acquisition process to ensure successful integration and create long term value
- Targeting of companies that provide economic zone (America’s, Europe, Asia) self-sufficiency, from active ingredient procurement, production, and packaging
- Sell side / buy side operational due diligence, including the setup and management of “clean teams”
- Design and set-up of integration teams and plans (command center)
- Management team coaching
M&A – Acquisitions (Buy Side)
- Determination of Synergies and realistic calculations of the amount
- Integration of the acquired company – organization structure, processes, functions
- Cultural assimilation
- Asset deployment – footprint analysis; capital investment requirements as a combined company rather than separate entities
- Co-ordination of sale advisors – legal, financial, bankers, tax, etc. to prevent redundant services and maximize service provider efficiency
M&A – Sale of divisions/entire company (Sell Side)
- Analysis of company functions to determine current effectiveness
- Analysis of execution effectiveness – Sales, Manufacturing, R&D (product development), Supply Chain, Back office support functions, Business planning and resulting predictability
- Business strategy, functional improvements, and the resulting financial forecast for future periods, reflecting the strategy and improvements as drivers
- Co-ordination of sale advisors – legal, financial, bankers, tax, etc. to prevent redundant services and maximize service provider efficiency
Restructuring and Re-Engineering (Crisis Management)
- Liquidity monitoring and management
- Cost Reduction (COGS restructuring)
- Operational improvement (SQCD focus)
- Asset utilization (OEE optimization)
- Sustainment of improvements (Digitization for sustainment)
- Cultural change (Leadership Behaviors – IBC Method)
Improve equipment and process throughput to meet changing revenue streams and backlog
- Improve overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) of bottleneck equipment to drive more throughput of manufacturing, processing, and packaging operations
- Improve overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) on non-bottleneck equipment to drive productivity improvements in manufacturing, processing, and packaging
- Develop value engineering capabilities that allow continuous cost reductions of the offered solutions
Product Portfolio Management
- Component visibility and inventory discipline
- SKU simplification in the international supply chain
- Development of new molecular testing processes to feed into individual patient medications and treatments
- Standardization of product packaging
- Find the adequate level of regional customization vs. global standardization that fulfills requirements that local customers be prepared to pay for. Proper value engineering initiatives are a way to build that understanding
- Determine and execute a segmentation of offered solutions – high end for sophisticated pharma businesses vs. highly efficient solutions for the CPO/CMO businesses
- Develop platform strategies for the machine solutions, reutilizing common components or harmonizing sourcing strategies
Supply Chain optimization disciplined review of manufacturing and distribution network, logistics excellence, and enterprise SIOP
- Cold chain logistics and liquids shipping
- Logistics network analysis including cross border operations
- Warehouse and DC network optimization
Procurement, from the purchasing strategy, sourcing and vertical integration perspective
- Apply make/buy strategies to develop a plan for every part (PFEP). Make/buy is not an analog on/off, but a continuum on 5 levels
- Expand regional purchasing of materials and services to economic zone (America’s, Europe, Asia) self-sufficiency
- Extend the Make/buy strategies along the 5 levels, and the master service agreement (MSA) deployment to CMO / CPO / CRO Management
Optimizing Merger and Acquisition process to ensure successful integration and create long term value
- Landscape for M&A has changed
- Design and set-up of integration team and plan (clean room)
- Management team coaching
- Sell side / buy side operational due diligence
Improving overall labor performance while increasing retention
- Assembly operations balancing and NVA elimination
- Continuous improvement techniques for labor involvement
Packaging Excellence
- Avoiding labeling / packaging errors due to complexity and manual processing
- New biologicals liquid shipping of single dosages and case packaging
- Leveraging efficient cross-border labor intensive operations
- Develop injection modeling expertise
Reducing order to cash cycles, whether attaching order entry, process times, inventories, or accounts payable
We diagnose areas of waste, variability, and inefficiency in the operating system and then redesign, and implement, not just the new production system, but also the management structure that improves the bottom line and ensures accountability and sustainability. By working together with our client’s employees, we ensure the buy-in from the senior leadership team all the way to the front-line employee, leaving behind a new culture, mindsets, and behaviors.
Technology adoption in healthcare is only going to continue to rise over the next decade, and for life sciences, medical devices, and pharmaceutical companies to succeed with these new technologies, they need to continue to invest in modern approaches to the way they do business. No longer is it possible to be reactive; companies must be proactive to change in customer needs, overall market trends, changing raw material sourcing patterns, and overall geopolitical risks. industry needs. Argo Consulting can provide the strategy, planning, implementation resources, and analytics to reduce risk and drive medical technologies profitability.