It Takes Time But It’s Worth It

A large pharmaceutical company started a major initiative to reduce so-called “cycle time”—the time it takes to get a product produced and delivered to the customer. It took a team approach, and set-up teams that included representatives from operations, quality control, materials management, marketing, logistics, and purchasing. It was felt that the people closest to the key stages of the “cycle” would have the most knowledge about ways to reduce the time from raw materials to the final product.

Senior management sponsors wanted the teams to be composed of technical whizzes who were team players. As a result, they talked with department heads and made it clear that they were not interested in just warm bodies ...

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