Can You Reduce Manufacturing Costs of Drug-Delivery Systems?

Sophisticated devices are being charged with delivering many of today’s novel drug therapies. To ensure patient access to such innovations, pharmaceutical companies and their drug-delivery device partners will need to minimize development and manufacturing costs while still achieving high-quality, advanced solutions. Mike Kobashi has spent nearly 20 years providing Lean and Six Sigma expertise to multiple manufacturing sites, including those making drug-delivery devices. MD+DI asked Kobashi a few questions about whether lean manufacturing principles could impact the cost of manufacturing drug-delivery devices. Prior to his current role as vice president of operational excellence for West Pharmaceutical Services Inc., Kobashi worked in multiple roles involved with developing the necessary infrastructure, strategic plans, and tactical solutions to create a continuous improvement environment across multiple facilities. He had also developed West Contract Manufacturing’s current Lean Sigma curriculum and had facilitated joint customer improvement initiatives that have resulted in increased quality levels as well as cost savings.   Are there strategies to minimize time and cost of manufacturing drug-delivery systems? Kobashi: A smart starting point is to first listen to the voice of the customer. Understanding customer needs, including, but not limited to, lead time, quality, and costs, can lead to collective analysis of current-stat...
Source: MDDI - Category: Medical Devices Authors: Tags: Contract Manufacturing Source Type: news