Read our Case
Studies
Critical Chain in Bio-Tech
Facilities Construction
While others were
vacationing over the holiday period, Pharmacia was putting the finishing
touches on a remarkable construction project. Initial plans for new
facilities construction for one of the company’s key bio-tech products,
quoted 18 months to complete the work. Numerous other efforts suggested the
project might be done in as little as 6 months, before the company turned to
The TOC Center and Critical Chain.
Using TOCC’s breakthrough
approach to managing complex projects, and with the Concerto software from
Speed-to-Market, the team was able to make a quantum leap in reducing the
project time. During the planning phase Critical Chain and Concerto enabled
the team to identify the critical chain of activities and resources
dictating the duration of the project. With the guidance of TOCC the team
was able to use this information to slash the project time to just 6 weeks.
And the execution came
off without a hitch. Construction teams worked very closely together in
defined areas so that work, previously done sequentially, could be done in
parallel. Pharmacia’s mandate of safety first insured that the plans created
no dangerous situations, and the construction finished injury-free.
The teams worked
exceptionally well together both in challenging assumptions and developing
innovative approaches during the planning stages, and while scenic Strängnäs
may appear to be a sleepy little Swedish town to the casual visitor, the
people there know they are on the leading edge when it comes to managing
projects.
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Project Management in the
Pharmaceutical Industry
The Clinical Supply division of a large pharmaceutical
company was struggling with lengthy project durations and an on-time
delivery rate of less than 60%. This organization provided supplies to
support clinical trials for new drugs, where a delayed trial will almost
always delay the launch date of the drug. The group was trying to manage a
large volume of projects to support the many trials in the schedule,
including a large number supporting the company’s new blockbuster drug
estimated to be worth in excessive of $2 billion dollars per year in
revenues. The company was locked in a race with a competitor, and the first
one to market would gain the inside track worth hundreds of millions.
Management selected TOCC to introduce Critical Chain
with the Concerto software. Within 4 months of the start of implementation
the projects supporting the blockbuster drug were back on track and
completed on time. Within 6 months all project durations had been slashed to
30% of their previous times and on-time delivery went to 100%. 9 months from
the start of the roll-out, output volume was twice the previous levels, even
though not one additional resource was added.
CCPM-Concerto provided managers and teams with the
capability to:
-
Develop
more reliable and more aggressive schedules for projects by focusing them
on the tasks and resources driving timelines
-
Identify
risk areas early and drive focused corrective actions
-
Dynamically see the loads on resources, and the criticality of the work at
hand, in spite of high-levels of uncertainty
-
Determine
priorities at the lowest level of the organization, insuring that the
right work was always at the top of the list
-
Accurately
assess the capacity of the facility before accepting new projects and to
make the necessary adjustments required in order to deal with future loads
Today CCPM-Concerto is the standard across all of the
company’s Clinical Supply operations worldwide.
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Case Study of Government
Research Organization
An organization with 200+
highly technical scientific researchers executing 15 major programs annually
was experiencing considerable slippage in its projects and increasing pressure
on resources. Complicating the situation was a significant number of
“emergency calls” from headquarters requiring immediate response, with no
advanced notice. With little information to make decisions, management
struggled to properly allocate resources, and could not provide critical “what
if” analysis regarding the impact of alternatives on critical programs.
The workforce consistently
felt overworked, and it was clear that many projects were being accepted that
would negatively affect existing programs. Further complicating the situation
was the fact that many new programs were entering the pipeline without clear
objectives and process definitions. These factors were combining to undermine
the quality, timeliness, and duration of delivery.
To gain control of the
operation and address these performance issues, management launched a Critical
Chain Project Management initiative with Concerto software. Though only a few
months into the implementation at this writing, significant results are
evident:
· Risk
reduction- CCPM-Concerto is now providing management and teams with early
warning signals when a project delivery date is in jeopardy. These indicators
have focused efforts early so that projects start and remain on schedule, with
no eleventh-hour crises.
· Clear
project objectives and work flows- Prior to CCPM, poorly defined programs made
project plans highly unreliable. CCPM brought clear processes for defining end
project deliverables and work scope. Now projects rarely need to be re-scoped
or re-configured and execution proceeds towards achievable objectives.
· Forward-looking
resource loads- Management had little understanding of how new work would
impact resource loads, and existing projects. With CCPM-Concerto, management
can see where load is stacking up and how other projects are impacted.
Response to “emergency call” projects is now done with full insight of
resource loads, enabling better deployment of resources to these tasks, and
insuring that appropriate actions are taken to keep other pipeline projects
from suffering.
· Higher-quality
deliverables, faster- CCPM has improved the speed of project completion by
enabling researchers to work on the highest priorities and without being
continually forced into inefficient multi-tasking. This ability to focus on
one task at a time, and the reduction in due-date pressure has produced higher
quality deliverables, often allowing deeper research than was planned within
existing timelines and budgets.
· Less
administration and better teamwork- CCPM-Concerto has put all of the needed
information at people’s disposal so there is very little time spent
collecting, analyzing, and formatting data. The single-system solution insures
that priorities are clear to all and aligned from top to bottom. The focus has
shifted from “how are you doing?” to how can we all work together to address
the area of greatest risk. Overall morale has improved greatly.
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