The Future of Quality Management
In a connected, digital, automated and intelligent future.
Recently we announced the publication of Xavier University & PWC Quality Metrics Paper, which you can download here. Presentations from the recent Pharmalink conference where findings were presented is also likely to be made available online in the coming weeks for a deeper look into the paper.
In August 2014, Xavier University and PwC led a team of 30 industry professionals to develop a framework of metrics linked to patient safety, that could be viewed during an inspection, and coming about as a response to FDA’s new steps towards allocating resources based on risk.
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Caroline Waldron (PhD) is the programme director with the Irish Academy of Continuing Medical Education, (iaCME) which was established over 8 years ago to provide Continuing Professional Development online for healthcare professionals in Ireland. At the time, no other organisation was offering online training for pharmacists. The iaCME team have backgrounds in medicine, the pharmaceutical industry and quality and regulation and have earned a solid, trusted reputation for their focus on accreditation and quality in online learning. The Irish Institute of Pharmacy recently launched a new training module for pharmacists that was developed by iaCME, titled “Managing Quality in Pharmacy Practice”. We talked to Caroline about the challenges facing pharmacists today, and how far online learning has come since they started out.
Toyota are a shining example of quality management and have been for many decades. It comes from a 'customer first' focus. This is a simple idea and very easy to dismiss as cliché but it challenges our belief that our own brilliant, creative ideas may not necessarily be the best one. When we have a 'great idea', many of us cling onto it for dear life. A true customer focussed ethos requires we give up our egos in order to listen to the customer and respond to their needs in a systematic, business-focussed way. It's a little like becoming a humble servant rather than aiming to be a great leader with all the great ideas. The great leaders probably got their great ideas by listening to customers, and you can still channel your genius and creativity to work out how you solve problems for your customer.
TIBCO Nimbus™ is a Business Process Management System. It presents easy-to-understand, visual representations of how people, processes and systems in an organisation interact. Nimbus™ has helped over 700 organisations including AstraZeneca, Barclays Capital, HSBC, JPMorgan, RBS, Novartis, Toyota, and ThyssenKrupp. It provides many features that support Quality, Compliance, and Operational Management and Continual improvement and can also be integrated with other technology and is available on–premises and in the cloud. In summary, it's an excellent tool.
Michael Needham is the Principal Consultant at MKN Advisory Services Ltd. He previously worked as a lecturer and module coordinator for the MBA modules ‘E-Business’ & 'Supply Chain Management'; and the MSc Business Improvement module ‘Strategic Operations and Quality Excellence’ at Ulster University along with working as a consulting manager at PWc, global procurement manager with Procter & Gamble and supply chain co-ordinator with the Irish Dairy Board. His wealth of hands on, real life experience combined with in-depth research, including papers on the role of knowledge for process improvement and outsourcing, and a Phd that investigated the factors that influence the internal transfer of process improvement knowledge within service organisations led us to wanting to ask him more. All too often people are experts in theory or experts in practice but Needham is one of those insightful individuals who seems to have mastered a balance of both, which has no doubt increased his understanding and abilities in both doing and communicating what he’s doing.
New BPM Approaches for the Challenges of Mergers and Acquisitions in Life Sciences
Five Major Drivers for BPM exist – Compliance; Outsourcing, ITIL and Security; Process Framework/Performance/Standards; Technology Modernisation and Mergers, Acquisitions and Consolidations. In recent years Life Sciences organisations have had to learn to survive and grow through numerous mergers and acquisitions – sometimes even within quick succession of each other.
If you were allowed to measure only 8 aspects of your business...
Recently someone who I was discussing metrics with posed a thought provoking question, “If you could only have a few metrics to manage and monitor your business, which ones would you choose?" After thinking long and hard, here are my must-have key performance indicators.
My Standout Favourites from PharmaLink 2015
Dee Carri
Decreasing Cost and Increasing Benefits for Your ERP Investment
According to ZDNet and Panorama Consulting Solutions, who conduct annual surveys of ERP buyers, 2014 was the year where smaller ERP projects actually had more delays than larger projects. Looking back to the previous year, 2013 saw more and smaller projects than previous years and cost overruns remaining constant at 53-56 per cent between 2011 and 2013. However, the most concerning element of the report was that an increasing number of respondents reported reduced levels of benefit from their ERP investment. Even a 'smaller' ERP project is an huge undertaking in time, effort and adapting to change.
From inside an organisation, it can be hard to be sure you are aligned to the rest of the business. You’ve taken our BPM Maturity quiz and the results resonate with YOUR view which should give you a measure of confidence that you are doing the right things with BPM.
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From inside an organisation, it can be hard to see the wood from the trees. You probably have a 'sense' of whether business processes are well defined or not but it may not be quite as bad as you think. On the other hand, it could be a lot worse.
Deep Dive Lunch Session at PharmaLink 2015
At this year's PharmaLink Conference 2015, The Metrics Working Group, moderated by Grace Breen, SVP Quality, Core Pharma, will host an interactive “World Cafe” style lunch time session focussing on how to define, assess, rank and use production metrics and gain a greater understanding of how to measure the strength of the culture of quality. So, we thought we'd look at what a 'World Cafe' approach is for those of you who may not already know.