ABSTRACT
The principles of Lean that have been so effective on the shop floor can have the same impact in the laboratory. This laboratory resided in the R&D function of the organization and had been identified as the poorest performing laboratory in terms of on time delivery of analytical results. As new therapeutic agents are identified, the complexity of characterizing and analyzing new molecular entities and biotherapeutic agents continues to escalate. Value stream mapping is a Lean Manufacturing technique used to analyze and design the flow of materials and information required to bring a product or service to a customer. The team adopted a First-In-First-Out (FIFO) philosophy for all chemicals. By sticking to a clearly defined business imperative and success metric the laboratory was able to significantly alleviate the overtime demand in the laboratory and improve the productivity of the laboratory while improving the quality of life of the analysts.
