AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals: New Business Processes in the U.S. Supply Chain
Every organization is challenged with managing the rapid evolution of the business and technology environment against the constraints of resources and time. In order to remain successful, organizations need to close the gaps that have traditionally constrained identifying, evaluating and implementing new business solutions. At AstraZeneca, U.S. Operations is bridging these gaps by leveraging an organizational model that dedicates resources to the evaluation and implementation of emerging technologies. The adoption of this model by U.S. Operations is a reflection of the company's commitment to assuring that key initiatives are implemented successfully against time and budget constraints and through the targeted use of key resources. By infusing the strategic and capability planning process with fresh and innovative thinking, U.S. Operations will evolve and remain successful in the rapidly changing business and technology environment.
New capabilities are developed through the cyclical relationship between business needs and emerging technologies. As technology evolves, organizations identify new opportunities to develop and enhance business operations. As business evolves, technologies are developed to enable business functions and provide competitive advantages. Figure 1 depicts the development of new capabilities based on the relationship between organizations and technology
Figure 1 - Capabilities Development Cycle
To create an organization structure that is flexible and responsive to the business and technology environment, AstraZeneca has developed an operating model that utilizes deployed and shared resources to staff therapeutically aligned product teams on a permanent basis. Deployed and shared resources provide specialized services to the organization, allowing business areas to achieve strategic objectives while remaining focused on core competencies. This unique operating model offers the greatest flexibility and responsiveness for utilizing specialized resources within the organization.
The deployed and shared resources model is also applied within the Operations organization, utilizing resources both internal and external to Operations. U.S. Operations is augmented with permanent, shared resources from the corporate wide service areas of Finance, Human Resources and Information Services. These resources are deployed to U.S. Operations to meet business needs and objectives.
Within U.S. Operations, a group of deployed and shared resources are tasked with identifying and implementing new capabilities to support the business. These resources provide specialized skills to U.S. Operations business areas in support of business activities outside of their core competencies. Strategic planning, internal consulting/project management and information services groups work with business areas within U.S. Operations to facilitate the identification and implementation of new capabilities.
The Operations Strategic Services (OSS) group is responsible for coordinating the overall strategic direction of U.S. Operations. The Operations Capability Planning (OCP) group, in partnership with the Business Information Services group (BIS) works with business areas to prioritize initiatives and manage project implementations. Collectively, these groups provide the skills, guidance and experience needed to implement new capabilities within U.S. Operations. Use of this model helps Operations avoid the risk of implementing critical business initiatives that, without dedicated prioritization and project management, could lack clear management commitment, funding, and resources. Figure 2 depicts the deployed and shared resources working across U.S. Operations business area silos.
Figure 2 - Deployed and Shared Resources Organization Model
There are many advantages to utilizing a deployed and shared resource model. It allows U.S. Operations to be flexible and responsive to business, technology and regulatory changes. It allows business areas to remain focused on core competencies while providing the guidance and resources for planning and implementing new capabilities. Business areas participate in projects as subject experts and are not required to contribute project management resource. As projects enter the implementation phases, the business area resources, while potentially significant, are targeted to provide content expertise only. In addition, the deployed and shared resource model enables organization-wide project prioritization and budget allocation versus each business area acting independently and inefficiently. It supports knowledge transfer, cooperation between departments and sharing of common service assets during projects that support change in multiple operational areas simultaneously.
Challenging the conventional "silo" approach to identifying and implementing process based business solutions, the deployed and shared resource model has presented some obstacles for U.S. Operations. Due to the critical nature of many strategic initiatives and projects, business areas may be reluctant to entrust control of the project planning and implementation activities to outside resources. The OCP and BIS groups are alleviating the issue by working closely with process owners throughout the project life cycle. Process owners assist in the development of the project plan and ensure all critical factors have been identified and considered. During the implementation phase, OCP ensures process owners receive regular communication and project status. Throughout the process, project teams are structured to include participation by senior leadership from the involved areas as project sponsors. Sponsorship meetings are held at critical milestones in the project to ensure validation of the team's direction and deliverables.
Another challenge for the model has been the decision on when OCP resources can be best utilized versus the use of local business area resources. The model has evolved to reflect a division between projects that do not include cross-functional involvement versus those that do. While BIS resources may be required in both instances, the more formal project management/internal consulting provided by OCP provides maximum benefit to the organization in "process" based projects which require cross-functional participation both across Operations and, potentially, across the US and global organizations. "Product" oriented projects (launches, line extensions, etc.) are managed by a separate project management group within the Operations organization.
By developing clear understanding on when OCP provides value-added project management to the organization and by utilizing methodologies which keep process owners involved and informed, OCP and BIS can ensure projects are planned and implemented in a resource efficient manner that consistently results in quality deliverables and client satisfaction.
The external environment plays a key role in shaping future initiatives. Emerging technologies have allowed organizations to effectively erase geographic and time restrictive barriers, creating tremendous opportunities for improving supply chain activities. U.S. Operations has developed a process for quickly identifying, evaluating and implementing new technologies to support the business. Figure 3 depicts the cyclical process of identifying and implementing new capabilities.
Figure 3 - Strategic Planning and Project Implementation Cycle
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Identify
Each year, the OSS group performs an assessment of the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries, emerging technologies, regulatory requirements, legislation, and best-in-class practices to identify any factors that must be considered during the strategic planning process. In addition, OSS obtains pertinent internal information, such as organization budgets and tactical plans, to ensure business area leaders have a broad understanding of the business environment prior to developing strategic plans. Frequently both OCP and BIS project managers provide critical input into this process through their knowledge and understanding of new technologies, partnerships and initiatives that may have applicability within Operations. The annual analysis is intended to stimulate strategic thinking and bring innovative concepts into the strategic planning process.
U.S. Operations is responsible for developing a multi-year strategic plan that complements the shared business goals and objectives of the corporation. The U.S. Operations strategic plan defines the assets, capabilities and processes that U.S. Operations will need to meet future supply demands, facilities management and employees services in the coming years.
Evaluate
Once strategic initiatives have been identified, OCP project managers, with partners from BIS, conduct a high-level assessment of the proposed projects to determine the estimated level of effort, required resources (both one-time and ongoing), available internal resources, requested project timing and fit with the strategic plan. Based on the evaluation, a formal prioritization is developed and budget requirements are defined.
To ensure good communication and the most efficient use of available capital and resources, AstraZeneca performs a cross-organization assessment of all proposed projects and budgetary requests. The cross-organization assessment is a unique process that provides a broad view of all initiatives and budgetary requests across the organization. By comparing initiatives across the organization, AstraZeneca can collectively prioritize projects based on required regulatory standards and/or business benefit to the organization. Capital requirements are moved into a central capital budget against the agreed priorities. While the core expense capability funding is built into each business area budget, there is also the potential to utilize US therapeutic area budgets to progress projects that have value across the US organization. Additionally, this cross-organization review allows areas with integration touchpoints to have input into cross business projects and to plan supporting resources appropriately.
Once organization-wide priorities are agreed and the U.S. Operations budget is allocated, the OCP group schedules the projects that will be implemented over the twelve months, taking into account dependencies, constraints and any other activities that must be completed prior to start of the projects.
Implement
OCP is accountable for implementing the projects as planned, in full partnership with the BIS group, within the proposed timeline and budget. To facilitate the implementation, OCP has developed a project management process to provide guidance, consistency and structure to project implementation and management activities.
The OCP group, along with BIS partners and process owner(s), develops the high-level project plan, identifies project team members, refines the project scope, creates project KPIs/metrics and, with BIS, determines current and future support levels. The project team, led by an OCP project manager, then works to develop the capabilities within the timeline specified in the project plan. The OCP group ensure the implementation activities are executed as planned by facilitating communications, coordinating regular team meetings, resolving issues and developing status reports. Once the project implementation activities have been completed, OCP and BIS work with the process owner(s) to measure the effectiveness of the process and system changes. The previously established performance metrics will be measured and evaluated to assess the actual benefits of the new capability.
Communicate
New business capabilities, project performance measures and other related project information are communicated to the process owner(s), U.S. Operations leaders and other interested individuals to evaluate overall project success and support knowledge sharing across the organization. The OSS group uses the information as input for identifying new strategies and/or functionality needs during future strategic planning activities.
Conclusion
Identifying opportunities and implementing emerging technologies to support the business is a challenge for all organizations.The potential cost, in both resources and organizational competitiveness, of projects that do not deliver the anticipated benefits is significant. AstraZeneca's unique organization model mitigates this risk by providing strategic direction and project implementation resources to develop new business capabilities within U.S. Operations while allowing the internal business areas to remain focused on their core competencies.
