Kaizen Improves Bottom Line For Drugmaker AstraZeneca

Bloomberg news reports that "AstraZeneca Plc, the second-largest U.K. drugmaker, is expanding a cost-saving project at a Swedish plant to other sites after the program helped lift profits."

What is the cost-saving project? What they are doing to save money is using Kaizen. Kaizen is a system of using suggestions from those closest to a task, to improve how that task is done. Kaizen typically involves making many small changes, instead of engsaging in large capital projects. The article goes on to to explain:

"The London-based company says techniques inspired by car and truckmakers helped reduce by 60 percent the time it takes to make a drug and lowered per-pill manufacturing costs by 5 percent a year at Soedertaelje, outside Stockholm. Making the changes at other factories means AstraZeneca can increase drug production in the next few years without raising costs."

How did AstraZeneca Plc learn about Kaizen? It wasn't how you'd expect. The didn't hire consultants or have a management team research ways to improve their business. The Bloomberg article describes what happened:

"AstraZeneca, which is second to Glaxo among U.K. drugmakers, says the workers introduced it to Kaizen, a concept of continuous improvement developed by a Toyota executive in the late 1940s, to bring lasting cost reductions."

If you'd like to learn about Kaizen, a free quick start guide is available from the makers of the DuraLabel label printer. Use this link: Kaizen Quick Start Guide.