By Silvia Esteban

Top pharma companies rate analytics and data-driven insights as one of the top five factors critical to outperforming their competitors. So why is it that companies so accustomed to analyzing detailed, accurate data to assess therapeutic target areas fail to use the same level of data to drive asset management and utilization programs?

At our company, we believe the industry must shift toward data-driven asset management, including analysis of workflow and waste, service quality metrics, and benchmarking data. However, in order to determine the optimal laboratory asset management model for your company, it is essential to first gain a thorough understanding of the current state and carry out a gap analysis to enable you to make the right decisions and gain true competitive advantage.

A typical example is that of a leading U.S. biotech company, which had rapidly expanded beyond its infrastructure and experienced complex issues due to lack of visibility of its assets. Unaccounted costs, incomplete or missing data, and inconsistent processes were identified through a comprehensive analysis of the procurement process, which included a thorough review of multiple OEM service contracts and purchase order data. With no centralized systems in place to track assets and service spend and severely limited reporting capability, data integrity was poor. When combined with a lack of standardized procedures, the company also risked potential compliance issues.

A global partner with years of service and asset management experience was identified and brought on board to design a laboratory asset management assessment (LAMA) to fully analyze the current state of its asset management approach. The assessment delivered a comprehensive gap analysis comparing the current versus optimized state, with recommendations of where and how improvements could be made. It would have been impossible for the organization to conduct the analysis internally, especially in the short time frame taken.

The assessment highlighted opportunities for improvement in business effectiveness, focusing on spend analysis, inventory planning, and quality and technical competence. The final report enabled the company to identify inefficiencies, cost and resource redundancies, as well as missing data, providing all information needed to articulate the business case to senior leadership on next steps and how best to optimize asset management.

A Full, Outsourced Asset Management Model
In this case, it was recommended that the company introduce a full, outsourced asset management model to provide the optimal balance of cost and quality while minimizing risk and enabling delivery of the company’s business objectives. As a result of the LAMA report and recommendations, over one million pounds (approximately $1.5 million U.S.) potential hard and soft savings were identified. In addition, this yielded the longer-term benefits of a more accurate inventory, visibility of service spend, and industry benchmark data.

With CAPEX (capital expenses) and OPEX (operating expenses) at top of mind, it is clear that by implementing operational and organizational change through leveraging powerful data and business analytics, businesses can become more competitive in the long term. Carrying out a thorough, structured assessment of your asset management program can deliver the data necessary to kick-start optimization and plays a pivotal role in transforming processes that will cut costs and drive productivity.

Alignment with the right partner that has deep domain expertise in the industry and is flexible and creative in identifying solutions will deliver value and ensure you stay ahead of the game, ultimately maximizing productivity and profitability.

 

Silvia Esteban is the global marketing manager for GE Healthcare’s Scientific Asset Services business. She has more than 12 years of experience delivering strategic marketing and communication programs to the life sciences and pharmaceutical industries. Esteban has also worked for the top three life sciences instrumentation companies.