Team of the Year 2008: Wyeth SQE Demands Excellence in Supply

Change sometimes requires a little prodding. As supplier quality issues have dominated drug industry headlines of late, and as lawmakers, regulators and consumer advocacy groups have demanded absolute drug safety, pharmaceutical manufacturers have implemented new programs to shore up their supply chain oversight and control.

For Wyeth Consumer Healthcare—maker of products like Advil, Robitussin, Centrum, Caltrate, and Chapstick, it’s a case of “been there, done that.” WCH recognized a few years ago that unpredictable supplier quality issues were one of the biggest challenges and business threats it faced, and that its supplier oversight was not the best it could be.

Guayama’s Guardians of Excellence: Gisela Maldonado, Director, Materials Management; Migdalia Cruz-Lebron, Supply Base Manager; Ishua Oronez, Associate Director, Procurement

WCH relies upon, a large network of suppliers to assure continuous supply of thousands of high quality raw and packaging materials. When the network is out of synch, as it was in 2006, customer service suffers. “We were getting, shall we say, ‘fan mail’ from retailers” about late or inadequate supplies, says Nancy Secours, Senior Director of Supply Chain Operations Integration for WCH. “Supplying product to the consumer healthcare business is complex. Our customers and patients have a choice and we recognized that we needed to gain their confidence in our ability to supply products without interruption, and without any surprises.”

The problems lay both with Wyeth and its suppliers. There were fragmented supply strategies across different Wyeth sites, and far different practices among supply chain partners.

In response, a team comprisfed of supply professionals from Wyeth’s five multinational manufacturing sites—Pearl River, N.Y.; Richmond, Va.; Montreal; Guayama, Puerto Rico; Aprilia, Italy—and Global Strategic Sourcing was brought together to sort out the problems. Using elements of Six Sigma (particularly DMAIC analysis), the group identified areas of concern, and began the process of instituting change. “We wanted to make sure we had ownership in the program from each of the sites, and that by using recognized analytical tools and approaches, we would sustain results,” says Joe Vitanza, SQE Co-Champion and the Managing Director of Consumer Health Manufacturing in Pearl River.

On the Same Page

The first step was to create a global entity that focused solely on supplier quality reliability. Enter the Supplier Quality Excellence program, which was based loosely on Toyota’s supplier quality system and which, importantly, was identified by WCH senior management as a key strategic initiative. “They put it up in lights and said, ‘This is what we need to do,’ ” says Ron Perry, Senior Director of WCH  Strategic Sourcing and SQE Co-Champion.

Finding the right people and the right team structure for the program was critical. The new position of Supply Base Manager (SBM) was set up at each manufacturing site; these individuals would be focused on assuring reliable supply of quality materials, developing relationships with supply partners, effectively managing supplier performance, and implementing continuous improvement efforts.

Some SBMs were hand-picked, while others readily volunteered. “I saw it as the perfect opportunity to marry my Quality background and the technology background that I had,” says Claudia Matheny, SBM at Richmond.

Pearl River Production: Tony Pattanayak, Supply Base Manager (left) and John Connor, Director of Procurement.

Migdalia Cruz-Lebron, SBM at Guayama, left her previous company to take the job. “I went through the interview process and saw the passion and interest that Wyeth had for making the program work,” she says. “I really felt that the team was in charge of this program.” Rounding out the team were members from Operations, Quality, Corporate, Manufacturing Site Procurement, Technology, Operational Excellence and Global Strategic Sourcing.

The team had two immediate tasks at hand: getting to know each other and work well together; and educating suppliers about the new program. The first task was accomplished through face-to-face meetings, regular teleconferences and other structured communications. The team was able to bond despite the fact that members spoke four primary languages (English, French, Spanish, and Italian) across the multinational sites.

“I realized early on in the face-to-face meetings . . . that people were reaching out to each other and saying, ‘Show me what you’re doing,’ ” says Secours. “Everybody wanted to ‘raise the bar’ at their own sites and they were eager to borrow ideas from their peers to make positive changes in their sites’ performance.”

“Everyone had a common vision of what an ideal state would be,” says Perry. “And that helped us overcome what would normally be perceived as a daunting global initiative.”

Passing It On

Taking the message to suppliers was the next hurdle. There were several elements of the program that would challenge suppliers: increased oversight of their activity, including a “scorecard” system by which their performance would be measured; increased communications with Wyeth and other partners, including more shared data and expertise; and higher expectations of consistency and continuous improvement. 

Montreal Members (left to right): Srdjan Jovanovic, Sophie Sabourin, Paul Trudeau, Pierre Brossard, Marion Sahapoglu-Forest, Danielle Nguyen