Podcast: Lean Labor: Applying Discipline to the Pharma Workforce

Gregg Gordon’s new book, Lean Labor, looks at how Lean and continuous improvement efforts must go beyond manufacturing, materials, and machines and also address worker needs and productivity.
In this interview, Gordon explains how drug and other manufacturers can gain competitive advantage by effectively applying Lean methodologies to the workforce. He discusses: the concept of the “perfect paycheck”; the risks associated with “premium pay”; the limitations of using overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) as a labor metric, how companies can better understand OLE, overall labor effectivenesse; and how indirect employees (such as QC personnel) do not always receive the same attention from continuous improvement efforts, but need to be an important part of Lean workforce considerations. (The book is available at: http://leanlaborstrategies.com/.)