Implementing Project Portfolio Management at Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Facilities

Literature Review

The pharmaceutical industry is one of the mega industries that implement hundreds of projects to develop and/or produce medicines. For example, in 2019 alone, research and development spending on project in the pharmaceutical industry totaled $186 billion (Mikulic, 2020). Manufacturing facilities are complex, expensive to maintain, heavily regulated, and extremely risky. In recent decades, pharmaceutical manufacturing facilities have experienced competitive challenges, pressure from public organizations to reduce product costs, increased research and manufacturing costs, and strict demands from regulatory bodies (Pattanaik 2014).

Studies show that facilities without established Project Management Office experience over budget projects, unfinished missions, broken supply chains and recurring issues, altogether resulting in poor key performance indicators and exponential increase in facility maintenance and total product cost (Aubry, Hobbs & Thuiller, 2007; Pansini & Terzieva, 2013; Tasic, 2015;). To satisfy the growing demands from public and health authorities, pharmaceutical manufacturing facilities embarked on various initiatives. In order to improve the efficiency, facilities began initiating more projects such as adaptation of lean procedures, optimized value stream, and supply chain, critical resource planning, capacity expansion and shift work models. Such initiatives need be managed in a coordinated way to generate value and contribute to the strategic objectives of the facility; otherwise, they risk a reduced success rate.