Global Pharmaceutical Facility

Our client, one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world, hired NEXA to perform a Spare Parts Review in high-risk departments.  

The client was targeting a reduction in Mean Time To Repair (MTTR) as part of a greater Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) initiative. Parts were entered into the onsite stock room during Validation activities. However, if parts were not used in 24- months, they were eliminated from stock causing unavailability during repair. In addition, the client had limited internal resources to research parts, form vendor relationships, and proactively stock according to their needs. The client identified the lack of Spare Parts availability as a high-risk to Planned Production Time. Lastly, a loss of confidence in storeroom practices resulted in parts being held in desk drawers, toolboxes and electrical enclosures. This limited the availability of parts to only those who were aware of this ad-hoc retention process, and reduced visibility on actual stock levels. 

The Project involved equipment that had been identified as a potential bottleneck to production, therefore, the NEXA team needed to move quickly to resolve the issues. Much of the identified equipment was considered “legacy” (over 20 years old and up to 30 years of continued use), which meant documentation was also a challenge.

Upgrades that had been carried out by vendors, engineering, and maintenance had varying levels of documentation which needed to be resolved. Competing incentives between Engineering and Procurement (stores) for equipment uptime and cost reductions required careful attention and navigation. There was also a perception of minimal efficiency gains being achieved by the project when compared with the time investment required which limited initial participation by equipment SMEs. 

Key Results

• Project Type: Spare Parts Review – Targeted Production Areas of Concern
• Location: Pennsylvania, USA
• Project Costs: Confidential
• Project Duration: 4 Months (total)
• Staff Assigned: Project Manager Maintenance Engineers

• Identification and development of updated equipment BOMs.
• Parts-To-Stock lists created from successful BOMs, after a review of past 10 years of Work Order Part Replacement Data coupled with Lead Time and Cost Data (Reliability Driven - Risk Based). Line by Line decisions on parts during Client Meetings used to create Parts-To-Stock lists.
• Parts-To-Stock provided in the correct Client format and conforming with Internal Storeroom Ordering Process expectations.
• Clearly identify the path to source both Parts-To-Stock and Bill of Materials with pricing, lead time and recommended vendor. Where custom parts require fabrication, an engineering vendor is tasked with providing a drawing to have quoted.
• All Lists and Documentation available during project for Engineering.

Results

Efficiency Benefits:

• MTTR – Sourcing paths for parts were identified and often stocked. Parts on “not stocked” list were identified and a path to source confirmed and provided for future reference.
• Identification of previously unknown rebuild kits and/or rebuild vendors for many long lead parts, increasing choices for maintenance, and further reducing costs.
• Formed partnerships with Vendors to provide easier methods of contact and escalation for engineers seeking parts from out-of-scope equipment.
• “Squirrel Stock” in desk drawers and electrical enclosure bottoms is no longer necessary as confidence in Stock Room is restored.
• Having conducted previous projects across the client’s network, the NEXA team had the knowledge and connections to ensure standardization in all work performed. We were able to provide a process, follow the process, and deliver results exceeding expectations.
• Example of Success: A legacy piece of glassware washroom equipment had >150 parts identified as Parts-To-Stock. 77 were already in Storeroom, but 40 of which were no longer able to be sourced by stockroom. Through the project these were sourced or in-kind was identified and sourced by project end, saving weeks of possible downtime for long lead parts.

Quality Improvements:

• Single-sourcing provides clear BOMs, Parts-To-Stock Lists, and Data File Storage, by using the engineering department’s own best practice filing locations and formats.
• Clear identification of correct parts in an easy to maintain format makes in-kind part use most likely.
• Standardization of Bill of Material formats from various vendor formats provides clear path to source of non-stocked parts in easy to recognize format.
• Cost of parts clearly communicated and available for review.
• Audits are less complicated and can provide evidence of just-in-time manufacture, by providing a clear and documented parts list with path to each part.

About Transcat

Transcat has over 60 years of experience servicing some of America’s largest companies in highly regulated industries. Our experienced teams provide equipment and asset management solutions for high-cost-of-failure environments such as pharmaceutical, biotechnology, medical device, and other FDA-regulated organizations throughout the US, Canada, Ireland, Europe, and Asia Pacific.