Over the past ten years, we have transformed all aspects of our company in line with the principles of lean management. In the area of production in particular, we have streamlined the workflows and processes of our well-proven product manufacturing capabilities – without any compromises to our high quality standards. As a result, we reduce rejects, shorten the supply chains and lead times, and thus improve our profitability.
Lean management includes the entirety of thinking principles, methods and procedures for the efficient design of the entire value chain of industrial goods. Some ten years ago, we initiated the transformation of our production with a focus on lean principles. This transformation is our approach and our formula for defending our global cost leadership and continuing to supply competitive quality products for the world market from the Swiss production site.
Lean processes and working culture
Since beginning the transformation, we have continuously and successfully implemented the lean principles – and without any disruption of ongoing production: We want to approach perfection even though we know that it cannot be achieved. Thus, the lean concept is part of our work culture. Lean Management at Ypsomed also promotes a cultural shift away from traditional hierarchies to agile, crossdivisional and cross-functional network organisations with a clear customer focus and clear responsibilities.
Quality goods in automated mass production
Our production is highly automated and geared to large production volumes. We manufacture pens and autoinjectors on highly automated assembly lines. The cycle times in production vary from 30 to 230 pens per minute, depending on the product. On average, we manufacture more than 200 million pens/autoinjectors in a financial year. The pens/autoinjectors themselves consist of 10 to 15 individual parts. These parts mainly consist of plastic and are manufactured on standardised injection moulding machines. In total, we assemble well over 2.5 billion individual parts. The cycle times for pen needles are up to 900 needles per minute. The installed capacities allow us to produce up to one billion pen needles per year. These two examples show how essential smooth and stable production processes are for us.
That is why we are always intent on improving the balance between availability, performance and quality. As a result, we increase profitability and thus also our competitiveness in the manufacturing of innovative medical technology products. Being a medical technology company in a regulated environment, we adhere to demanding specifications andmeet the highest standards of good manufacturing practice. Getting as close as possible to perfection is the vision of our Lean Transformation. We pursue this transformation to allow us to continue to compete globally.
