Pharmaceutical Project Management

Servier has several manufacturing sites in Europe.   Th main Irish Plant is based in Arklow, Co Wicklow.  Servier’s Arklow facility was established in 1989 and has expanded continuously ever since currently employing over 300 staff. Servier is a highly successful global pharmaceutical company employing more than 20,000 people worldwide. Headquartered in France, Servier is involved in the R&D, manufacture and marketing of leading ethical pharmaceutical products.

The Challenge

Servier’s Project Office in Arklow is responsible for delivering projects across all areas within the manufacturing plant.  The projects are varied and include:

• Building and Construction Projects
• IT Projects
• Product transfer
• Quality projects

Projects were being managed using a variety of tools including Microsoft Project, Excel and Word.  This resulted in project information being maintained in different locations making it difficult to have a clear view of both individual projects and, even more so, programs of multiple projects.  Generating reports and managing resources were key issues for Servier as the information had to be pulled from many different sources taking significant time and effort.

To summarise, Servier’s key requirements for a project and program management system were:

• Visibility over projects and programs
• Easily identify projects that are not performing
• Single, easy to use solution
• Comprehensive reporting capability
• Collaboration for project team members
• Centralisation of all project information

Our Solution

Cora Systems implemented its leading web-based Project and Portfolio Management (PPM) Solution, ProjectVision, in Servier’s Arklow-based Project Office.

ProjectVision allows the Project Office to manage the entire program of work for the Arklow plant in a single, easy to use system.  All project information and documentation is now stored in a single system making it very easy for Servier to control and monitor their projects.

Servier’s projects are grouped into relevant programs matching their corporate structure providing  logical visibility of work and roll-up reporting capability across the entire organisation.  All of Servier’s staff involved in delivering projects are set up as resources on ProjectVision.  Project managers allocate tasks to these resources allowing resource utilisation to be monitored.

The collaborative nature of ProjectVision ensures that resources are able to update their project progress information, enabling other users to have instant access to the latest information and ensuring reporting is timely and accurate.  ProjectVision’s user rights functionality ensures that staff are only able to see or update projects that they are working on.

Red, Amber, Green (RAG) traffic light reporting shows Servier at a glance which projects are running well and, more importantly, which projects are in need of attention.   Fast and easy identification of projects that are not performing well is allowing Servier to react quickly, minimising the impact to the organisation for both cost and time delays.

Benefits for Servier Industries

Introducing ProjectVision has allowed Servier Industries to manage projects from concept, approval and implementation to close out in a simple and efficient way.  This has resulted in significant time savings, particularly when generating reports and project updates.

ProjectVision has allowed the team to predict future resource requirements and identify resource shortages, allowing adequate resources to be put in place for key projects.  This means that projects are more likely to be delivered on time and to budget.

Servier Industries now have a single view of all projects that are happening across all of the departments in the Arklow site.  It has allowed the project team to easily prioritise projects that will bring the greatest benefits to the organization.

Generating reports for the management team has been made simpler, allowing instant access to the latest project information.  This has allowed Servier to concentrate on delivering projects rather than administration and report production.

“ProjectVision’s ease of use has ensured users adopt the system quickly and keep their project information up-to-date”

John Bolger,
Project Co-Ordination Manager,
Servier Ireland Industries Ltd

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