Pfizer is one of the world’s leading pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, supplying medicines and vaccines to around 200 countries and territories through an extensive global manufacturing network. Every day, its facilities must deliver safe, high-quality products reliably and at scale, making operational performance fundamental to patient outcomes.
Across its manufacturing network, Pfizer recognised that low Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) was limiting productive capacity, increasing inventory requirements and impacting customer service performance. Although Lean tools had already been introduced within many sites, improvement efforts varied between locations and had not created the level of reliability needed to optimise manufacturing performance consistently.
To strengthen operational consistency across the organisation, Pfizer established its global IMEx programme to accelerate manufacturing improvement. S A Partners was invited to support this initiative by helping create a repeatable approach that would improve equipment reliability while building the internal capability needed to sustain performance improvements across multiple manufacturing sites.
The partnership began with an understanding of what prevented manufacturing assets from consistently delivering their full potential. Rather than concentrating solely on equipment performance, the initial work examined the systems, maintenance strategies and operational behaviours that influenced reliability across each site.
This collaborative assessment helped define what excellence meant for Pfizer. It was not simply about improving OEE or reducing downtime. Excellence meant creating reliable manufacturing operations capable of consistently delivering quality products, increasing productive capacity and enabling every site to achieve predictable operational performance through common standards and shared ways of working.
Building on these findings, S A Partners worked alongside Pfizer to integrate its proven eleven-step Total Productive Manufacturing approach into the global IMEx programme. Following a successful pilot, the programme expanded across fourteen manufacturing sites, establishing a consistent framework for reliability improvement throughout the organisation.
Executive engagement sessions aligned leadership around the programme, while practitioner development equipped operational teams with the knowledge and confidence to lead improvements themselves. Diagnostic assessments, practical implementation, learning-by-doing activities and ongoing coaching ensured improvements were embedded into day-to-day operations rather than delivered as standalone initiatives.
Regular TPM audits, maintenance strategy reviews and evidence-based process assessments created a structured approach to continuous learning. As capability developed across the network, sites increasingly shared knowledge, adopted common practices and strengthened their ability to sustain improvements independently.
As the programme matured, participating sites achieved significant improvements in equipment performance, manufacturing reliability and operational effectiveness. One representative site almost doubled productive capacity by increasing Overall Equipment Effectiveness from 32% to 63%, creating substantially greater output from existing assets.
Improved equipment reliability reduced failures by 300%, while minor stops decreased by 65%, resulting in more stable manufacturing operations and lower maintenance costs. Greater process reliability also enabled production plans to consistently meet demand, improving On Time In Full performance from 73% to 100%.
The impact extended throughout the manufacturing operation. Better utilisation of labour and more reliable production processes reduced Batch Interval Completion Times from 29 days to just 9 days, improving responsiveness across the supply chain. By embedding reliable systems, developing internal capability and establishing consistent operational practices across multiple sites, Pfizer created a sustainable foundation for long-term manufacturing excellence.
For Pfizer, excellence meant creating manufacturing operations that consistently delivered the reliability, capacity and quality needed to supply medicines to patients around the world.
By developing a shared approach across fourteen manufacturing sites, Pfizer strengthened equipment reliability, increased operational consistency and significantly improved manufacturing performance throughout its global network.
Reliable systems, capable, engaged teams, and embedded maintenance practices created lasting improvements in productivity, delivery performance, and operational capability that continue to support manufacturing excellence across the organisation.
Pfizer demonstrated what becomes possible when reliable operations create the capacity to consistently deliver for patients around the world. The same opportunity exists within every manufacturing organisation.