Akums Enhance Product Quality by Leveraging Total Quality Management
Introduction
Pharmaceutical companies strive for consistent quality of products to maintain therapeutic efficacy. Total Quality Management offers a new way to ensure pharmaceutical quality. Total Quality Management has become a critical aspect of the pharmaceutical sector, offering various advantages to businesses. However, adopting TQM can be challenging due to several obstacles, such as high costs, a shortage of skilled workers, insufficient training, difficulties in effectively implementing new business strategies, and a lack of understanding about TQM.
Akums places great emphasis on quality, which is a fundamental component of the company’s core values. Unlike many other companies in India, Akums has taken its commitment to quality to the next level by implementing TQM in both production and new product development. This ensures that both clients’ and customers’ expectations are met, and further quality issues are prevented.
What is total quality Management?
Total Quality Management (TQM) is a management approach and strategy that emphasizes the continuous improvement of processes and products to meet product quality expectations. By adopting TQM, companies view their management system as an integrated whole, rather than just the output of the quality department. It considers all aspects of its operations, including human resources, production, service, distribution, sales, finance, and all other processes, and how it can improve the overall quality of therapeutic products.
In the pharmaceutical industry, many companies still rely on outdated quality management systems that only involved final product quality control (FPQC). This system simply checked if the product met the required quality standards without including any steps for quality management during the production process. This approach had several shortcomings, such as leaving the quality control department solely responsible for the product’s quality while other departments were indifferent, resulting in batch-to-batch variations.
TQM in new product development
In pharmaceutical companies, the quality management of new product development projects is based on project quality process management, which involves establishing a quality plan and quality targets, implementing quality assurance plans, and quality improvement schemes, and conducting quality measurements and deviation analyses.
The benefit of applying TQM in the NPD process:
Time and cost reduction: Before, product development used a sequential, over-the-wall strategy, which typically resulted in a lengthier period of NPD. But implementing quality management procedures throughout the product development process can prevent potential quality issues and identify concerns early, ultimately saving time and resources.
Fewer potential defects: One of the core principles of TQM is the belief that the development of new products should be done correctly the first time. This involves shipping products with fewer defects, which can help to reduce product recalls, minimize future customer support needs, and decrease the need for product fixes.
Improved Technical review: Technical reviews play a crucial role in promoting effective communication and collaboration among all team members involved in the new product development process, from research and development to quality management. By conducting technical reviews, everyone is on the same page and working together towards the same goals. Akums Pharmaceuticals applies technical reviews to all activities in the new product development process to clarify each team member’s corresponding responsibilities and empower them with the necessary rights.
Real-Time Information: Real-time information is essential in TQM for new product development. It reduces the need for modifications and product recalls while helping companies track quality improvement and make continuous enhancements.
Akums applied the TQM 3-Level model for all their formulations process
This involves identifying various process elements at each level, defining appropriate quality criteria for each element, and developing suitable metrics to measure the success of the NPD process. Akums’s NPD process benefits from the combined efforts of its research and development team, India’s largest quality control laboratory, and quality management teams. This collaborative approach ensures that quality is embedded in every step of the NPD process, from the initial stages of product design and development to the final product’s launch.