Useful Advices - Business

How would you like to see your Service Department? As a necessary but problematic resource drain or as a resource that provides a positive and healthy ROI? We think most executives would prefer the second option. In this article, we make the case that a centrally positioned servi

According to USFDA, a combination product is one composed of any combination of a drug and device; biological product and device; drug and biological product

ce department can act as a catalyst across many other functions to improve the efficiency of your company’s product development lifecycle, while improving your profit margin as your product moves into the marketplace.

By following these six steps, we show you how you can turn yo

; or drug, device, and biological product and fixed dose combination would include two or more combinations of drug.

Examples of combination products may in

r service function into a more profitable resource that achieves your corporate objectives. Although the steps can be implemented individually or as resources allow, best results can be realized when the steps are implemented simultaneously.

(1) Involve Service early in the prod

lude drug-coated devices, drugs packaged with delivery devices in medical kits, and drugs and devices packaged separately but intended to be used together.

uct's lifecycle to improve the product’s maintenance program. Maintainability – often called reparability – facilitates restoring "failed" units as expeditiously as possible to ensure that the product is back in your customers’ hands in a timely manner. Needless to say, maintaina

here is enormous increase in the number of combination products entering the market in the recent years. Combination products have proven advantages but fixe

ility also improves service, quality and customer relations, all of which helps to increase sales.

It’s unfortunate that the Service Department is often the last function brought into development. This is often deliberate because service and service problems are seen as "spoiler

d dose combinations are still in the process of convincing regulatory authority on their advantages over the single ingredient formulations.

Combination pro

," disrupting smooth progress to product release: Time-to-market and cost considerations generally overrule Service to release products with "known features" (aka bugs) unless problems are serious enough to derail the release timeframe. However, casting aside the Service Departme

ucts have become life saving products for the pharmaceutical companies who doesn’t have many innovative molecules in their product pipeline and have been inc

nt can prove to be very expensive since last minute or post-market design changes cost much more than pre-release design changes.

(2) Extend management’s focus beyond product availability for sale to Lifecycle Management (LCM). This broad, forward-looking focus benefits the enti

easingly used in the product life cycle management. Even the companies having product patents are trying to extend their product life cycle through the combi

e organization in the following way: Development knows up front all the constituencies’ needs, which minimizes scope creep. This helps to launch products on schedule, which reduces or eliminates expensive design changes for products that are already in the field; Manufacturing

nation products and maximize the revenues. But the companies involved in this practice are overlooking that they are burdening the patients both economically

makes better material cost projections, thereby optimizing purchases and scheduling; Service maximizes resource use over the product’s life; Administration ensures that sales orders are recorded accurately, coordinated with Manufacturing, and delivered to customers per their n

and physically. They need to rightly judge the benefits of the combination products and they have to even look at the risks involved when combining the produ

eds; and Marketing and Sales obtain better margins at better prices. In short, the entire company operates more efficiently across functions.

(3) Know your most profitable customers to determine cost drivers. We continue to be amazed by how few companies truly know who their m

ts. Some of the combination products were well accepted by physicians while others suffered. Companies involved in development of combination products are fi

st profitable customers and business lines are. Beginning with whatever level of accuracy is available for determining who your most profitable customers are and those absolute amounts, you should layer in measures for customer performance, inventory levels for maintenance parts,

ding difficulty in defining their combination products and facing various challenges from selecting a combination to marketing it.

Following aspects would a

and support costs. Lack of detailed information is a serious oversight particularly for Service managers: Service normally receives financials providing only results at summary levels for the department rather than at customer level. This precludes Service from gaining the knowl

dd to the challenges in developing combination products:

Which markets to tap where the combination products can do fairly well?
Which combination prod

dge needed to locate and focus on areas where small improvements can greatly improve margin contributions. Until service level agreement (SLA) penalties become meaningful, resources often are not allocated to determine cost drivers and more detailed management reports for Service

cts are meaningful and rational?
Which therapeutic categories to select?
Which Combinations can address unmet needs of the patients?
Do combin

.

(4) Recognize and exploit the fact that Service generally has more contact with and knowledge of your customers than all other functions, including sales and account management. Encouraging Service to monitor customer feedback will offer valuable insights about your customers’

tions increase the patient compliance?
What would be the developing cost?
How to tackle the risks encountered during combination product developmen

product needs, including upgrades, replacements, or additional products or line extensions. Remember that existing customer sales costs are much lower than for other sales, further improving your company’s profit margins.

(5) Give Service an equal role with Development, Manufact

t?

As combination products don't fit into the traditional categories of drugs, medical devices, or biological products, the USFDA is in the process of devel

ring, Marketing, and Sales in the decision-making process. It’s critical that executives make room for the Service Department at the roundtable to hear and understand the Service Department’s issues, concerns, and questions as they relate to the company’s customers. Typically wha

ping new procedures for reviewing their safety, efficacy and quality.

Professional from academic institutions, pharmaceutical industries, health care indust

t happens is that the number of reporting layers causes vital Service issues to be lost or diluted at roundtable discussions.

(6) Don’t isolate the Service Department. Physical availability and proximity matter. Positioning senior Service and support personnel closer to the Deve

y and representatives from various regulatory agencies are working out to design the regulatory requirements for manufacture and sale of combination products

opment Department will foster a greater interchange of ideas, as well as enhance collegiality. You would be amazed at how this simple strategy creates maintainability (an industry term for the cost of maintaining the product in ultimate users hands) at minimal cost, which in turn

.

As there is an increasing trend of the combination products companies manufacturing such products should be able to tackle the problems involved in the de

improves product design and customer ease of use. Close proximity also reduces schedule disruptions when critical service needs arise since engineering can quickly collaborate with support in recreating failures to create work-around or permanent resolutions.

By giving a Servic

elopment. They need to be wiser in analyzing the market trends and the regulatory requirements.

Companies that provide selfless information through particip

Department an integral and central role in product development, a company can significantly improve its ROI with minimal capital investment. In fact, it’s the smart company that leverages the role of the Service function to improve its products, customer service, and bottom line

tion in industry events and feedback to regulatory authorities would be able to face the challenges and will be successful in developing combination products

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Tips for you, the efficient office employee who finished all your job responsibilities early. You don't want to get handed a new stack of work by the boss, now, do you?

If you have ever simply watched people at work you will find that many often come in late or miss work entirely for days on end. We may be able to draw a connection in our reasoning that says all these people showing up 10 minutes late can add up to lots of lost revenue for the company. The problem is how to control attendance issues and still treat everyone fairly?

If you are opening a dollar store you will soon find that there are many little activities that must be routinely completed. Among those items is the need to complete routine store maintenance. While this is little fun to do it is important to the success of your business. In fact weekly store inspection and maintenance should be performed as a matter of practice.

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Useful Advices - Putting Profitability Into The Service Equation

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