News from Europe's pharmaceutical manufacturing industry coupled with upcoming events, and exclusive articles and interviews from industry experts. WEEKLY
The authors highlight costs, benefits, and implementation success factors across first, second, and third generations of facility management outsourcing contracts. This article is part of a special issue on outsourcing.
The pharmaceutical industry has faced significant competitive pressures over the past several decades that continue unabated.
These pressures have led to interest in and adoption of new, more efficient and scalable operating models. Outsourcing is
a major strategy that the industry has adopted across a broad range of value-chain activities. One key area where outsourcing
is being increasingly adopted as an operating model is facilities management, a major indirect cost category that spans R&D,
technical operations, and commercial facilities. Research shows that the level of market request for proposal (RFP) for facility
management is experiencing on average 25% growth driven by Europe where RFP growth rates have jumped 50% (1). Despite the
increased adoption of the model, there is still a need to better understand how the outsourced facilities management model
can succeed, particularly in manufacturing and development facilities that have different constraints and requirements than
commercial offices, where outsourcing is more commonly applied.
Services in facilities-management outsourcing
Table I: Categories of service typically included in facilities-management outsourcing contracts.
Facilities management is comprised of a broad range of activities ranging from utilities-plant maintenance, building maintenance,
and engineering to mailroom operations. At research sites, the definition of facility management can also include laboratory-related
services, such as glassware services, fume-hood maintenance, and some laboratory equipment calibration. Table I includes the broad categories of services that define how facilities management is being interpreted in the pharmaceutical
industry and the services included in facilities-management outsourcing.
Some services listed in Table I were included even if they are performed in a cGMP setting. For example, cGMP cleaning is
listed as generally included. However, cGMP production-equipment maintenance is almost never included in first-generation
facility-management outsourcing initiatives. First-generation outsourcing refers to the initial outsourcing effort that typically
involves transfer of people, processes, and some assets to a third-party supplier, and second- and third-generation outsourcing
refer to re-bidding or re-negotiating the initial outsourcing contract. First-generation outsourcing is typically characterized
by a focus on human resources terms and change management in adopting an outsourced model, and second- and third- generation
initiatives typically focus on further leveragrticleing the strategy. There are only a handful of cases where cGMP production-equipment
maintenance work was outsourced to facility management companies—these were experienced, third-generation outsourcing practitioners.
There are exceptions to the general inclusion of the scope identifiedin Table I because of plant-specific considerations.
For example, at a sterile facility, related heating, ventilation, air conditioning (HVAC) maintenance was not included because
it is considered to be a key part of the product environment. The strongest determinant of what scope was included in a first-wave
initiative was the sponsorship of the outsourcing project. Initiatives that were sponsored by a cross-functional executive
steering group comprised of technical operations executives, chief financial officers (CFOs), sector leaders, and chief procurement
officers (CPOs) tended to have the broadest mandate and consistent inclusion of services across sites. If, however, the sponsorship
was primarily at a local level, scope was typically limited, and many plants and sites opted not to participate or participated
in a limited way. The highest variance on scope inclusion was around technical services such as building and utility plant
maintenance.
