PHARMACEUTICAL

The pharmaceutical industry of the 21st Century is becoming one of the most dynamic and competitive segments of the manufacturing industry. For many years the basis of competition was clearly established as major research-driven organizations devoted years to developing "blockbuster" drugs that dominated their target market, funded the development of later generations of drugs and yielded substantial profits the corporations. During the past few years, the dynamics of competition in pharmaceuticals has changed dramatically. Increasing competition from generic pharmaceuticals, the development and introduction of "look-alike" drugs within a few months after the release of a major new drug, consolidation in the industry, the advent of direct consumer marketing and the rise of biotechnology have all changed the complexion of competition.

The pressure is on for pharmaceutical manufacturers to become more efficient, not just in bringing new drugs to market, but in manufacturing and distributing them efficiently. In many ways the pharmaceutical market is beginning to look like the consumer packaged goods market and pharmaceutical manufacturers must respond or be left behind by the competition. As these market changes force pharmaceutical manufacturers to shift from a production-driven focus to a demand-driven one, manufacturing performance becomes increasingly important. Effective planning and scheduling is one of the keys to meeting manufacturing goals.

Many pharmaceutical manufacturers have turned to Taylor Scheduling Software to help them solve these complex, mission-critical planning and scheduling problems. The Taylor Enterprise Scheduling System (TESSR) was designed in cooperation with pharmaceutical manufacturers and the products solve vexing planning and scheduling issues not addressed by traditional Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Systems.