Towards Lean & Green production management in the pharmaceutical industry : A framework for E-VSM and Kaizen event prioritization through a systematic literature review and case study at AstraZeneca

Abstract: In order to pursure both environmental and operational targets to facilitate the sustainable transformation of the organization, manufacturers are increasingly incorporating Lean & Green (L&G) production management approaches. Environmental value stream map (E-VSM), which is one of the most well-known L&G tools, allows manufacturers to systematically document, visualize and analyse both environmental and operational performance indicators for each process within a value stream. E-VSM has caught the attention of AstraZeneca, who are looking to implement L&G tools into their current Lean meanufacturing structure to pursue their sustainability targets in the area of environmental protection. Therefore, there is a need to evaluate whether E-VSM is effective within the context of pharmaceutical manufacturing. In this study, a systematic literature review (SLR) was conducted to explore the incentives, success factors, challenges and expected results of L&G implementation, with a specific focus on E-VSM deployment within continuous improvement (Kaizen) cycles. Subsequently, E-VSM was deployed within a pharmaceutical product value stream in a pilot project case study to generate empirical evidence of the tools effectiveness in this context. Kaizen event prioritization is the process of selecting a limited number of improvement activities to implement out of a larger set based on highest perceived benefits due to resource limitations. This study proposes an E-VSM and Kaizen framework which includes a method for systematic Kaizen event prioritization based on the SLR and case study findings. The results indicate that E-VSM is an effective tool for documentation and visualization of environmental indicators in a pharmaceutical production context. Most notably, by introducing a carbon footprint (CF) indicator and using a lifecycle perspective in the E-VSM, CF assessment was integrated into the tool successfully. The E-VSM led to identification of five Kaizen events that would collectively decrease the CF of the value stream by an estimated 65% if implemented. The E-VSM and Kaizen event prioritization framework relies on using the E-VSM to systematically quantify an environmental performance index and transforming it into criteria for Kaizen event prioritization. Future research is directed towards further systemaizing the Kaizen event prioritization method and validating the full framework in various industries.