Process Mining in pharma industry

Ensure greater efficiency and improve compliance

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Process Mining in pharma: improved cost efficiency

Pharmaceutical companies find themselves in a field of tension: they must increasingly meet regulatory requirements, but at the same time there is growing pressure to increase efficiency and reduce costs. Pharmaceutical companies operate in a highly regulated environment in which compliance requirements, quality standards and patient safety have the highest priority - these framework conditions are accompanied by complicated process landscapes that are characterized by numerous inspection and documentation steps.

Process Mining for the pharmaceutical sector offers companies a data-based approach to process optimization that closes the gap between compliance and efficiency. The technology makes it possible to reconstruct, analyze and optimize actual business processes based on digital traces in IT systems. Process Mining brings together data from different systems and thus creates transparency about cross-departmental processes. This results in decisive added value for pharmaceutical companies: Process Mining helps to identify bottlenecks, shorten throughput times and use resources more efficiently.

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Basics of Process Mining in the pharmaceutical industry

Process Mining is located at the interface between data science and process management. The method is based on the systematic analysis of event logs, which are created during the execution of business processes in IT systems. These digital traces contain valuable information such as time stamps, executed activities and process instances. Process Mining tools transform this raw data into meaningful, easy-to-understand process models and visualize the real processes. The technology makes hidden processes visible and uncovers deviations between target and actual processes. By integrating various systems, Process Mining creates a holistic picture of the process landscape and makes it possible to understand and optimize processes in their entirety. The method is therefore also increasingly being used in other sectors - for example, Process Mining is used in the construction industry, Process Mining is also increasingly used in telecommunications for process optimization.

The transparency gained through Process Mining creates economic advantages for pharmaceutical companies in many respects. The method enables the identification of delays, automation potential and bottlenecks in financial and operational processes such as Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable and Order-to-Cash. Complicated production and procurement processes such as make-to-order and purchase-to-pay also benefit considerably from improved process visibility. The analysis of these processes leads to improved decision-making and optimized resource allocation, which is accompanied by measurable cost savings and overall improved cost control in the pharmaceutical industry.

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Added value of Process Mining for pharma at a glance

A wide variety of processes in the pharmaceutical industry are characterized by inefficiencies. Processes such as the production of medicinal products and quality management, which are subject to stringent regulatory requirements and demand compliance with Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP), are particularly affected. Incidents that occur here have the highest priority, as they can delay the production of further batches and affect products that have already been delivered. Compliance management is also a challenge in the pharmaceutical sector: Every deviation from regulatory requirements must be fully documented, which poses challenges for many pharmaceutical companies in the face of isolated data silos and inefficient testing processes.

Process Mining is a data-driven solution for identifying and eliminating these inefficiencies. The technology simplifies product quality assurance in the pharmaceutical sector by analysing manufacturing processes, identifying patterns in deviations and thus highlighting optimization potential. In the area of compliance management, Process Mining in the healthcare and pharmaceutical sectors enables objective, data-supported monitoring of regulatory requirements - the technology examines each individual process cycle in detail and uses compliance checks to ensure that all internal and external regulations are adhered to.

fast & easy

Start now with Process.Science!

Getting started with Process Mining is easier than you think. Thanks to seamless integration with existing BI systems such as Power BI or Qlik Sense, you can work with familiar tools. All you need for a quick “proof of value” is

  • Basic process data (event logs) from your systems, which our solution can extract
  • A business process as a starting point
  • 1-2 days for initial setup and first results
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Use cases of Process Mining in the pharmaceutical sector

Process Mining opens up numerous opportunities for the pharmaceutical sector to enhance operational efficiency, ensure compliance, and accelerate innovation. By systematically analyzing event logs from manufacturing systems, clinical trial management platforms, and supply chain tools, the technology brings transparency to complex and highly regulated processes. It helps uncover inefficiencies, detect bottlenecks, and ensure adherence to strict industry regulations. The following use cases can be identified for Process Mining in the pharmaceutical sector.

Optimize approval processes

The approval of new drugs is one of the most important and at the same time most complex processes in the pharmaceutical industry. Regulatory authorities demand detailed proof of safety, efficacy and production quality, which often entails lengthy testing, documentation and approval steps. Process Mining provides a remedy in the pharmaceutical industry by analyzing the approval process in detail. By identifying bottlenecks and inefficient transitions between departments, approval processes can be systematically accelerated. In this way, pharmaceutical companies can optimize their approval process, shorten the associated throughput times and bring their products to market faster.

Shortening the drug development cycle

The development of new drugs is a lengthy, cost-intensive process in which any delay has a significant financial impact. Process Mining analyzes the various processes in drug manufacturing and identifies critical paths and optimization potential in the various development phases. The technology enables precise measurement of the throughput times of individual development steps and uncovers delays caused by inefficient communication, unclear responsibilities or resource bottlenecks. By integrating data from different systems, Process Mining in pharma creates a holistic view, which ensures greater efficiency in drug development.

Accelerate clinical studies and analyses

Clinical trials play a central role in the development of new drugs and their approval. Delays, protocol deviations or inefficient test procedures can slow down the entire development process and increase the time-to-market. Process Mining optimizes research data management by making the processes associated with clinical trials transparent through analysis and highlighting potential for optimization. The technology examines the course of the study and shows where bottlenecks occur or which administrative hurdles are delaying the process. With Process Mining for the pharmaceutical sector, protocol deviations can even be identified in preclinical studies and proactively rectified before they lead to regulatory problems.

Ensuring patient safety

Ensuring patient safety is a key concern for the pharmaceutical industry - adverse events can pose risks for patients as well as having significant legal and financial consequences. Process Mining brings transparency to adverse events by means of systematic case analysis - it links the data collected here with process data from IT systems and thus creates a comprehensive picture of the events and their causes. The technology enables patient safety process analysis by uncovering weaknesses in pharmacovigilance processes and identifying patterns in event reports.

Optimizing the supply chain

The pharmaceutical supply chain has numerous dependencies between suppliers, manufacturers, logistics service providers and distributors. Process Mining provides supply chain transparency in the pharmaceutical sector by bringing together the scattered data from warehouse management systems, transportation management systems and ERP. The technology visualizes the actual process flows from order to delivery and identifies process variants, inefficiencies and their causes. Process Mining opens up concrete added value in logistics, as it reduces throughput times and improves delivery reliability.

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Implementing Process Mining in pharma - with Process.Science

Process.Science offers intuitive solutions that enable low-threshold implementation of Process Mining in pharma. Our Process Mining tools can be seamlessly integrated into existing business intelligence platforms such as Microsoft Power BI and Qlik Sense with minimal effort. They can be operated both on-premise and in common cloud environments such as Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services (AWS) or Google Cloud Services. Our solutions meet the highest data protection requirements - no files are passed on to Process.Science. With our easy-to-implement Process Mining solutions, companies bring transparency and efficiency to their processes.

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