PFIZER CASE STUDY: Accelerating Pure Biological Science

Terry Barnhart, Senior Director of Strategic Management and Head of Agile R&D, PFIZER

Everyone now knows you can dramatically improve manufacturing-like aspects of laboratory work, but what about pure science? At Pfizer, we've demonstrated multi-fold improvements in exploratory biology through Lean thinking, including:

• Aligned scientific direction
• Silo-free, organically coordinated and prioritized problem solving
• Fast learning ("Plan, Do, Check, Act")
• Delayed (or better yet, eliminated) decision making