Turning Supply Chain Complexity into Clarity 

Our client is one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies, with annual revenues of more than $30 billion, operations in close to 100 countries and around 40 manufacturing sites globally. Its ambition has always been clear: to provide life-saving medicines to patients reliably and at scale. 

The brief: the ambition and the struggle

However, the very scale and complexity of the organisation made this ambition difficult to achieve. At the site level, leaders and employees were wrestling with unreliable data, weak planning processes and low confidence in execution. Service levels were compromised, inventory was frequently unavailable in the right place, and customers – in this case, patients – were being let down. 

As the Oliver Wight Partner ‘David’* (then a Site Director at the client), explains, there were around 400 monthly stockouts. Each one represented an opportunity to sell a product that was not available on the shelf. For a consumer product like toothpaste, this would have been problematic; for life-saving medicines, David described it as “unconscionable”. 

David was clear about the distinction between this project and others he had experienced. Whereas some organisations focused on integrated business planning and longer-term decision-making, the work here had to start with “righting the ship” – stabilising performance, fixing the basics and restoring trust in the supply chain. 

The day-to-day reality for staff illustrated the depth of the challenge. Employees began their working days with a list of tasks, only to find themselves firefighting by mid-morning. By the end of the day, just two or three of those tasks might have been achieved. The sense of working hard yet achieving little created fatigue, eroded morale and reduced engagement across the organisation. 

*Anonymised to protect the privacy of our client 

The solution: a turning point

David had a unique perspective. Having previously worked with Oliver Wight in another organisation, he knew there was a better way to plan, to manage data and to execute consistently. At the client, however, convincing senior leadership to embark on a global transformation seemed impossible. With $30 billion in revenue, nearly 100,000 employees and 40 sites across the world, the organisation appeared too large and unwieldy to change in one step. 

Rather than push for a sweeping programme that would be rejected, David secured permission to start quietly at his own site. As he put it: “All I got the leadership team to do was to agree to let me do something at my site. We did not have to tell anyone. We could just start.” 

With Oliver Wight brought in to support, David and his team began making changes under the radar. They improved planning, cleaned up data, and started to apply disciplines that had worked elsewhere. 

The real turning point came when the client’s global Technical Vice President, ‘Charlie’, visited David’s site. He immediately noticed that things were being done differently. In discussions with David, he realised why: the methods being applied were those of Oliver Wight – an approach he himself had experienced more than 20 years earlier in another company. For years, he had been searching for a way to change the culture of the client, but until that moment, he had not seen a viable path forward. 

David recalled the moment clearly. Charlie said: “I’ve been wondering how to change this organisation for years, but now I realise what I’m going to do.” From that point on, the initiative was no longer a local experiment. Charlie called in Oliver Wight officially, and the project was elevated overnight from a single-site pilot to a global transformation spanning all 40 of the client’s sites. 

The journey: a transformation

The transformation programme was both comprehensive and multi-layered, covering systems, processes, governance, metrics and behaviours. 

Improving data accuracy 

Inaccurate or incomplete data had been a root cause of many failures. The programme placed strong emphasis on improving the quality and reliability of data feeding into planning and decision-making. 

Creating governance structures:  

Forums were established to manage the business across the long, medium and short term. This created discipline and visibility, enabling the organisation to make better and earlier decisions. 

Defining new metrics 

The client moved from fragmented measures to a suite of metrics that covered inventory, schedule adherence, plan adherence and delivery performance. These metrics provided a balanced and transparent view of how the business was performing. 

Building leadership alignment 

Leadership engagement was critical. While some site directors embraced the changes, others were less supportive. The programme confronted these differences directly, making clear that engagement was essential. In some cases, individuals unwilling to participate were replaced. 

Managing change at scale:  

The central programme team coordinated the global rollout. Responsibility was delegated within the team, with individuals accountable for specific areas. This ensured consistency and accelerated adoption across sites. 

Developing internal capability 

The client’s staff were trained in Oliver Wight methods and began to take on responsibilities themselves. As one Oliver Wight Partner observed, this created more of a partnership: “We were training them in Oliver Wight’s processes, and they were starting to step in to support that. It was good from a sustainability point of view.”

The programme was not simply a top-down mandate. Change was built into the fabric of the organisation, with local ownership and leadership involvement at every stage.  

The results: impact!

The transformation delivered both operational and cultural results. 

• 94% reduction in stockouts: Missed opportunities to deliver medicines to patients were almost entirely eliminated. This result was not just a business improvement but a direct benefit to patients worldwide. 

• Improved planning and execution: With more accurate data and better governance, planning processes became more reliable and execution more consistent. 

• Lower inventory and waste: Improved efficiency reduced stockholding requirements and cut waste, creating financial benefits alongside service improvements. 

• 93% employee engagement improvement: Surveys showed that 93% of staff reported a significant improvement in their understanding of roles and decision-making. 

David was clear that while the performance metrics were important, the cultural shift mattered just as much. “By the time we finished, people could go home at the end of the day having completed the majority of what they set out to do,” he explained. “They felt proud of what they had achieved. That change in the look on people’s faces – that is the magic for me.” 

The legacy

Today, the client operates with stronger processes, clearer accountability and a more engaged workforce. What began as a local experiment has become embedded across 40 sites globally. The changes are sustained by governance, metrics and behaviours that ensure long-term impact. 

The legacy is twofold. Operationally, the client has moved from frequent stockouts and constant firefighting to a far more reliable, efficient and resilient supply chain. Culturally, employees feel empowered, accountable and motivated, creating a stronger and more positive working environment. 

For leaders in other organisations, the lessons are clear: 

• Begin where progress is possible, even if that means starting at a single site 

• Focus on building leadership alignment, but also ensure grassroots ownership 

• Measure performance through a suite of metrics rather than relying on a single indicator 

• Recognise that cultural change is as important as operational change – sustainable improvement comes when both are achieved together

As David summarised, the transformation at the client was about far more than metrics: “Of course, you will get better bottom-line performance. Of course, business results will improve. But the real change is in how it feels to work in the organisation every day.”