The Adoption of e-Maintenance in a Pharmaceutical Company: A Case Study Analyzing Decision-making and the Technological, Organizational and Environmental Factors Affecting the Adoption of e-Maintenance Technologies

Abstrakt

Subtitle: A case study analyzing decision-making and the technological, organizational, and environmental factors affecting the adoption of e-Maintenance technologies. Authors: Emil Hørlyck Akselsen & Nicklas Børglum Bruttin Background: The pharmaceutical industry is experiencing an increasing amount of pressure through growing regulatory requirements and a governmental demand to lower drug prices. The time of the blockbuster business model era in which the pharmaceutical industries were able to demand high margins on their products is coming to an end, increasing the need to improve effectiveness in the production maintenance operations. Purpose: This thesis aims to identify how and to what extent data is supporting the decision-making in maintenance operations to increase effectiveness. Additionally, this thesis sets out to determine the factors influencing the adoption of e-Maintenance. Method: This thesis is an exploratory qualitative single-case study with a research philosophy of critical realism, based on semi structured interviews, unstructured team meetings, and site visits. Findings & conclusion: Firstly, we found that the extent to which data was used in the decision-making process was limited to the steps of identifying and defining problems. Despite the limited application of data across the decision-making process, a world class effectiveness measured in OEE of 86.7% was still achieved using data in Lean improvement kata. Lastly the context specific factors affecting the adoption of e-Maintenance were identified as: (1) Compatibility, (2) Data exchange and Interoperability, (3) Data quality, (4) Perceived complexity, (5) Cost, (6) Management support, (7) Skills, (8) Government regulation, and (9) Competitive environment.