From production line to patient care:
A Case Study in Cost and Operational Efficiency to drive future innovations for Manufacturing and Pharma.

Challenge

A leading pharmaceutical & manufacturing company, faced challenges with manual data access control processes, hindering operational efficiency and speed to data. This resulted in significant delays in data product development, costing the company millions in potential savings and lost productivity.

Solution

They adopted a data mesh framework and built an internal data marketplace supported and secured by Immuta, a self-service data access control platform. This allowed them to automate data access control policies, streamline data product development, and empower product teams with greater ownership and control over their data.

Key Results:

Operational Efficiencies: Reduced manual effort by automating data access control policies, freeing up at least 2 data engineer FTEs per value stream to allow them to focus on higher value projects.

Cost Savings: Achieved significant cost savings by accelerating data product development and deployment.

• Reduced wasted stock by €30-40 million within the first year through a data product that provided instant access to stock data.

• Avoided potential losses of €15 million by accelerating the development of a supply chain optimization data product from 6-12 months to a matter of weeks.

• Reduced machine downtime and improved production line efficiency through data-driven insights, saving millions in potential losses.

Speed to Data: Accelerated data product development time from 6-12 months to just a few weeks.

Improved Data Culture: Fostered a data-driven culture by decentralizing ownership and empowering product teams with self-service data access control. This drive in adoption has led to over 200+ data products being created in the first year of go-live.

Key Enablers:

Data Mesh Framework: Decentralized data ownership and enabled agile data product development.

Immuta Platform: Automated data access control policies and empowered self-service data access.

Data Product Mindset: Shifted the focus to creating reusable data products that deliver business value and allow for more effective data sharing across the entire business.

Business and IT Alignment: Fostered collaboration between business and IT teams, breaking down silos and enabling cross-functional partnerships.

Developer Community: Engaged and empowered developers through dedicated training, support, and recognition programs.

Conclusion:

From production line to patient care, data sharing across the business is essential to the resilience and future of any company to always be improving the entire lifecycle of the business. From identifying efficiencies, to improving quality and experience, and driving future innovations – data is the fuel, and how you access that data is key.

‘There is so much to learn from the science aspects of our products through to the mechanical aspects of our equipment to create a better experience for our patients.’

This successful implementation of a data mesh framework, powered by Immuta demonstrates the significant cost and operational efficiency gains that can be achieved in manufacturing and pharma through automated data access control, decentralized data ownership, and a focus on reusable data products. By embracing a data-driven culture and empowering product teams, this transformation has unlocked the value of its data and accelerated its journey towards becoming a more agile and data-centric organization.

With benefits exceeding $50 million and over 200 data products in production, this transformation highlights the power of data democratization and the impact it can have on business outcomes.