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Adapting Continuous Improvement Across Cultures

Implementing Continuous Improvement across diverse cultural and industrial landscapes presents unique challenges and opportunities. Jean-Christophe Pellegrini, Operational Performance Director at the Delpharm Group, shared his extensive experience and insights on this subject. Since joining Delpharm in 2018, Jean-Christophe has leveraged his background in engineering, having worked globally in the plastics, electronics, and automotive sectors. Pellegrini offers valuable perspectives on the importance of adapting CI practices to local contexts and the critical role of management in fostering a continuous improvement culture.

One of the critical challenges in implementing CI across different sites is dealing with varying levels of familiarity and experience with CI practices. Pellegrini highlights that top management buy-in is essential. He stresses the importance of proving the practical benefits of CI tools to gain acceptance. By carrying out benchmarks and showing tangible results, Jean-Christophe shows the importance of these tools in daily problem resolution with undeniable value and effectiveness. Exposing top management to successful implementations further allows him to effectively communicate the benefits and garner their support.

“Continuous improvement must be carried and positioned at the highest level of the company.” – declared Jean-Christophe Pellegrini

A significant aspect of Pellegrini’s strategy is to adapt CI practices to the specific needs of the pharmaceutical industry. Its unique quality and regulatory constraints require a tailored CI system that can integrate seamlessly with the company’s operations. He explains that a company must involve all departments within an organization, not just the production team, to achieve true efficacy in CI. Jean-Christophe highlights the misconception that CI is solely about improving production processes. Instead, he advocates for an “excellence system”  integrating CI practices across the company. Consequently, he developed the Delpharm Excellence System (DES), tailored to the unique needs and constraints of the pharma industry.

As Jean-Christophe stated, “You must end the silos,” which highlights how hard it is to implement a unified system across countries, each with its own cultural and operational differences. Organizations can deploy a more holistic and sustainable improvement process by involving all departments and ensuring they work together to achieve operational success. This approach fosters collaboration and ensures every part of the organization contributes to and benefits from continuous improvement efforts.

Pellegrini’s insights provide a comprehensive understanding of the complexities of implementing Continuous Improvement practices across diverse cultural and industrial landscapes. His emphasis on tailoring CI practices to local contexts, overcoming cultural and industrial challenges, and ensuring management support highlights the complex nature of CI and operational excellence.

To learn more about Jean-Christophe’s insights on these topics, tune into the LEADERS in CI Community episode. Discover how Jean-Christophe navigates CI’s complexities globally and learn from his experiences and strategies.