How Bristol Myers Squibb Optimises Its Global Manufacturing Network Strategy – Interview with Daniel Hurni

“Manufacturing network strategy is about connecting the dots and seeing the interconnectivity between different brands,” explains Daniel Hurni, Director of Manufacturing Network Strategy and Business Intelligence at Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS).

Daniel Hurni brings years of life sciences expertise to his role at BMS, where he is responsible for shaping overarching manufacturing network strategies across small molecules, biologics, and cell and gene therapy business units. His experience spans technical transfer projects, incident management, and long-term strategic planning.

In a the latest episode of the PharmaSource podcast, Daniel shared invaluable insights into the complexities of developing and implementing an effective manufacturing network strategy in the pharmaceutical industry.

He explains why a robust long-term manufacturing network strategy is crucial for optimizing costs, improving margins, and ensuring supply chain resilience in an increasingly complex global landscape.

Long-Term Planning: The Cornerstone of Manufacturing Network Strategy

Daniel emphasized the importance of long-term planning in manufacturing network strategy, explaining that BMS typically looks around 10 years into the future when developing its strategy.

This long-term view is crucial for several reasons:

1. Product Life Cycle: Given that technical transfers can take around three years, manufacturing network strategy needs to account for an 8-10 year horizon when considering the product life cycle of a brand.
2. Capacity Planning: Long-term manufacturing network strategy allows for better capacity management, ensuring that the company can meet demand without generating excessive costs from idle capacity.
3. Strategic Partnerships: BMS shares its long-term manufacturing network strategy with strategic partners to collaboratively build the capabilities and capacities needed for the future.

“From a manufacturing network strategy perspective, the longer out you look, the more inaccurate your data becomes,” Daniel notes. “However, certain industry trends that are longer term can be accounted for when doing 10-15 year outlooks.”

Balancing Internal and External Manufacturing in Network Strategy

Another critical aspect of BMS’s manufacturing network strategy is striking the right balance between internal and external manufacturing, says Daniel.

“We bring it all together and see how we can create the balance between internal and external manufacturing that makes sense from a strategic perspective,” he says.

Key considerations in manufacturing network strategy include:

• Business Continuity: Ensuring redundancy in the supply chain for critical products.
• Brand Strategy: Avoiding concentration risk by diversifying manufacturing locations for high-value brands.
• Capacity Flexibility: Maintaining the ability to respond to both upside and downside demand scenarios.
• Technology Access: Leveraging external partners for new technologies or capabilities not available in-house.

Risk Management and Scenario Planning in Manufacturing Network Strategy

BMS employs a comprehensive approach to risk management as part of its manufacturing network strategy, which Daniel refers to as the Enterprise Risk Management System or Integrated Risk Management System. This system captures various risks, including:

• Business Continuity Management (BCM) events
• Pandemics
• Natural disasters
• Site-specific scenarios

“Whatever scenario you have, you can mitigate that with different levers.” he says. “You can, for example, build stock to cover till you come back online with manufacturing side. Or you can build in certain flexibility, or you can build redundancies.”

Stakeholder Management in Manufacturing Network Strategy

Given the complexity of manufacturing network strategy, effective stakeholder management is crucial. Daniel shared some key principles for successfully working across different teams:

1. Establishing guiding principles aligned with company strategy
2. Defining clear strategic imperatives for the manufacturing network
3. Prioritizing transparent communication across the network
4. Focusing on data-driven decision making in network strategy
5. Incorporating an “outside-in” perspective to consider industry trends and external factors

“We are generating a set of guiding principles that help us like a North Star, in what direction we want to go with our manufacturing network strategy,” he explains.

Embracing New Technologies

While discussing the future of pharmaceutical manufacturing, Daniel highlighted the importance of integrating new technologies into the manufacturing network strategy. However, he cautioned against a one-size-fits-all approach:

“We should see digitalisation as just one potential solution. Does it make sense for this particular challenge within our manufacturing network strategy?”

Daniel emphasized the need for a balanced approach to digitising manufacturing operations, considering factors such as:

• Data standardization across different contract manufacturers
• Contractual frameworks for data sharing
• Cybersecurity considerations
• Alignment of digitalization roadmaps with strategic partners

How to get started?

For those embarking on manufacturing network strategy for the first time, Daniel advises: “Create, put all the relevant data on the table, have an understanding of the company strategy, and then connect. What is it that manufacturing needs to do in order to make the company strategy successful?”