Deborah Mackin, principle consultant at New Directions Consulting, Inc. and author of the team-building tool kit series, including The Team-Building Tool Kit, Second Edition in 2007 (AMACOM), recently published Building a Process-Efficiency Mindset in Pharmafocus Magazine’s June edition. Pharmafocus Magazine, a publication by National Pharmaceutical Sciences Group (PSG), is designed to augment the professional development of PSG members by featuring up-to-date articles about technical and compliance issues, the pharmaceutical industry, PSG courses, seminars, management skills, and other topics of interest.
A second publication by Mackin in Pharmafocus Magazine, Building a Process-Efficiency Mindset explores the five general areas every organization should focus on when trying to improve its own internal processes. Mackin also highlights how to build a continuous improvement mindset in organizations while dealing with the daily complexities of business. Looking at internal wastes, progressive initiatives and the work of business guru Deming, Mackin brings a clear road-map and starting point to the idea of process efficiency.
Mackin has worked extensively in the manufacturing, government, military and pharmaceutical industries and is seen as an authority on building this type of mindset in such companies as Lockheed Martin, Knowles Atomic Laboratory, the U.S. Navy, Sanofi Pasteur, Delta Faucet, and Ellis Hospital. Mackin is best known in the technical industries for her ability to focus on building the competencies of the people engaged in the technical skills. “We sometimes forget that people, not technology or purely technical skills, drive our economic engine and innovation,” Mackin stated. “However, people alone can’t do it. There needs to be a good mixture of both the processes and the people involved to yield maximum performance. I hope this publication can begin to shed some light on key areas where we can build efficiency skills and competent workers for the next generation of organizations.”