Vinay Deshmukh
Vinay Deshmukh, Executive Director & CEO, Forbes Facility Services, breaks down the first and last steps of pharma facility management.
As compared to other industrial clients, what is unique about your contracts with pharma clients?
Compared to other manufacturing units, the requirement for Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) in pharma is the main difference. The requirement of GMP-trained employees and experienced employees makes pharma FM different.
Why is agility and flexibility important in pharma FM?
There can be surprise regulatory audits in pharma plants, which keeps the factory employee alert and flexible all the time. All the regulatory audits are not pre-planned but done with one or two days prior notice only. Hence, the plant has to be ready for audits at all times.
How should a pharma company go about planning its housekeeping budget?
There are different types of regulatory and non regulatory plants requirements. Manpower is also planned depending upon the certification of the plant. Design of the plant also plays a major role in deciding the budgets.
In pharma plants, the agreement is mostly based on SLAs, so all the responsibility falls on the service provider. Cleaning machine maintenance is also the responsibility of service providers and other liability of employees shall fall under the vendor scope.
It depends upon the size, design and product of the plant. If the total budget of the plant is 100%, then the total spend on FM is to be less than 8%, which includes housekeeping, catering, maintenance and other FM requirements.
What are your strengths while pitching to a pharma client?
Core competency in mechanised housekeeping, trained staff in GMP atmosphere, quality product usage and knowledge of Type A and Type B cleaning processes. We are a 100% compliant company and always ready for any legal audit by any internal, external or governement body.
How is the cleaning process in a pharma factory documented?
Each and every job is defined in the SOP and all the work is done as per the SOP only. This is documented and verified by the supervisor immediately after the completion of the job. Every area has a different logbook with scheduled chemical specifications and frequency of usage.
How are the reports generated?
Mostly, all cleaning reports are manually compiled and to be filled by the worker who has performed the task, and then verified by the supervisor and the area owner/supervisor. Some clients allow us to use technology such as smartphones on which they record real-time cleaning activity through apps and photos uploading.
How frequently are the reports generated and submitted to the client?
All the reports are to be filled after each round of cleaning, submitted to the client in every shift and filed for record-keeping.