Inside Pfizer's Evolving Pharma Supply Chain

(upbeat music) I'm Jenna Fink and this is 0100, the unboring supply chain podcast. Between the pandemic, global conflicts, labor disputes and escalating terror trauma, supply chain leaders have had a lot to contend with in recent years. Keeping up with customer demand is a priority across industries, but when it comes to developing and delivering critical medicines, the stakes are particularly high. Perhaps no one understands this better than the folks at Pfizer, who have continuously evolved their supply chains to meet the challenges of today and set themselves up for greater resilience tomorrow. So, how did I do it? I've got supply chain VP for America's Barbara Garcia and VP for Amaya, Fiona Arda here to tell me all about it. Barbara, Fiona, welcome to the podcast. - Hi, Jenna, thanks so much for having me. I'm really excited to be here. Hi, Jenna, really delighted to be here and looking forward to our discussion. Me too. And you know, I can't believe it's been five years since COVID pushed its way into the world during lockdown. Barbara, I know you were actually at Pfizer at the time overseeing efforts to get the vaccine out and strengthen its supply network to cope with this massive surge. Can you tell me a little bit about what that time was like for the company? - When I think back to the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, it stands out as one of the most intense and defining periods of my career. For those of us at Pfizer, it was a period of extraordinary purpose, transformation and growth, and like anything I had experienced before. The stakes with our COVID-19 vaccine were enormous. It really felt like every decision, every delay, every breakthrough had real human impact. And we faced so many curve falls, we were not just delivering vaccines, we were delivering hope. And that sheer purpose brought the very best in us, and we really made the impossible possible and at light speed. And then I imagine going from producing 200 million vaccine doses a year to nearly two billion and doing it under 12 months. Well, that's exactly what we did. Teams came together like never before, even under pressure. And what really stood out for me was the empathy. Colleagues were truly listening to one another and at all levels in the organization. At the time I had a four and a six year old at home, no nanny and a supply chain to run. And I remember my kids would pop up on camera during my video calls. And instead of judgment, there was understanding. Looking back, I wouldn't wish for that kind of crisis again, but I am so very grateful for what you taught me, both personally and professionally. It made me a better leader, a better teammate, and a more grounded human being. I love to hear that. And I feel like so many of us have similar shared experiences of just how life and work fundamentally changed during COVID. And Fiona, I know you actually weren't in supply chain at the time. You were on the commercial side of the business, but I'd love to hear from you about how was your experience in the commercial side during all of this change? That's sure, Jenna. And it's so funny because what Barbara has just shared, she has to share it with me before. And Nor have I shared my experiences with her before. And in fact, what I'm going to share is very similar. And I think that's one of the reasons why we were so successful. So I was leading a commercial team working across international markets, focusing on patient access to some of our COVID portfolio. And I have to say, it was a time that I still feel so proud of and so energized by what we delivered really as an enterprise, as Barbara said, was groundbreaking. And the common theme across anybody working in commercial or, I believe, global supply at that time was this common sense of purpose. We were all working on the bigger picture. We all had an unwavering desire to deliver for our patients and for our families. And a lot of what we achieved, I believe, was down to a couple of things, actually three to four things. One was some really smart leadership decisions at the outset. And that's something that should not be overlooked and was the first big enabler of what we achieved. The second was a belief by leadership in the talent of our organization. And this really empowered colleagues to work and make decisions in the best interests of patients. And then finally, a culture that is really second to none. A lot of us who've worked for Pfizer have worked for Pfizer for a long time, and there's a reason for that. Colleagues work really, really well together. And we've managed to attract the brightest and the best and it really shines through when the chips are down. And in fact, the pandemic experience that I had was one that made me want to make the leap after about 24 years in commercial roles across different organizations. It made me want to move to supply chain because I saw firsthand the talent and culture at Pfizer Global Supply, which in all of my experience working in all of the roles that I've had and for all of the companies that I've had is the best that I've ever come across. And I really believe we have the best talent in the business and that makes coming to work every day at privilege, but also a privilege to have help Pfizer deliver what we did throughout the pandemic. Incredible story about how you were able to deliver with just really, really strong talent, leadership and culture through that. But Barbara, we know that there were challenges that came through the supply chain during COVID. So I'm curious from your perspective, what vulnerabilities in the Global Supply Chain for Pharma specifically did the pandemic reveal? - That's right, Jenna. The pandemic, even just these rap supply chains, it really also revealed our weak spots. And I would start with the end-to-end visibility or rather the lack of it. When the pandemic hit, many companies realized that we couldn't see what was happening across our supply chains or at least not in real time. And that meant delays in anticipating disruptions, managing stockouts, mitigating other risks more effectively. Next up, I would probably say inflexible manufacturing and regulatory bottlenecks. Most supply chains were really built for stability, not so much for speed. And when it came time to pivot and scale up production, the machinery, both literally the production equipment as well as regulatory, just couldn't keep up. Emergency changes in sourcing and production took time and it was time that we didn't have. And it really slowed down many of our timelines. And then, of course, there was a logistics infrastructure that simply was not built for the crisis of this scale. Global networks collapsed under the pressure of demand spikes, border closures, and also limited cold chain capacity. And of course, we can't overlook the drug shortages. These weren't new, but the pandemic really made them worse, especially for critical care medications like injectables and ICU drugs. Finally, I would say the pandemic really revealed a clear need for more agility when it comes to the organizational designs. Companies had to rethink how teams were organized and breakdown silos between the month planning, manufacturing, logistics, sales order management, and create much more integrated organizations and ecosystems. So we know that there were a lot of barriers and vulnerabilities that were exposed during this, but also sounds like there was ways that Pfizer was able to really lean into their organization to help overcome those. And so Fiona, I'm curious from your perspective, what role did talent and specifically the people in your organization play to help Pfizer move with agility through all of this? Jenna, I think talent plates such a huge role in this. And when I say talent, I mean mindset, commitment, and the level of commitment that any of our colleagues working on the COVID portfolio demonstrated was really astonishing. I've never seen anything like it. I don't think I'll ever experience anything like it again. And I think I mentioned before that senior management gave very clear empowerment on light speed ways of working, which meant quick decision-making with the ability to get things done in much more efficient ways than we had done previously. And then finally, it was a lot around having the right people in the right place. We have really smart people in all areas of Pfizer with crucially the right attitude. So if you lay down a problem for us, we have the best minds to solve it. And I think this was the biggest piece of the success puzzle for us in my opinion. And particularly around agility, we roll on the same team working to help the world with the biggest challenge we had faced. And this was our core focus that we didn't deviate from. - I mean, what an incredible story of coming together and kind of working in new ways to solve what, as you mentioned, hopefully the biggest challenge of all of our lifetimes in supply chain, but certainly for yours. And so if we think about the learnings that came up through this new way of working, Barbara, I'm curious from you, how have the changes that you implemented or the strategies that you implemented during the pandemic? How have they reshaped supply chain at Pfizer since then? - It forces us to rethink everything. How we plan, how we respond, how we lead, and it has really reshaped our culture in ways that continue to define how we operate and run our supply chain. We now have a supply network that I would say is a lot more agile, more resilient, and more globally integrated than ever before. Our supply chain organization is investing heavily in the decision to enhance visibility, agility, predicted capabilities, and to do so across our end-to-end network. Our supply chain is now leveraging AI and automation to streamline operations and reduce manual intervention, but also to proactively manage risks, optimize inventory, and ensure that continuity of products supplied to patients that was so critical during the pandemic. And once again, it's really not just about the technology, it's about the people and the culture that we have created. And it's a culture where innovation is now expected. At Pfizer, our purpose is breakthroughs that change patients' lives, and really with older learnings from the pandemic years, we can confidently say that our supply chain is really built to deliver on that promise and to do that every single day. - I truly can't think of a better example of living out your purpose than the work that you all did, and how you've incorporated that into your future organization, your future structure, to really lean into some of that innovation and that expectation of excellence and excellence in delivery. And so I'm gonna pivot a little bit, and Fiona, I know you're relatively new to the world of supply chain. You've been on the other side on the commercial side, but I would love to hear from you about what are the biggest challenges facing the global pharma supply chains today, different than maybe what we saw during COVID and in the pandemic years? - Great question, Jenna. And I think there are a lot of parallels actually with the COVID years, because to me, the biggest challenge we face is uncertainty. We have global geopolitical pressures, and we are tasked to deliver consistently in a world that is very inconsistent. And that, to me, is the biggest challenge. So we need to have the ability to change on a dime. We need to be super agile. We need to ensure we continuously improve and hold ourselves to exceptionally high standards. And what we've done as a supply chain organization is made significant efforts to design processes, employ technology, and we've really empowered our talent that allows us to act with agility to ensure we always maintain our commitment to patients despite what is going on in the world, which is the most important thing because that's our purpose, patients are our purpose. But we also wanted to deliver a competitive advantage. So no matter what industry you work in at supply chain, we're at the co-face of current affairs, geopolitical impacts, and global commerce, and it's such an exciting place to be. And also, I do want to point out that I think the impact that supply chain organizations can have on enterprises as a whole is so significant. From enterprise business planning to risk management, I really think that supply chain organizations have a much greater role to play in setting organizations up for sustained growth and business impact. And actually, at Pfizer, global supply, we're aiming to do just that. And it's something that I think we're all very proud of. And I think you know here at 0100, we are all supply chain evangelists. So I love hearing from your perspective, just the value that supply chain can take is as a leader of cross enterprises. But I want to talk about the customer quickly. So Barbara, I know the customer expectations have continued to evolve. And when we talk about customers that could look like different patients or partners throughout the supply chain. But from your perspective, how have customer expectations really changed in recent years? Well, traditional supply chains used to be all about efficiency, cutting costs, hitting throughput targets, staying compliant. But that has indeed changed. There has been a real cultural shift towards much more customers and tricity. Today, it's about designing our logistics and supply chain operations around what customers actually really want and need. Customers expect the same transparency and responsiveness that they are seeing in other industries like fast-moving consumer goods. But think about it. We can now track a pizza to our very doorstep. That visibility into orders, shipments, and inventory isn't really no longer a bonus. It's the baseline. Customers expect more. And that's pushing supply chains to become more agile and also more daily enabled. At Pfizer, we have elevated customer experience as one of our core operational processes. And we now have dedicated teams to customer experience. We are really embedding it into the DNA of our supply chain decision making. We are leveraging data to try to better listen to and deliver on those customer needs. We're beginning to address customer segments differently and really deviate from previous one-site speeds all type of approaches. We're now embedding customer experience metrics into our visual management boards, which did not include as many of these metrics in the past. And we're really evolving our digital ecosystem to support that shipment and inventory visibility and to do it in real time. So as someone who loves to order things online and track packages, I think the transparency and visibility really resonates with me. And I love hearing that there are a lot of things that are going on specifically at Pfizer where you're looking at that customer experience. Fiona, as someone who's come from the commercial side and is now supporting that customer operations and customer support work, how have you evolved your customer experience to deliver better outcomes? So last year we reached over 414 million patients across the globe. And to do that, we delivered over 17,000 SKUs across 111 countries. And that is a mammoth task. So to do this successfully, we need to be totally focused on patient impact and customer service. And the two of those are inherently linked. So we've been working over the past 18 months on developing what we believe is actually an industry leading approach to the customer experience. So from ordering to delivery and service provision. And we've developed this as an enterprise approach based on actually the Herman Brain model that looks at the customer experience holistically. And this allows us to have a continuous feedback loop on how that experience is for our customers, which gives us the ability to react quickly upon that feedback. We've also heavily invested in a full digital ecosystem to allow a frictionless experience for all of our first paying customers. So working for Pfizer means delivering breakthroughs that change patient's lives. And we have a really relentless focus on the pursuit of an excellent customer experience that helps us to deliver on that purpose. I really appreciate hearing stories where supply chain is not just solving for the immediate need in front of them within supply, but also helping really support entire communities in real time. But I'm going to take it right back to where are we at today? Fiona, I'd love to hear from you about how are you specifically using AI to optimize your supply chains? And what breakthrough technologies have you either adopted recently or you and your team experimenting with? At Pfizer, I think we're always optimizing our supply chains. It's a continuous improvement loop. And in fact, recently, we have developed with some great vision by our head of supply chain, a new industry-leading supply chain model, which we call NextGen. And this looks at the end-to-end supply chain holistically across products and markets, too. And I was to deliver our medicines to patients at the right time through the right channels and at the right speed. And core to the development of this strategy is the triad of talent, process, and technology, including AI. And we really think we've gotten this right. And core to this, though, is taking a very thoughtful approach to AI. So not using it just as a blanket saying, look, AI is the new kid on the block. We're going to use it. We're just much more strategic and thoughtful. So we're using it to either enhance or optimize a process or solve a business problem. And I think that's such an important thing for any enterprise to think about when thinking about their AI strategy. As I said before, we're utilizing it across the full end-to-end supply chain with great success. So we've developed in-house models to be able to predict our out-of-stocks with an optimal time scale. We've managed to harness AI to optimize our customer experience. We're looking at our demand planning processes and inventory management. And we're also looking at ways of improving and optimizing our distribution and logistics networks with the development of a control center that allows full visibility of all our products across all geographies at all times. And finally, our head of freight and logistics is also using AI to make smart freight procurement decisions. And that has a really powerful effect on the overall organization. So I would say we're being very thoughtful and mindful of how we adopt AI. We're doing us a lot across the organization, but in a very mindful way. I appreciate you adding in the element of how you're infusing that into the decision-making and really trying to look at the problem to be solved in the challenge, as opposed to just applying technology for the sake of technology. So really excited to hear how you continue to evolve the next gen program and see what's next. So with that, I'd actually love to hear from each of you as we head into the second half of 2025, what are you most excited about, Advisor? I am most excited about the opportunity to influence how we reimagine our supply chain workforce. And by the way, I'm looking forward to partnering with 0100 in order to do that. I do believe our future success largely depends not so much in the technology and the tools which will be there, but on how we build a more detailed affluent and empower organization, where colleagues at every level, whether it's at the shop floor or in our global planning hubs, they feel equipped to thrive in a detailed world, and they also feel energized by change, and they feel confident in these times of uncertainty that we live in. And beyond that, all of the process-focused work that we're driving is really pointing towards smarter, faster, and more resilient and efficient supply chain ecosystem. So I really believe there is a lot to be excited about. Great. Fiona? Oh, it's hard to beat that Barbara, but I'll give it a go. I would say I'm most excited about our talent and our ability to make the impossible possible. So we have a really amazing team who embrace change. They consistently challenge the status quo, and always have patience at the heart of everything they do. And honestly, I feel that's a winning combination. So I'm really excited about the second half of 2025, and actually going into 2026. People in neither of you asked me, but what I can share is that I am really excited to continue working with both of you and the Pfizer team to help really understand how we can continue to support and build this strategy. And I can't wait to see how it comes to life, because if there's one thing I've learned today, it's that both of you are incredibly passionate about the people in your organizations and about enabling that shared purpose. And I do appreciate the peak behind the curtain that you shared about. The challenge is through COVID and how you manage those. But then on the flip side, how are you taking those and applying them to what the future of Pfizer will look like? And so with that, I just want to thank you, Viana Barbra, so much for today's discussion. And a special thanks to Alicia Elaine and Caroline Schumacov for production of today's podcast. For more insights from 0100, you can find us on LinkedIn or at 0100.com or in our new 0100 members app. And if you enjoyed this episode, please leave us a rating or a review wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Jenna Fink, and this is 0100. (upbeat music)