<div> With decreasing profit margins, increasing cost pressures, growing regulatory compliance concerns, mounting pressure from generic drugs and increasing anxiety about the future of healthcare reimbursement, pharmaceutical manufacturers are now forced to re-examine and re-assess the way they have been doing things. In order to sustain profitability, these companies are looking to reduce waste (of all kinds), improve efficiency and increase productivity. Many of them are taking a closer look at lean manufacturing as a way to achieve these goals.<BR> <br> A major goal of the book is to highlight those problems that appear more specific or unique to biopharmaceutical manufacturing situations and to provide insights into what challenges are important to solve and what techniques, tools and mechanisms to employ to successfully meet the challenge. The author approaches this subject from a pharmaceutical practitioner's point of view, and re-visits lean principles in order to practically apply these principles to the specific needs of pharmaceutical processes.</div>