Lilly, a global pharmaceutical leader with over 42,000 employees and operations in 22 sites across nine countries, has leveraged Benchmark Gensuite’s Auditing & Inspection Management tools since 2014. Over the past decade, these tools have profoundly impacted their ability to streamline processes, enhance data management, and drive continuous improvement in their health and safety practices.
Before adopting Benchmark Gensuite, Lilly faced significant challenges in managing their inspection processes. The company relied heavily on paper-based methods, with extensive binders of data stored in their Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) library.
This manual approach not only consumed considerable time and resources but also limited their ability to analyze and act on the data collected. The need for a more efficient, scalable solution became apparent as the company expanded its operations and faced increased regulatory demands.
In 2014, Lilly began using Benchmark Gensuite’s Auditing & Inspection Management tools, a decision that marked a turning point in their approach to inspections. The implementation was methodical, involving careful planning, training, and the development of local power users through a train-the-trainer model. This ensured that employees at all levels were equipped to use the new system effectively.
Since the adoption of Benchmark Gensuite ten years ago, Lilly has completed over 154,000 inspections to date, with a steady increase in the number of inspections each year. The tools' mobile capabilities have been particularly beneficial, allowing inspectors to conduct audits on-site using mobile devices, significantly reducing the need for manual data entry and paper records. “The mobile capabilities are great, especially for our ad hoc inspections. With expansions, we have been kept very, very busy. We have a lot of projects going on with new buildings, new sites, and businesses that we are launching so the ability for employees to take a cell phone and do inspections on those projects out in the field is very powerful. It’s literally mimicking the real world,” Tracy shared.
One of the most significant advantages of the Benchmark Gensuite system is its ability to centralize and analyze inspection data. Previously, Lilly’s active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) business unit previously conducted daily inspections, which were then stored in a large binder and filed away in the GMP library. After digitizing the process with Benchmark Gensuite, however, the team came to a startling realization.
“Once it got put into the Benchmark Gensuite application, we could see we’ve gone six months, eight months, ten months, without a finding,” said Traci Nicholson, Senior Health & Safety Leader. “No one was going back to the GMP library and looking at 10 months’ worth of findings, but I can see it right here in the dashboard.” This insight allowed them to reduce the frequency of inspections from daily to weekly, and eventually to monthly, thereby freeing up resources for more critical tasks.
“There are weekly emails [with findings] that we generate and push out to people. They don’t even have to ask for it. They've always got that information available to them, freeing up time to actually data mine your results. If I'm not having to pester people to get things done and mail those things out and remind people to do things, and such, I've got more time to look at the results that are there. It frees up leadership to engage in GEMBA walks and engage with people.”
Initially, there were varying levels of enthusiasm for the new tools among employees. However, after a pilot program that included diverse user groups—from tech-savvy employees to those skeptical about digital solutions—all participants recognized the value of the new system. This led to what Traci Nicholson described as a “contagious uptake,” where employees across different units began advocating for the tool’s broader application. “Leveraging our local power users has helped us increase visibility of our inspection activity.”
“When we first rolled this out, we did a pilot with a small group of people, one of whom was a young, tech-savvy person. We had one person who was like, ‘I was told to be here, just tell me what it is that I need to do.’ And one curmudgeon with a flip phone who said, ‘This isn't going to work, I'm never gonna be able to support this.’ And when we were done with the pilot, all of them came back to us and said, ‘This is great! Have you told so and so we could use it for this application over here? People got REALLY engaged.”
The transition to Benchmark Gensuite also allowed Lilly to move away from their previous heavily customized tools, which were difficult and expensive to maintain. Benchmark Gensuite’s best practice-based, field-tested workflows ensure their solution continuously evolves to meet their needs. “People were very pleased that we had something much more user friendly than the previous application we were using,” Tracy added.
The partnership with Benchmark Gensuite has enabled Lilly to not only streamline their inspection processes but also to adopt a more strategic, data-driven approach to health and safety management.
The success of this implementation is evident in the significant reduction of manual tasks, improved inspection accuracy, and the ability to make informed decisions based on real-time data. Lilly has also begun utilizing Describe-It AI to help the frontline draft more comprehensive descriptions of inspection findings. As Lilly continues to expand and evolve, the Auditing & Inspection Management tools from Benchmark Gensuite remain a critical component of their operational excellence strategy.
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