Building the foundation of development through collaborative efforts - Anhui Zhonghui Pharmaceutical drives high-quality enterprise transition through team cooperation

In the core hinterland of the Wanjiang pharmaceutical industry cluster, Anhui Zhonghui Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Zhonghui Pharmaceutical") is writing a chapter in the development of high-tech pharmaceutical enterprises with strong teamwork. As a modern pharmaceutical enterprise focusing on the production of chemical drugs and traditional Chinese patent medicines and simple preparations and integrating drug R&D, production and sales, China Pharmaceutical has been deeply aware since its inception that the full chain characteristics of the pharmaceutical industry determine that "lone heroes" are difficult to achieve great things. Only by combining the scattered individual forces into a coordinated team, can China Pharmaceutical continue to lead the way in R&D, production quality improvement and market development. For many years, enterprises have taken "breaking down departmental barriers, strengthening collaborative awareness, and improving cooperation mechanisms" as the starting point to build a team cooperation system covering the entire process of research and development, production, and sales, making team strength the core engine driving high-quality development of enterprises and injecting strong momentum into the upgrading of Anhui's pharmaceutical industry.

R&D end: Cross domain collaboration breaks down barriers and tackles core technology 'no man's land'

Drug research and development is a high investment, high-risk, and long-term system engineering. From target discovery, compound synthesis to clinical trials, each link requires the integration of multidisciplinary knowledge and collaboration among multiple personnel. Zhonghui Pharmaceutical breaks the limitations of the traditional R&D model of "each research group fighting independently" and builds a team cooperation mechanism of "interdisciplinary and internal external linkage", shifting R&D forces from "dispersed combat" to "group tackling", significantly improving R&D efficiency and achievement conversion rate.

Internal integration: Establish a "matrix style" R&D team to achieve knowledge complementarity

In the R&D center of Zhonghui Pharmaceutical, there are no isolated laboratories or closed research groups. Instead, a "matrix style" team structure is adopted - with R&D projects as the core, integrating professionals from different fields such as chemical synthesis, pharmacological research, formulation development, and quality analysis to form an interdisciplinary project tackling team. Each project team has a "dual team leader system", with the technical leader and coordination leader serving respectively. The technical leader leads the research direction, while the coordination leader coordinates resource allocation and cross link communication to ensure seamless integration of the R&D process.

Taking the research and development project of a certain antihypertensive chemical drug as an example, the initial chemical synthesis team encountered bottlenecks in optimizing the molecular structure. Although the synthesized compound met the activity standards, its solubility was insufficient, making it difficult to meet the formulation requirements. The coordination leader immediately organized a joint seminar between the formulation development team, pharmacological research team, and synthesis team. The formulation team proposed solubility improvement directions from the perspective of formulation design, the pharmacological team provided in vivo absorption data support, and the synthesis team integrated these feedback into a roadmap. Finally, through nearly two months of collaborative research among the three teams, the target compound with high activity and high solubility was successfully synthesized, shortening the research and development cycle of this link by 40%.

To ensure the efficiency of internal collaboration, the enterprise has built a "R&D Collaboration Information Platform", which synchronizes R&D data, experimental progress, and problem feedback in real-time at all stages. Team members can view, annotate, and communicate at any time. The platform also has a "problem warning module", which automatically reminds relevant teams to intervene and cooperate when there is a delay or technical problem in a certain link, avoiding problem accumulation. In 2023, the enterprise R&D center will carry out a total of 18 key projects, of which 15 projects have shortened their R&D cycles by more than 30% compared to the industry average, thanks to this internal collaboration mechanism.

Internal and external linkage: linking industry university research resources, building a collaborative innovation ecosystem

Zhonghui Pharmaceutical is well aware that the development of cutting-edge drugs cannot be separated from the support of external high-quality resources. The enterprise adheres to the concept of "open cooperation" and has established long-term cooperative relationships with 12 universities including Anhui Medical University and China Pharmaceutical University, as well as 5 research institutions including Hefei Institute of Physical Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences. It has formed a "collaborative innovation team of industry, academia, research and application" to complement the basic research advantages of universities, the equipment resource advantages of research institutions, and the industrialization advantages of enterprises.

In the research and development of a traditional Chinese patent medicines and simple preparations for chronic bronchitis, the research and development team of China Association Pharmaceutical, the pharmacology team of Anhui Medical University and the separation and purification team of Chinese Academy of Sciences formed a joint research team. The university team is responsible for screening active ingredients in traditional Chinese medicine and conducting preliminary pharmacological research. The Chinese Academy of Sciences team uses advanced separation equipment to accurately extract and purify active ingredients, while the enterprise R&D team develops formulations and optimizes processes based on these results. The tripartite team has established a "bi weekly meeting" system to synchronize progress and solve problems through a combination of online and offline methods. Experts from universities and research institutions also regularly visit the enterprise's R&D center to provide on-site guidance for experimental work.

In order to overcome the "information barriers" and "interest barriers" in bankruptcy academic research cooperation, enterprises and cooperative units have signed clear agreements on the sharing of achievements and distribution of benefits, stipulating the ownership of intellectual property rights of research and development achievements and the proportion of transformation income distribution, so that all parties can achieve win-win results in cooperation. At the same time, the company has established the "Zhonghui Pharmaceutical Innovation Scholarship" in universities to support outstanding research talents and reserve reserve reserve forces for collaborative teams. In the past three years, through the collaborative team of industry university research, the enterprise has obtained a total of 23 core technology patents, of which 8 have been successfully transformed into industrialized products, creating significant economic benefits for the enterprise.

Mechanism guarantee: Activate the collaborative vitality of the R&D team through incentives and assessments

In order to take root the concept of teamwork, Zhonghui Pharmaceutical has established a research and development assessment and incentive mechanism guided by collaborative results, breaking the traditional evaluation model of "individual performance first" and incorporating the effectiveness of teamwork into the core assessment indicators. In the performance evaluation of R&D personnel, "team contribution" accounts for 40%, mainly assessing their communication efficiency, willingness to share resources, and cooperation in problem-solving within the team; The assessment of the project team is centered around "R&D progress, achievement conversion rate, and technological breakthrough value", and the assessment results are directly linked to team bonuses and promotion opportunities.

The company also sets up the "R&D Collaboration Award", which annually selects teams and individuals who have demonstrated outstanding performance in cross team and cross domain collaboration, and provides special bonuses and honorary recognition. In 2023, the above-mentioned antihypertensive chemical drug research and development team was awarded the title of "Annual Best R&D Collaborative Team" for efficient collaboration. The team members not only received a bonus of 20000 yuan per capita, but their collaborative achievements were also included in the company's R&D training cases, providing reference for other teams. In addition, the company regularly organizes "R&D Experience Sharing Meetings", inviting excellent collaborative teams to share their cooperation experience and communication skills, creating a good atmosphere of "comparing collaboration and innovation".

Production end: closed-loop collaboration improves efficiency and builds a solid "lifeline" for quality and safety

The production of drugs is related to public health and has extremely high requirements for the standardization, stability, and safety of the production process. Zhonghui Pharmaceutical takes "full process collaboration" as the core and has built a three in one team cooperation system of "production execution quality control equipment guarantee", which closely connects and supports each link, ensuring drug quality and improving production efficiency.

Process Collaboration: From "Segmented Homework" to "Seamless Connection"

In traditional pharmaceutical production, there are often gaps in the connection between raw material procurement, intermediate synthesis, formulation production, and finished product packaging due to poor information flow, resulting in production delays. Zhonghui Pharmaceutical breaks the "segmented operation" mode and establishes a "production full process collaboration team", which includes personnel from procurement, production, warehousing and other departments, to achieve full process collaboration from raw material warehousing to finished product outbound.

In the production planning stage, the collaborative team will combine the market demand forecast of the sales department, the technical parameter requirements of the R&D department, and the raw material supply cycle of the procurement department to develop an accurate production plan; During the production process, teams at each stage synchronize their progress in real-time through the "Production Collaboration Platform". The raw material procurement team predicts the consumption of raw materials in advance to ensure timely supply; The warehousing team plans the storage space in advance based on the production schedule to avoid the backlog of finished products; The packaging team collaborates with the production team to adjust the packaging rhythm according to the batch of products. Taking the production of a batch of traditional Chinese patent medicines and simple preparations tablets as an example, through full process collaboration, the raw material procurement cycle was shortened by 2 days, the production cycle was shortened by 1.5 days, and the warehousing efficiency of finished products was increased by 30%.

To strengthen on-site collaboration, the enterprise implements the "team linkage responsibility system", dividing the production workshop into several production units. Each unit is composed of a "linkage group" consisting of a production operation team, a quality inspection team, and an equipment maintenance team, implementing the "same goal, same assessment". If the operation team discovers equipment abnormalities or quality doubts during the production process, they can notify the equipment and quality team to intervene in the first time to avoid the problem from escalating. In 2023, the response time for equipment failure handling in enterprise production workshops has been reduced from 40 minutes to 15 minutes, and the occurrence rate of quality deviations in the production process has decreased by 60%.

Quality Collaboration: Building a Quality Control Network with Full Participation of All Employees

The quality of drugs is the lifeline of enterprises. Zhonghui Pharmaceutical has established a collaborative control system led by the quality department and involving the entire team, breaking the misconception that quality issues are solely the responsibility of the quality department. Enterprises prioritize quality control nodes to various stages such as research and development, procurement, and production, with each team assuming corresponding quality responsibilities, forming a pattern of 'everyone is a quality supervisor'.

In the raw material procurement process, the procurement team and the quality inspection team form a joint acceptance team. The quality team formulates the raw material quality standards in advance, and the procurement team strictly screens suppliers according to the standards during the procurement process. Before the raw materials are stored, they need to undergo double testing by the joint acceptance team to ensure that the raw material quality meets the standards; In the production process, the quality inspection team works synchronously with the production team, sampling and testing the production process every hour. The testing data is synchronized in real time to the production collaboration platform, and the production team adjusts the operating parameters in a timely manner based on the testing results; In the finished product inspection process, the quality team collaborates with the R&D team to conduct stability tests to ensure that the product meets the market standards.

The enterprise also regularly organizes "quality collaboration training", invites quality experts and production backbone to conduct case analysis meetings, analyzes the shortcomings of team collaboration in past quality problems, and clarifies the quality responsibilities and collaboration processes of each team. In 2023, the company organized 32 quality training sessions, with 1800 employees participating. The annual drug sampling pass rate remained at 100%, and the company successfully passed the GMP flight inspection of the National Medical Products Administration, earning the title of "Anhui Province Drug Quality Trustworthy Enterprise".

Technical collaboration: Overcoming production bottlenecks and promoting process upgrades

With the continuous improvement of drug production standards and changes in market demand, upgrading production processes has become the key to enhancing competitiveness for enterprises. Zhonghui Pharmaceutical has established a "Production Technology Innovation Team" to integrate the strengths of frontline operators, equipment engineers, and R&D technicians, and carry out collaborative research and development to address bottleneck issues in production.

Previously, the synthesis process of a certain chemical drug in the enterprise had problems with long reaction time and many by-products, which not only increased production costs but also increased environmental protection pressure. After the establishment of the technological innovation team, the production operation team provided practical process pain points and operational experience in production. The R&D technicians proposed optimization directions from the perspective of reaction mechanism, while the equipment engineers upgraded the reaction kettle. Through tripartite collaboration, the "continuous flow reaction process" was ultimately optimized, reducing the reaction time from 8 hours to 2 hours and reducing by-product production by 70%. This saved the enterprise nearly 10 million yuan in production costs annually.

To encourage technological collaborative innovation, enterprises establish a "Production Process Improvement Fund" to provide financial support and experimental equipment for innovative teams, and give special rewards to teams that achieve significant breakthroughs. In the past three years, the technology innovation team has completed 12 process upgrade projects and obtained 6 production technology patents. The company's production efficiency has increased by 50% compared to three years ago, and the energy consumption per unit product has decreased by 25%. It has successfully been selected as a "Green Production Demonstration Enterprise" in Anhui Province.

Sales end: Global linkage to expand the market and build a win-win marketing ecosystem

In the context of increasingly fierce competition in the pharmaceutical market, a single sales model is no longer able to adapt to market changes. Zhonghui Pharmaceutical has built a marketing team system that integrates sales, research and development, production, and customer service, with customer needs as the core, to achieve full chain collaboration from market insights to product delivery and after-sales service, continuously improving market share and customer satisfaction.

Front end collaboration: precise insight into demand, targeted market development

Market demand is the "barometer" of enterprise production and sales. Zhonghui Pharmaceutical has established a "market insight collaboration mechanism", led by the sales team, and jointly conducted market research with the R&D team and market research team. The sales team went deep into more than 2000 cooperative medical institutions across the country to collect clinical medication needs, doctor feedback, and competitor information; The market research team conducts data-driven analysis on the collected information to identify unmet clinical needs and market gaps; The R&D team carries out targeted R&D based on these needs, providing "precision strike" product support for the sales team.

In 2022, the sales team discovered through research that primary healthcare institutions have an urgent need for "cost-effective and convenient chronic disease treatment drugs", and immediately formed a detailed demand report in conjunction with the market research team. Based on the report and the original anti diabetes drugs, the R&D team developed the upgraded products of "compound preparation+long-acting dosage form", and the production team quickly completed the industrialization transformation. The sales team developed an exclusive promotion plan for the grassroots market and collaborated with local pharmaceutical companies to conduct "grassroots medication training". In just one year, the product's sales in the grassroots market exceeded 120 million yuan, becoming a new growth pole for the enterprise.

To improve the efficiency of front-end collaboration, the enterprise has built a "market information sharing platform", where the sales team uploads market dynamics and customer needs in real time, and the R&D and production teams provide timely feedback on product development progress and production capacity, achieving two-way information exchange. The platform has also set up a "demand response mechanism". For urgent market demands, relevant teams need to provide preliminary response plans within 24 hours to ensure that market opportunities are not lost.

Mid end collaboration: Connecting the production and sales chain to ensure delivery efficiency

The timely delivery of drugs directly affects customer satisfaction and corporate reputation. Zhonghui Pharmaceutical has established a "sales production logistics" collaborative delivery system to ensure that products can be quickly and accurately delivered to customers. The sales team submits a "demand forecast report" to the production team in advance based on the market order situation, and the production team develops a flexible production plan based on the report, reserving a certain amount of capacity flexibility; The logistics team collaborates with the sales team to optimize transportation routes based on order distribution and delivery deadlines, selecting cold chain or regular transportation methods to ensure the quality and safety of drugs during transportation.

In the high incidence period of influenza in 2023, medical institutions in a certain region suddenly increased their orders for an antiviral traditional Chinese patent medicines and simple preparations, and the order volume increased three times than usual. The sales team synchronizes the order information to the production and logistics team as soon as possible. The production team activates the emergency production plan, adjusts the production plan, and prioritizes the production of the order; The logistics team coordinated cold chain logistics resources and opened up a "green channel", shortening the delivery cycle from 5 days to 2 days, timely meeting the medication needs of medical institutions and enhancing the company's market reputation in the region.

To ensure the stability of collaborative delivery, the enterprise has established strategic partnerships with multiple large logistics companies, signed emergency transportation agreements, and set up 8 regional warehousing centers nationwide to achieve nearby product distribution. In 2023, the on-time delivery rate of enterprise drug orders reached 98.5%, and the customer complaint rate decreased by 75% year-on-year.

Backend collaboration: Improve service system and enhance customer stickiness

Zhonghui Pharmaceutical is well aware that high-quality after-sales service is the key to enhancing customer stickiness. We have established a collaborative service system of "sales customer service research and development" to provide customers with professional services throughout the entire lifecycle. The customer service team is responsible for receiving customer inquiries, complaints, and suggestions, establishing a "customer problem ledger," and promptly directing them to relevant teams based on the type of problem. For product usage issues, the sales team collaborates with the customer service team to provide on-site guidance; For product quality issues, the quality team intervenes in the investigation and provides professional explanations; The R&D team evaluates and provides feedback on the progress of product improvement suggestions.

The enterprise also regularly organizes "customer service collaboration meetings", where sales, customer service, and R&D teams jointly analyze customer feedback data, sort out high-frequency issues, and identify improvement directions. In response to the issue raised by doctors in primary healthcare institutions that the drug usage instructions are not easy to understand, the R&D team, in conjunction with the sales team, has re compiled the "Primary Medication Guidance Manual" and simplified the instructions using a combination of graphics and text; The customer service team produces supporting short video tutorials, which are pushed through online platforms and widely praised by grassroots doctors.

In addition, the company holds an annual "Customer Exchange Summit", inviting representatives from key cooperative medical institutions across the country to participate. Sales, research and development, and production teams participate together to communicate needs and suggestions face-to-face with customers, forming a closed loop of "customer needs product improvement market feedback". Through a comprehensive collaborative service system, the repurchase rate of enterprise customers has remained above 90% for three consecutive years, and the number of core cooperative customers has increased by 60% compared to three years ago.

Guarantee layer: Building a team cooperation "ecosystem" and consolidating the foundation of development

Zhonghui Pharmaceutical is well aware that efficient teamwork cannot be achieved without a sound guarantee system. Enterprises start from three dimensions: organizational structure, cultural construction, and talent cultivation, to build an "ecosystem" that supports team cooperation and integrates the concept of collaboration into every cell of enterprise development.

Organizational structure optimization: breaking down barriers and facilitating collaborative channels

In order to break through the traditional "departmental wall", Zhonghui Pharmaceutical has optimized its organizational structure and implemented a "flat+project-based" management model. In terms of flat management, reducing intermediate management levels allows grassroots teams to directly communicate with the decision-making level of the enterprise, improving information transmission efficiency; In terms of project management, cross departmental project special teams are established for major research and development projects, marketing tasks, etc. The project leader coordinates the resources of each department and conducts unified assessments and rewards based on the results after the project is completed.

The enterprise also sets up a "cross departmental collaboration office" specifically responsible for coordinating and resolving conflicts and problems that arise in cross departmental cooperation, establishing a "collaborative problem feedback mechanism". Teams or individuals can submit collaborative obstacles through online platforms, and the collaboration office will provide solutions within 3 working days. In 2023, the collaborative office coordinated and resolved 126 cross departmental issues, resulting in a 50% increase in collaboration efficiency between departments.

Corporate Culture Shaping: Consolidating Consensus and Cultivating Collaborative Concepts

Zhonghui Pharmaceutical regards "collaboration and win-win" as the core content of its corporate culture, and has deeply rooted the concept of collaboration through various forms. In terms of cultural dissemination, enterprises set up "team cooperation culture walls" in their factory areas, workshops, and office buildings to showcase the deeds and cooperation mottos of excellent collaborative teams; Establish an internal publication called 'Zhonghui Collaborative Voice' to publish team cooperation cases, collaboration skills, and employee insights; Use the enterprise WeChat official account to push "collaboration stories", and update one article every week, so that the collaboration concept can be integrated into daily life.

In terms of cultural activities, the company holds the "Team Collaboration Culture Festival" every year, organizing cross departmental tug of war competitions, team puzzle challenges, collaborative case sharing sessions, and other activities to allow employees to experience the importance of teamwork. Among them, the "Cross departmental Collaboration Case Competition" has become a brand activity for enterprises, where teams showcase their collaboration experience and achievements in their work. Professional judges and employee representatives jointly select the "Best Collaboration Case" and promote it throughout the company. The cultural festival in 2023 attracted more than 1200 employees to participate and collected 89 collaborative cases, effectively promoting experience sharing among teams.

Empowering Talent Cultivation: Enhancing Literacy and Strengthening Collaborative Abilities

The efficient development of teamwork relies on the support of employees' collaborative abilities. Zhonghui Pharmaceutical has established a "collaborative ability training system" and incorporated collaborative ability into the core courses of employee training. Differentiated training content has been developed for employees at different levels: a "team collaboration basic course" has been set up in the new employee onboarding training to cultivate collaborative awareness through outdoor expansion, scenario simulation, and other methods; Grassroots employee training focuses on "communication skills and problem-solving" to enhance collaboration efficiency in daily work; Management training focuses on "cross departmental coordination and resource coordination" to enhance collaboration skills in team management.

The company also collaborates with professional management consulting firms to develop a "team collaboration assessment tool" that evaluates team collaboration abilities from six dimensions: communication efficiency, resource sharing, and conflict resolution. Based on the assessment results, personalized training programs are developed for the team. In 2023, the company organized a total of 46 training sessions related to team collaboration, with 2300 employees participating. The collaboration ability score of employees increased by 25% compared to the previous year, and the conflict rate within the team decreased by 40%.

Effective display: Team collaboration creates new heights of development

Supported by a comprehensive team cooperation system, Zhonghui Pharmaceutical's core competitiveness continues to improve, achieving a dual harvest of economic and social benefits. In terms of economic benefits, the business performance of the enterprise has steadily increased. From 2021 to 2023, the operating revenue has grown from 1.2 billion yuan to 2.1 billion yuan, with an average annual growth rate of 32%; Net profit increased from 150 million yuan to 420 million yuan, with an average annual growth rate of 48%; The proportion of R&D investment has increased from 6.5% to 9.2%, far higher than the industry average.

In terms of market competitiveness, the enterprise's product matrix is constantly enriched. At present, it has 32 varieties of chemical drugs and 28 varieties of traditional Chinese patent medicines and simple preparations, of which 12 varieties are included in the national medical insurance directory, and 5 varieties are included in the national centralized purchase directory. The market covers 30 provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the Central Government in China, and has established long-term cooperation relationships with more than 3200 medical institutions and more than 500 pharmaceutical commercial companies. In 2023, the company rose to 8th place in the revenue ranking of pharmaceutical enterprises in Anhui Province, an increase of 3 places compared to the previous year.

In terms of industry influence, the company has successively won multiple honorary titles such as "National High tech Enterprise", "Anhui Province Innovative Leading Enterprise", and "China Pharmaceutical Industry Collaborative Innovation Demonstration Unit". The team cooperation system it has built has also been promoted as a typical case by the Anhui Pharmaceutical Industry Association, providing a reference model for enterprises in the industry.

Conclusion: With a collaborative approach, we embark on a promise for the future

From cross domain breakthroughs in research and development, to full process collaboration in production, and then to full domain linkage in sales, Anhui Zhonghui Pharmaceutical has proven through practice that teamwork is not simply the aggregation of personnel, but the deep integration of ideas, mechanisms, and actions. It is the core password for enterprises to respond to market challenges and achieve high-quality development. During the critical period of transformation and upgrading in the pharmaceutical industry, Zhonghui Pharmaceutical will continue to deepen the construction of its team cooperation system, continuously improve its collaboration mechanism, cultivate a culture of collaboration, and enhance its collaboration capabilities, so as to continuously unleash the power of the team.

Looking towards the future, Zhonghui Pharmaceutical will strengthen internal and external cooperation with a more open attitude, deepen industry university research cooperation in research and development, promote industry chain collaboration in production, build a win-win customer ecosystem in sales, and achieve new breakthroughs in innovative drug research and development, high-end formulation production and other fields through strong teamwork. We will make greater contributions to ensuring the safety of people's medication and promoting the high-quality development of Anhui's pharmaceutical industry, and write a more brilliant chapter in the pharmaceutical industry.