Cutting supply chain costs has become a focus of the industry as drugmakers realized that buying supplies and getting them to plants takes more time, trouble and expense than they at first realized. Like others, U.K. drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline ($GSK) has taken steps to get a handle on that, LogisticsManager reports. It has cut out some of the 2,800 suppliers it once bought from and only uses those that monitor key performance indicators. The result of its efforts has been to reduce lead times to within 48 hours on average and improve on-time delivery in full from 40% to 90%. Pfizer ($PFE) has taken it a step further, giving some of its 200 suppliers a special status that provides them access to Pfizer's internal systems to save time and costs. Story | More