Application of a Model in the Evaluation of Competitiveness in Sustainability in Factories of the Pharmaceutical Sector

The competitive scenario for companies has been changing over time, by increasing competitiveness in terms of cost, quality, reliability, agility and, more recently, environmental issues. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the sustainability competitiveness of companies in the pharmaceutical sector by applying a model that relates the adoption of lean manufacturing practices and practices in environmental management in production processes. The model grouped the companies into clusters, distributing them in quadrants according to the quantity of produced waste and residues in their manufacturing processes. It was applied to a sample of 32 pharmaceutical processing industries in Brazil, in the states of São Paulo, Rio Grande do Sul and Paraná. The work is classified as applied, exploratory and qualitative and the survey method was used in order to collect data. The results show that most of the companies surveyed (53.13%) adopt practices for waste and residues reduction in their manufacturing processes, promoting to these companies a competitive differential in reliability of delivery, flexibility, quality and cost of their products. Thus, this research contributes to the pharmaceutical companies, giving them a better understanding of their competitive state in sustainability, from the adoption of practices in lean manufacturing and environmental management in their manufacturing processes.