Offer-to-cash in the pharmaceutical environment– seeing the whole company at last

This was exactly the challenge faced by a pharmaceutical company I supported.
For years, the focus had been on the classic value stream within production. Yet the real bottlenecks lay before and after it: in the quoting process, project execution, service, and commercial billing.

The result:
Even if production runs perfectly,
the overall flow comes to a halt as soon as a step before or after breaks down.

Together, we analyzed the entire offer-to-cash process – the journey from the first customer inquiry to cash receipt – end to end.

This included:

• quotation and sales processes

• technical clarifications and specifications

• planning and manufacturing processes

• GMP-relevant approval interfaces

• acceptance and commissioning

• service and handover processes

• commercial billing

• payment and feedback processes

It quickly became clear:
Manufacturing was not the biggest lever – the interfaces before and after it were.

Especially in the pharmaceutical environment, significant time gaps often occur between:

• quotation and order placement

• delivery and commissioning

• commissioning and invoicing

These gaps mean that companies may produce efficiently –
but are only allowed to invoice much later.

The consequence: tied-up capital, liquidity risks, and long lead times that have nothing to do with production performance.

We brought all involved departments to the table:

• sales

• project management

• production

• quality

• service

• controlling

• accounting

Together, we:

• visualized end-to-end processes

• identified bottlenecks and waiting times

• clarified responsibilities and handovers

• harmonized process variants

• created transparency across the entire value flow

• defined clear trigger points for acceptance and invoicing

• developed a structured offer-to-cash framework

The impact was substantial:

• significantly reduced lead times

• a clear, standardized quotation process

• improved technical clarifications

• structured handovers between departments

• earlier and more reliable invoicing

• increased liquidity

• far fewer blind services

• a shared end-to-end process understanding across the organization

The company did not just become more process-efficient –
it became future-ready, because value creation was finally understood holistically.

Because it shows one thing very clearly:
A company is only as strong as its end-to-end value flow.

Offer-to-cash is the process that connects everything:
Customer → value delivery → cash flow → future.

Only when this process is understood, made visible, and structured does true organizational effectiveness emerge – far beyond pure production optimization.