Program Management Projects:
SmithKline Beckman                    (now SmithKline Beecham PLC)

2.9 Billion Sales (1987)
2,300 Philadelphia Employees (1987)
2,000,000 GSF (Philadelphia)
Type: R&D Labs, Offices, Data Center
Sites: 3 Owned, 1 Leased

Starting as a small apothecary in Philadelphia in 1830, the SmithKline Beckman company merged with Britain's Beecham Company in 1989 to form SmithKline Beecham PLC, the fifth largest pharmaceutical company in the world. In 1994 SmithKline Beecham had world-wide sales of over $9 billion, and 52,700 employees.

Following the definition of an ambitious new Business Plan and completion of a major U.S. facilities expansion in 1987, SmithKline contracted with Program Management for assistance in specific planning efforts to:

This work primarily focused on SKB's R&D and Chemical Development facilities in Europe and the United States.

Working with SKB facility managers and their laboratory consultants PM first completed a facility audit. Next, associated employment, density and output records were studied together with long-term forecasts for research programs and development projects.   From this analysis Program Management constructed a business-facility forecasting model to identify worldwide building needs.  Simultaneously, a new Facility Data Base was developed.  The planning team was later expanded to include SOM, an international architectural firm responsible for the physical analysis of several key sites, including capacity studies and development plans.

Projected changes recommended for those site's operations and facilities were based upon Program Management's worldwide space forecast and business-specific facility development criteria, plus each site's potential capacity and physical planning guidelines.  As recommended, numerous new facility development policies and site guidelines were adopted, and a process to regularly update the business-facility planning model was approved.  A new Worldwide Facilities Plan presented to senior SKB executives in early 1988 illustrated:

It was agreed initial business planning objectives and targets were still correct, but the necessary capital commitments for SKB company's projected facility needs were unattainable.  Subsequently, SKB reorganized, combined R&D and manufacturing operations, and merged with Beecham Ltd. to create a larger global organization with more balanced R&D, manufacturing, and distribution operations.

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