The market for pharmaceutical products has been increasing and will continue to do so in the near future. However, as patents expire, new players such as generic manufacturers get into de market and regulatory bodies limit the price of medicines, tougher competition is becoming a reality in this industry. In this context of rising costs and decreasing margins, the excessively high manufacturing costs may be a source of savings for the pharmaceutical sector This thesis discusses the background of lean production particularly as it relates to the pharmaceutical industry and presents an actual application in a production facility of an international CDMO.