At least to the extent that the drug maker sees some value in retaining a pair of experts from Jaguar Land Rover. AstraZeneca is paying car assembly plant experts to help improve manufacturing efficiency in its factories, The Financial Times reports.

Since the summer, the company has agreed to fund at least two “lean experts” borrowed from Jaguar Land Rover, who are applying their knowledge of car production techniques to drugs. The agreement provides a way for the luxury car maker to save short-term costs while not losing valuable employees at a time when the economic slowdown has triggered a slump in sales and output, the paper writes.

The move also comes as drug makers come under pressure to cut costs and improve manufacturing processes. Marc Jones, AstraZeneca’s vp of global operations, tells the FT: “Pharmaceutical supply chains have been fat and happy. Efficiency was never key. There’s a lot we can learn from the lean culture that came from Toyota to remove waste and focus on what the customer wants.”

“AstraZeneca is perhaps where we were five to six years ago,” Steven Wilson, one of the Jaguar consultants, tells the paper. “They need a little momentum, but there is tremendous enthusiasm.” Well, at least AstraZeneca didn’t turn to General Motors…

AZ’ Jones stressed that patient safety and reliable supply chains remained top priorities in pharmaceutical manufacturing, but said there was scope for substantial savings to reduce waste and speed up production.

The “borrowed” staff, who retain their employment rights, came from Jaguar’s Halewood plant on Merseyside and are based at AstraZeneca’s Macclesfield, UK, factory. Recently, AstraZeneca has also brought in full-time staff with experience from other industrial sectors including fast-moving consumer goods.

AstraZeneca’s Macclesfield plant is its second largest manufacturing site. It supplies more than 40 products to 130 markets and has input into drugs providing 40 per cent of group sales.