A Pharmaceutical Supply Chain is how prescription medicines are delivered to patients. They are large and consist of a number of products that are manufactured in several plants with different capabilities across the globe. The products are manufactured, shipped, and sold in different countries, each with their own unique customer, regulatory, and quality requirements.
The Pharmaceutical Supply Chain is responsible in ensuring that the right drug, reaches the right people at the right time and in the right condition. Customer service is very important as it directly impacts a patient's health and safety. Many Pharmaceutical industries try to provide a huge inventory to ensure close to 100 percent fill rate. However, it is difficult to have full product availability at a reasonable cost unless the supply chain processes are streamlined towards customer needs and demands.
The nature of pharmaceutical companies as well as the complexity of their supply chains make it challenging to gain visibility into the overall sequence of activities and inventory pictures. Continuous product availability and high customer service levels are mandatory in the industry, as patients and regulatory agencies have little tolerance for product shortages or deviations in the quality of products.
Problems with Inventory control include: excessive inventory, poor product forecasts, insufficient or excessive capacities, short dated drugs, unavailable products or long backlogs, to high costs for corrections. The problem pharmacies face is the dilemma over what to stock and how much to stock of each medication. Especially in the case of special order items for uncommon drugs pharmacies that get these products in for patients often don't use the entire bottle and are left with expensive excess inventory.
Improvements such as speed, flexibility, visibility, technology integration, responsiveness, costs and safety are essential to achieve product availability at optimal costs. To ensure the continuous improvements in supply chain processes, the pharmaceutical company needs to put in place clear performance measures. What gets measured gets noticed and improved.
Getting approval for process changes can be a difficult task. It's important not only to establish measurements but to get maximum buy-in from other internal clients whose approval you'll need. It's probably best to talk to these individuals before you submit a final plan to get a reading on whether they're inclined to support you or not.
The Pharmaceutical Supply Chain has a tremendous opportunity to lower costs, as well as improve asset management and enhance customer service by implementing best practices. They will gain a competitive advantage.
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