A comprehensive study of some inventory and production related issues in pharmaceutical export business

Abstract

With the growing need of generic and low cost medicines, pharmaceutical industry newlineneeds an efficient supply chain to maintain the sales and profitability. Supply chain newlineof life saving pharmaceutical products is complex to manage owing to peculiarities newlinesuch as a high impact of stockout situation and perishable nature of products. This newlinethesis studies some inventory and production related issues in pharmaceutical newlineexport business. It investigates the practices of inventory management in newlinepharmaceutical industry and evolves a novel P3 system which is industry specific newlinesolution based on hand-picked elements of VMI, ECR and CPFR. This thesis also newlinedemonstrates the various concepts of P3 system like safety stock, emergency stock newlineand lightening stock. The thesis discusses how P3 system has an edge over other newlineestablished systems currently engaged for managing inventory of essential life newlinesaving medicines. The study finds that the P3 system provides a better platform newlinespecifically in third world countries where the business entities are not equipped newlinewith on-line integration suitable for other systems. The study shows how P3 system newlinecan be personalised by a company to maintain inventory and to maximize profits. newlineThe study finds that the new system also saves costs by about 2.5 cycles annually. newlineImplementation of P3 system shown to have reduced incidence of shortage and newlineincreased the customer satisfaction. newline