Pharmaceutical supply chains: key issues and strategies for optimisation

Supply chain optimisation is now a major research theme in process operations and management. A great deal of research has been undertaken on facility location and design, inventory and distribution planning, capacity and production planning and detailed scheduling. Only a small proportion of this work directly addresses the issues faced in the pharmaceutical sector. On the other hand, this sector is very much ready for and in need of sophisticated supply chain optimisation techniques. At the supply chain design stage, a particular problem faced by this industry is the need to balance future capacity with anticipated demands in the face of the very significant uncertainty that arises out of clinical trials and competitor activity. Efficient capacity utilisation plans and robust infrastructure investment decisions will be important as regulatory pressures increase and margins are eroded. The ability to locate nodes of the supply chain in tax havens and optimise trading and transfer pri...

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2004
• Where: CCE
• Authors: Nilay Shah
• Keywords: CCE 2004, CCE 2007, Supply Chain, Supply Chain Design, Supply Chain Optimisation