Securing the Pharmaceutical Supply Chain

R. Koh et al. (2003) performs some researches about the reliability of pharmaceutical supply chain. Pharmaceutical supply chain is very complex process since pedigree of pharmaceuticals cannot be known all the time. Especially, counterfeit (imitasyon) products cause very big problem in this sector because of some expensive pharmaceuticals. Thus, tracking (knowing physical location) and tracing (knowing all historical locations and all information about drug such as packaging and storage conditions) for products are very important to provide safety of patients. Auto-ID Technology which offers a hopeful integrated solution to the track and trace problem in supply chain is introduced in this paper to control drug verification, track and trace of them. It helps to reduce many risks and provides to take precaution with maintaining the pedigree by tagging pharmaceuticals and product packaging with radio frequency identification (RFID) tags which have a unique EPC™ (Electronic Product Code). Either the Internet or dedicated computer networks can provide the communication link to control pharmaceuticals to be recalled if necessary.

Pharmaceutical supply chains: key issues and strategies for Optimizations

According to Shah N. (2004), the pharmaceutical industry consists of a complex processes, operations and organizations which are involved in the discovery, development and manufacture of drugs. The study is performed by considering significant issues in supply chain design and operations with drawing from the literature in this area. Shah states some challenges in supply chain such as changes in the industry (declining in R&D productivity), drivers in the industry (time-to-market and life cycle of pharmaceuticals. The paper includes the process development stages, production and capacity planning. It is shown that the simulation-based approach is very promising while studying for large and complex supply chains. Moreover, future challenges are investigated and some future scenarios are introduced. For example, it is claimed that in an emergency situation traditional supply chain is very slow and inefficient especially for vaccines (aşı). For this kind of situations, the entire infrastructure should be designed well and also it is tested through simulation. Finally, the understanding of what actually drives the supply chain dynamics is also required in changing market trends to optimize supply chain in this sector is mentioned.

Supply Chain Management. Implications in Operations Management

According to Mihai Felea and Irina Albastroiu (2012) ; In last 10 years companies try to improve their supplier chain strategy .Also , Purchasing , production and logistics are the main point of supply chain .The evolution of supplier chain should be started with a discussion of SC and the final destination can be reverse logistics activities which are also included in the SC . As we know that , customers buy a products based on availability , reputation , cost and quality . These stuff are important for the customer satisfaction. Theoperations in supply chain strategies; The company must decide that what their target is and managers can use to track the firm’s progress toward fulfilling and The role of Supply chain partners should be Identified. In Addition ; companies has to choose between lots of strategies such as make to stock , make to order , configure to order and engineer to order etc. The final result of this essay is that , the supply chain is a center of the global market and economic. SCs are directly affected by the other SC systems . So that these are changeable and should be aligned with the specific aims of maximizing market . The main aim is minimized to cost and rising to service level.