Supply Chain Management in the Drug Industry: Delivering Patient Value for Pharmaceuticals and Biologics
From the Author: Avoiding Common Pitfalls in Pharmaceutical Supply Chain Management (SCM)Remember, early decisions in development set the supply chain foundation for life. Seek to understand the chemistry, manufacturing & controls (CMC) information submitted to the regulatory filing. Your supply chain is limited to what goes in there – make it your business to know and influence Module 3 (CMC) of the common technical document (CTD/eCTD).There is no such thing as a ‘quick fix’ in supply chains because of the complex interrelationships. To get to true root-cause, it is necessary to follow the ‘systemic’ path for answers – and the path can lead to very unexpected quarters – such as the door of the supplier to your supplier’s supplier!Integration is king – the various disciplines of Production & Inventory Control, Procurement, Transportation/ Storage & Distribution, Information Systems and Improvement must link closely together, and with external stakeholders, to deliver the optimum results for the customer.Tools and techniques have their place – but firstly focus on common sense principles based on management of The Wholesome Trinity – inventory, capacity and lead-time.Use big picture maps and A3 Management to get your arms around issues and opportunities in the internal and extended supply chain.Beware of placing too much dependence on Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems – only use the essential functionality identified by your strategic review of Information System needs.Improvement is important to maintain competitive advantage, but it must be carefully targeted at the areas that can make a difference. A kaizen event to increase overall operational effectiveness (OEE) on a non-bottleneck machine or operation, it likely to merely increase waiting time.