5 best practices for pharmaceutical supply chain management

The pharmaceutical industry has become increasingly competitive in recent years. It has seen the rise of counterfeit drugs, strict quality regulations and serialised mandate. This necessitated the supply chain in the pharmaceutical industry to be robust and traceable. Here, Kevin Hill, online marketing manager at Quality Scales looks at five best practices to implement in pharmaceutical supply chains.

1. Connect and collaborate using a business network

The old model of supply chain included point-to-point connections. That is not the case now. A digital business network is the foundation of a multi-enterprise supply chain. This connects all the supply chain partners electronically through the cloud.

When pharmaceutical supply chain partners are connected, it allows them to work together in sync. This provides end-to-end visibility and an opportunity to collaborate with different business interactions.

2. Get a detailed analysis of manufacturing processes

Pharmaceutical products need to be consistent and repeatable. Even 1mg of extra substance in the recipe will alter the composition of the pharma product. The side-effects of that may be life-threatening to the users.

Analyse the manufacturing process in detail. Focus on the required set of good manufacturing practices so that all the products are consistent across all the batches. Implement good weighing practices to ensure the recipe of a drug is not adulterated.

Keep an eye of out for factors that affect the accuracy of analytical balance. Unless the analytical balances are accurate, you cannot weigh the materials correctly.

3. Ensure end-to-end traceability

As a pharmaceutical company, you must ensure end-to-end traceability. External parties like CMOs are increasingly getting involved. This makes it necessary for pharma companies to have visibility into their partners’ manufacturing. This will help them track product quality across the multi-enterprise, multi-tier supply chain.

Connect to the CMO’s manufacturing execution systems to capture the relevant data you need at all stages of production. This will give you visibility into every single detail – you can track the material flow, processing steps, lot genealogy, yields, test results, etc.

All this is critical information required to ensure traceability. By controlling the quality at CMOs, you can control the quality of all the pharmaceutical supplies.

4. Respond quickly to demand changes

Pharmaceutical supply chain management must be quick to detect and respond to changes in supply and demand.

In the case of business networks, you can see the end-to-end supply chain. By implementing state-of-the-art planning applications, you can evaluate information in real time. If you observe an unexpected demand change or a supply disruption, share it with your supply chain partners immediately.

Come up with a plan and proceed with the best option as quickly as possible.

5. Get complete inventory visibility

Allocation of transportation, warehousing and other value-added services to different channels is also important. Get complete downstream inventory visibility and implement good shipping practices.

This will ensure that your pharmaceutical products are reaching the destination without compromising the quality.

You must be aware of the different ways you can constantly improve the supply chain. Prioritise safety measures and adopt methods for achieving higher on-shelf availability with low inventory levels.