Pharmaceutical Supply Chain Management
The pharmaceutical supply chain is globally distributed and complex and faces constant pressures like demand volatility, complex regulatory environments, and supply network disruptions like those caused by COVID-19. As a result, the industry if placing a renewed emphasis on effective pharmaceutical supply chain management. Companies increasingly see an agile supply chain as both a competitive advantage and driver of innovation—and they are more focused than ever on investing in and leveraging digital technology that enables streamlined and more efficient approaches to pharmaceutical supply chain management. The goal is to use these digital technologies to improve the agility and resilience of medical supply chains around the globe.
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The benefits of effective pharmaceutical supply chain management
Effective pharmaceutical supply chain management enables firms to monitor and manage the complexity of global medical supply chains. Its goals are to achieve end-to-end inventory optimization across the pharma supply chain, maximizing stock availability while minimizing overstocking, mitigating internal and external risk, and making supply chains more efficient, robust, and agile. It prioritizes the activities of supply chain planning and optimization as well as supplier risk management and helps reduce the risk of drug counterfeiting while helping to ensure customer satisfaction and patient safety.
When done right, pharmaceutical supply chain management helps firms react faster and more effectively to change. With the help of digital technology, it can help pharmaceutical companies create patient-centric supply chains, or supply networks that are more responsive to sudden changes in patient demand.
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Collaborative pharmaceutical supply chain management
Creating an agile, patient-centered supply chain requires cross-functional integration and close collaboration across external and internal teams and upstream and downstream partners. It requires the ability to continually exchange information and manage workflows across multiple tiers of the pharma supply chain. It requires that supply partners have the capability to share and access data across functions and systems and implement pharmaceutical supply chain management collaboratively.
One of the tools that organizations can use to gain these essential capabilities is the digital supply network, or cloud-based supply chain networking technology. Through a digital supply chain network, firms can create a digitally connected, data-driven supply chain that offers stakeholders greater visibility into the end-to-end value chain. It enables partners to integrate data from across diverse sources and exchange information seamlessly through a single secured platform.
They can combine the digital supply network with multienterprise work management software to support shared workflows, promote cooperation, and enhance collaboration. Organizations can build and orchestrate shared incident response workflows spanning organizations and teams and work together with suppliers, customers, and service partners to carry out pharma supply chain management more effectively and efficiently.
The benefits of digitizing pharmaceutical supply chain management
By using digital supply network and multienterprise work management technology to manage the pharmaceutical supply chain, firms can obtain a real-time, unified physical and financial view of the supply chain, helping them improve supply chain planning, inventory management, and risk management. These technologies also drive the development of a digital partner ecosystem that fosters collaboration, further improving supply chain agility and resilience.
Effective and collaborative pharmaceutical supply chain management contributes to:
- Improved demand forecast accuracy, inventory visibility, and shipping predictability.
- Better on-time, in-full performance and better mitigation of drug counterfeiting and theft.
- Improved ability to respond to and recover from disruption.
- Increased productivity and a higher level of customer satisfaction.
Agile, patient-centric pharmaceutical supply chain management
Forward-thinking healthcare organizations are leveraging the world's largest network of pharma supply chain partners. TraceLink's digital network platform enables seamless information exchange from manufacturer to patient and is helping firms build agile, patient-centric supply chains that can handle the demands of tomorrow. It is a cloud-based digital supply network that was designed for healthcare and pharmaceutical supply chains.
Businesses are using the platform to improve supply chain visibility, facilitate the orchestration of shared work across supplier networks, and carry out pharmaceutical supply chain management collaboratively. TraceLink's platform is helping firms work together in new and better ways to fortify supply chains and help ensure that every patient gets the medications they need when and where they need them.
Pharmaceutical Supply Chain Management FAQs
What is pharmaceutical supply chain management?
"Pharmaceutical supply chain management" refers to the activities associated with monitoring, orchestrating, and executing the flow of a product from raw materials sourcing to manufacturing and into the patient's hands. It includes the activities of supply chain planning, risk management, quality management, and inventory management.
Why is pharmaceutical supply chain management important?
Effective pharma supply chain management is a critical component in the drive among pharmaceutical firms and healthcare providers to improve efficiency, agility, and resilience. It helps to mitigate potential risks affecting the pharmaceutical supply chain, such as drug counterfeiting and theft, and helps ensure that patients can access the medications they need when and where they need them.
What are the advantages of digitalizing pharmaceutical supply chain management?
Using digital technology to manage pharmaceutical supply chains can help improve supply chain transparency and agility. It provides firms with greater visibility into their supply network and efficient channels for sharing information and engaging in collaborative work. It contributes to improved demand forecast accuracy and inventory management, faster issue resolution and recovery from disruption, and better patient outcomes.