Lean manufacturing in pharmaceutical closed-loop supply chain

Abstract

Waste control has become the key focus in the global pharmaceutical supply chain. Waste viewing and control is a skill according to lean ideology. This paper presents a model that could map the pharmacy supply chain and able to project waste. Further waste can be again channelised through remanufacturing or disposed of through the proper process. Several models have been developed in the literature where the aim is mostly to optimise cost or profit and to find the optimal order quantity for integrated production and remanufacturing system. In this study, a lean approach has been adopted to explore the waste using system dynamics as a tool to model an inventory control system for remanufacturing and disposal of the pharmaceutical closed loop supply chain.