Abstract:
In order to compete effectively in the international markets, pharmaceutical companies must improve their competency. They need to select certain levels of commitment for sustainability practices to sustain their supply chains. This research presents a multi-objective model to design a pharmaceutical distribution network according to the main concepts of sustainability, i.e. economic, environmental, and social. This model helps managers to make strategic and technical decisions in the pharmaceutical distribution network (capacity of main and local distribution centers and the flow of drug in the network). Minimizing the costs and maximizing the welfare of society along with minimizing the adverse environmental effects lead to sustainable decisions. The NSGA-II algorithm was also applied to catch the Pareto-optimal front for the proposed model with respect to three objective functions. To test the model with real data, Darupakhsh Distribution Company was chosen. The results of the customized model for the case reveal the strategic and technical decisions in the pharmaceutical distribution network.
Machine summary:
com Designing Sustainable Distribution Network in Pharmaceutical Supply Chain: A Case Study Nassibeh Janatyan a, Mostafa Zandieh a,*, Akbar Alem-Tabriz a and Masood Rabieh a a Department of Industrial Management, Management and Accounting Faculty, Shahid Beheshti University, G.
This researchpresents a multi-objective model to design a pharmaceutical distribution network according to the main concepts of sustainability, i.
This model helps managers to make strategic and technical decisions in the pharmaceutical distribution network (capacity of main and local distribution centers and the flow of drug in the network).
: Pharmaceutical supply chain; Distribution network; Sustainability; Multi-objective decision making; Non- dominated sorting genetic algorithm 1.
The rest of the paper is organized as follows: Section 2 presents the distribution in sustainable pharmaceutical supply chain and the significant studies relating to this research.
This model suggests making several decisions about the strategic issues such as opening pharmaceutical manufacturing centers as well as main or local distribution centers with optimal material flows over a mid-term planning horizon as the tactical decisions.
(2014) stated this research question: “How can sustainability be integrated into supply chains' design and planning decisions?” Several methods and frameworks have been proposed to assess environmental impacts.
5. Experimental Study In the following, the proposed sustainable distribution network model in pharmaceutical supply chain is customized for a real case study in Iran.
This research presented a multi-objective model to design a pharmaceutical distribution network according to the main concepts of sustainability i.
The selection of main and local distribution centers through this sustainable model aids managers of pharmaceutical distribution companies to minimize the costs.