A study on planning process in pharmaceutical industry using SAP system

Abstract

The pharmaceutical supply chain is a complex network of entities, processes and highly skilled individuals involved in the development, supply, manufacture, transport and delivery of a wide range of medicines. This process need to be able to face various kind of issues such as lack of coordination, demand volatility and changes in countries local regulations. The aim of this study is to explore the overall supply chain of the pharmaceutical industry with its di erent elements, processes, networks and planning phases. It also introduces the digital software SAP used to manage all supply chain activities for better visibility, coordination, transparency and planning optimisation. This study was conducted in Local manufacturing Blida, the production site of NovoNordisk pharmaceutical company, the world's largest insulin's developer and producer. A real world business case introduced the central planning concept, showed the role of SAP APO and ECC in ensuring visibility and transparency at all levels of plani cation process and the impact of supply network planning in enforcing a consistent stock level. Keywords : Pharmaceutical supply chain, Supply chain planning, Central planning, SAP system