Title: Structural modelling and ranking the warehouse activities in a pharmaceutical supply chain system

Authors: Shweta; Amit Kumar Yadav; Dinesh Kumar

Addresses: Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, Roorkee, Uttarakhand, 247667, India ' Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, Roorkee, Uttarakhand, 247667, India ' Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, Roorkee, Uttarakhand, 247667, India

Abstract: Storage and inventory management of drugs in a pharmaceutical industry is a complex process and it constitutes major part of costs, specifically when talking for the distribution of generic medicines. Therefore, warehouse management for generic medicine has to be looked from its basic concept for its design and operation. This article proposes a framework to redesign a warehouse for storage and distribution of generic medicines through exploratory case study. Field survey has been performed and bottleneck involved in the warehouse of a pharmaceutical industry has been identified using interpretive structural modelling (ISM) and fuzzy analytical hierarchy process (FAHP). The decisions made in the process mainly depend upon the dynamics of the different activities involved and their interrelationships. ISM establishes interrelationships between different activities and FAHP prioritises most sluggish sub-activities of warehouse. The findings highlight that quality control activities are heavily responsible for bottlenecks.

Keywords: generic pharmaceutical supply chain; GPSC; fuzzy AHP; ISM; bottlenecks; interpretive structural modelling; analytical hierarchy process.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSSCA.2022.124299

International Journal of Six Sigma and Competitive Advantage, 2022 Vol.14 No.1, pp.84 - 106

Received: 25 Jan 2021
Accepted: 27 Jul 2021
Published online: 21 Jul 2022 *

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