The use of simulation for global supply network rationalization in the pharmaceutical industry

Abstract

In today's volatile business environment, many companies are expanding, merging, contracting, or otherwise redesigning their supply chain networks. Supply chain network rationalization could significantly help to improve supply chain operational efficiency and reduce costs. As a generic technique for the analysis of complex and dynamic systems, simulation could play an important role in this field. This paper presents a real case showing how simulation could be the key enablement for a supply chain network rationalization project in the Over-The-Counter (OTC) pharmaceutical industry. An IBM tool - Supply Chain Process Modeler (SCPM) has been applied in this project. Five major simulation scenarios are designed based on the pain points the client has, and numerical results show that simulation has addressed the key issues and provided the client accountable evaluation results for decision-making. ©2009 IEEE.