Weigh & dispense operations play a crucial part in pharmaceutical material handling and storage. So, while weigh & dispense specialists are valued for their technical skills and command of the hardware, let’s not forget the human aspects and critical “soft” skills of the people who do this essential work every day.
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Life sciences companies with complex warehousing and shipping requirements have a lot of questions – particularly when their requirements include temperature-controlled shipping. For a potential solution provider, it’s not enough just to have a refrigerated warehouse and trucks. The product may not even need refrigeration – it may need to be kept at or near room temperature. How can the pharmaceutical company identify a logistics vendor with the right competency? Here are five basic questions a pharmaceutical company operations manager can use to evaluate a vendor’s qualifications to provide a high-value solution:
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Materials moving through the Pharmaceutical Supply Chain encounter many threats which could negatively impact product integrity. In order to adequately determine the level of control required to ensure safe transport of products, one must perform various risk assessments. Performing a risk assessment will provide visibility into the different risk factors and allow for proper resource allocation to mitigate those risks based on their potential impact. Based on the findings of these risk assessments, you can determine if the need for performing a full shipping lane qualification is recommended.
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Do you know which type of aliquot of material to request when needing a portion of a batch or lot? Sampling and dispensing are two services provided to help release materials for use, as well as meet manufacturing goals. These materials include APIs (active ingredient in pharmaceutical products) and excipients (inactive substance, filler, bulking agent). To see if you know when to use sampling versus dispensing, test yourself with the following questions:
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Regardless of where your organization operates in the pharmaceutical supply chain, chances are that your successful outcomes are a product of (1) internal expertise and (2) beneficial partnerships.
Synergies amongst these partnerships are a potential reality. But, if you’re struggling to achieve legitimate value, take advantage of this 3-step process to strengthen your supply chain partnerships:
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On November 27, 2013, President Obama signed the Drug Quality and Security Act (or H.R. 3204) into law. Title II of the Act, known as the Drug Supply Chain Security Act, mandates that drug manufacturers will be required to create electronic tracking systems to ensure the legitimacy of pharmaceutical products introduced into the supply chain. Commonly known as “track and trace,” this system will be implemented in a phased approach over the next 10 years.
How does it work?
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While many industries have few repercussions for an occasional late shipment (minus an agitated customer or two), the pharmaceutical industry isn’t one of these. Late arrivals in the pharmaceutical realm can point to temperature excursions, product degradation, or even the loss of a life if an urgent treatment has been delayed.
Obviously, many things are out of your control once your product is in transit. So, analyze (and then fix) the processes that are in your control to improve your metrics. To get you started, here are five areas that may be worth evaluation:
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147 Words-Per-Minute (WPM): that’s how fast I can currently type, according to this typing tool. That’s over four times faster than the average typing speed. Impressed?
Lucky for you, you’re about to learn my secret: my accuracy was zero percent (a classic example of the speed vs. accuracy tradeoff).
What this tells us about pharmaceutical logistics:
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Just as you wouldn’t decide upon a large purchase without gathering the information required to make an informed decision, our pharmaceutical shipping programs deserve the same attention. Gathering metrics and using them to determine optimal solutions on an individual shipment basis is easier than you think and will improve your performance as well as protect your valuable pharmaceutical products to ensure viability.
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Many companies wish to establish the “design space” of their product in transportation networks. The impact of the processes (distribution in this case) on the critical to quality attributes must be identified in order to understand and control product risk. No matter the method of exposure, the risk-based assessments are driving the need for product data beyond the classic stability studies.
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When considering different daycare options for a child, a parent would likely evaluate facilities on security, quality of processes, capability of staff members, and a multitude of other considerations. Daycare versus outsourcing: the hard facts are easily relatable; the emotional connection is often underestimated. Parents of both children and molecules want the same things for their babies; here’s what they think about and why it’s important:
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Last year, the U.S. experienced 946 incidents of cargo theft, naming 2012 as the worst year on record. However, for the pharmaceutical industry in the U.S., 2012 was a huge success. What is happening in the world of pharmaceutical cargo security that might contribute to this considerable progress?
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You may ask yourself, what is Condorcet’s Paradox and how might it apply to pharmaceutical distribution? First, a background on the paradox: Condorcet was an 18th century French mathematician. He looked at the effect that three equal voting blocks had on the outcome of elections. The best way to visualize his paradox is with the following Soviet era joke:
God comes to Moscow in 1930 and says to the people: “I will give each of you a choice of three blessings in life, but you can only have two out of the three. . . .”
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