Designing Sustainable Distribution Network in Pharmaceutical Supply Chain: A Case Study

Abstract

In order to compete effectively in the international markets, pharmaceutical companies must improve their competency. Competition in the global market needs to select the certain level of commitment for sustainability practices by companies to sustain their supply chains. This research presents a multi-objective model to design the 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 among the network). Minimizing the costs and maximizing the welfare of society along with minimizing the adverse environmental effects make 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 indicates the strategic and technical decisions in the pharmaceutical distribution network.