Intelligent distributed supply chain management in the pharmaceutical industry

• Published in: Muṭālaʻāt-i mudīrīyat- rāhburdī Vol. 14; no. 56; pp. 141 - 167
• Main Authors: Atefeh Abdollahi, Mostafa Ebrahimpour, MohammadRahim Ramazanian, Mahmoud Moradi
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: Persian
• Published: Iran Strategic Management Society 01.05.2024
• Subjects: blockchain; distributed systems; internet of things; machine learning; supply chain
• ISSN: 2228-6853; 2676-6744
• DOI: 10.22034/smsj.2023.366744.1742

Introduction: New technologies have profoundly changed the way people communicate and interact with their surroundings. These technologies affect every industry. Now, if according to the common definition, we define the supply chain as a set of interconnected activities that include coordination, planning and control of products and services between suppliers and customers. Looking at technological advances, we realize that these traditional structures are no longer self-sufficient, because digitalization has affected almost all aspects of human life, especially supply chain processes. The technologies of the fourth generation of industry represent the industrial revolution that has combined the Internet of Things with automatic systems such as artificial intelligence and its subset of machine learning, which are self-adjusting and self-learning. Such technological systems can change the supply chain from a centralized state to a distributed state, in fact, the deployment of these technologies provides distribution and decentralization for supply chains. The globalization of the economy and the increase in commercial competition have increased the importance of using innovative methods to achieve the goals of the supply chain. With the automation of processes, business activities have moved from manual operations to electronic transactions and all organizational processes have benefited from information and communication technologies. Considering that the design of most processes is at the disposal of centralized centers; There are always problems such as: poor efficiency, coordination at a low level and poor cooperation between the departments of a business unit, the emergence of distributed frameworks such as the blockchain platform and 4.0 generation technologies in addition to Organizations are helped in having complete transparency in transactions and cooperation with each other. They can share transactions on a peer-to-peer page.Methodology: The purpose of research is to identify the components of the intelligent distributed supply chain and provide the structure of causal relationships for them, as well as the analysis of each of them in the framework of the presented structure. In the present research, codes and categories were first identified using the grounded method, and then the fuzzy cognitive mapping method was used to determine causal-effect relationships.In order to design the structure of the cause-effect relationships of the components of the intelligent distributed supply chain, it was extracted according to the fuzzy cognitive mapping method. Collective mapping was obtained by calculating the average of experts' opinions. According to its components, distributed decentralized supply chain can lead to improvement in information flows, promote healthcare and provide fair access to medical services. Also, assigning treatment priority to patients according to their physical condition for medical care, complying with the terms and conditions of the production line, reducing fraud, detecting authorized hazardous substances and removing drugs that have been licensed outside of the legal criteria can influence the company.Results and Discussion: High rents in the supply, prescription and treatment of the country to a great extent. The components of the correct implementation of the guidelines for hazardous drugs, the correct implementation of GMP rules, improvement in demand forecasting, correct and timely response of suppliers and suppliers, transparency and traceability, reduction in executive costs, Reducing the risk of implementing projects and carrying out contracts, behavioral data analysis algorithms, error and fraud detection algorithms, processes of identification, discovery, analysis, redesign, implementation and deployment, execution and monitoring, analysis of purchase plans and Procurement provides the possibility of tracking the information, political, monetary and back and forth flows of medicine, which represents its supply and demand among the manufacturer, government sector, patients, pharmacies, insurers, retailers of raw materials and importers. and reduces the possibility of fraud and corruption.Also, allocating treatment priority to patients according to their physical condition for medical care, complying with the terms and conditions of the production line, reducing fraud, detecting authorized hazardous substances and removing drugs that have been licensed outside of the legal criteria can influence the company. High rents in the supply, prescription and treatment of the country will be reduced to a great extent, which can be more effective for special and incurable patients, we know for certain that the required medicine for import and production, it is difficult and sometimes impossible to correctly identify and choose, with these created solutions, transparency is determined in whether the goal of the treatment program has been taken into account. Because we know that the distribution of special benefits is under the control of government officials and they define the priorities of subsidy allocation according to their decision-making power; This can be considered as one of the cases of corruption in the country's pharmaceutical industry.Conclusion: In the end, the improvement in the stock of raw materials and finished products, the non-issue of licenses for non-hazardous production lines in line with the production of hazardous drugs, the non-importation of domestic similar drugs, the elimination of middlemen and backdoors, the transparency of production costs. Transparency in contracts, transparency in the interests of the involved parties, transparency in payment to pharmaceutical companies, transparency in payment of pharmaceutical centers to drug dealers, transparency in pharmacy drug items, transparency in the risks after taking drugs, transparency in the way the budget is spent, The transparent and traceable payment system makes it clear whether the distribution and granting of licenses to natural or legal persons is done based on legal criteria and competently, while the government authority and decision-maker to avoid disclosure or The monopoly of the market cannot limit the transaction within the circle of friends and acquaintances, the benefit of political influence for the production of drugs and the distribution of imported drugs has been greatly reduced, the privileges have been removed from the circle of friends and acquaintances and in a competitive environment, they are given to companies. It will be real or legal that provide fair access to medical services.