Lean supply chain in pharmaceutical industry : modeling and simulation of a SAP environment

Abstract

The global pharmaceutical business environment has been rapidly changing and has more competitive. Competition in pharmaceutical industry extended far beyond the traditional battle field, research and development. Bayer AG, a leading pharmaceutical company, decided to evaluate lean management as a tool to improve their competitiveness in the market. This thesis attempts to understand the system impact of the lean management implementation to the Bayer supply chain using modeling and simulation tools. The results of the model will be used to determine the system characteristics of current practice and lean practice. The objective of this thesis is to use the system characteristics generated from the simulation models and provide implementation recommendation to Bayer AG.