Supply chain configuration conundrum: how does the pharmaceutical industry mitigate disturbance factors?

How a supply chain (SC) is configured can have a significant impact on the performance of global firms. More specifically, disturbance factors (i.e. those factors associated with uncertainty and risk) are increasingly important considerations. This paper focuses on endogenous, exogenous and environm...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Huq, Fahian Anisul/FAH, Pawar, Kulwant S., Rogers, Helen
Format: Article
Published: Taylor & Francis 2016
Subjects:
Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/41471/
_version_ 1848796281371099136
author Huq, Fahian Anisul/FAH
Pawar, Kulwant S.
Rogers, Helen
author_facet Huq, Fahian Anisul/FAH
Pawar, Kulwant S.
Rogers, Helen
author_sort Huq, Fahian Anisul/FAH
building Nottingham Research Data Repository
collection Online Access
description How a supply chain (SC) is configured can have a significant impact on the performance of global firms. More specifically, disturbance factors (i.e. those factors associated with uncertainty and risk) are increasingly important considerations. This paper focuses on endogenous, exogenous and environment-related SC disturbance factors and their relative importance when configuring global SCs. Three alternative scenarios of SC configurations for European-based pharmaceutical firms are identified - insource nearshore, outsource nearshore and outsource offshore. Through a multi-phase, mixed-method approach we find that the top five disturbance factors managers should be aware of while configuring their SCs are quality defects, unforeseen and random interruptions in manufacturing processes, order processing difficulties, untimely delivery of products, and a mismatch between market demand and supplier responsiveness. This study is able to provide insights into the impact of disturbance factors on the SC configuration strategy for Big Pharmas. We show that SC disturbances influenced the decision to bring production back home (reshoring) or to a closer location (near-shoring). To mitigate the effects of disturbances many Big Pharmas recalibrated their SC configurations by insourcing core products, outsourcing non-core products offshore and developing offshore insourcing capabilities through ‘captives’.
first_indexed 2025-11-14T19:45:29Z
format Article
id nottingham-41471
institution University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus
institution_category Local University
last_indexed 2025-11-14T19:45:29Z
publishDate 2016
publisher Taylor & Francis
recordtype eprints
repository_type Digital Repository
spelling nottingham-414712020-05-04T17:55:51Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/41471/ Supply chain configuration conundrum: how does the pharmaceutical industry mitigate disturbance factors? Huq, Fahian Anisul/FAH Pawar, Kulwant S. Rogers, Helen How a supply chain (SC) is configured can have a significant impact on the performance of global firms. More specifically, disturbance factors (i.e. those factors associated with uncertainty and risk) are increasingly important considerations. This paper focuses on endogenous, exogenous and environment-related SC disturbance factors and their relative importance when configuring global SCs. Three alternative scenarios of SC configurations for European-based pharmaceutical firms are identified - insource nearshore, outsource nearshore and outsource offshore. Through a multi-phase, mixed-method approach we find that the top five disturbance factors managers should be aware of while configuring their SCs are quality defects, unforeseen and random interruptions in manufacturing processes, order processing difficulties, untimely delivery of products, and a mismatch between market demand and supplier responsiveness. This study is able to provide insights into the impact of disturbance factors on the SC configuration strategy for Big Pharmas. We show that SC disturbances influenced the decision to bring production back home (reshoring) or to a closer location (near-shoring). To mitigate the effects of disturbances many Big Pharmas recalibrated their SC configurations by insourcing core products, outsourcing non-core products offshore and developing offshore insourcing capabilities through ‘captives’. Taylor & Francis 2016-06-20 Article PeerReviewed Huq, Fahian Anisul/FAH, Pawar, Kulwant S. and Rogers, Helen (2016) Supply chain configuration conundrum: how does the pharmaceutical industry mitigate disturbance factors? Production Planning & Control, 27 (14). pp. 1206-1220. ISSN 1366-5871 Supply chains Pharmaceuticals Disturbance Risk Outsourcing Reshoring http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09537287.2016.1193911?scroll=top&needAccess=true doi:10.1080/09537287.2016.1193911 doi:10.1080/09537287.2016.1193911
spellingShingle Supply chains
Pharmaceuticals
Disturbance
Risk
Outsourcing
Reshoring
Huq, Fahian Anisul/FAH
Pawar, Kulwant S.
Rogers, Helen
Supply chain configuration conundrum: how does the pharmaceutical industry mitigate disturbance factors?
title Supply chain configuration conundrum: how does the pharmaceutical industry mitigate disturbance factors?
title_full Supply chain configuration conundrum: how does the pharmaceutical industry mitigate disturbance factors?
title_fullStr Supply chain configuration conundrum: how does the pharmaceutical industry mitigate disturbance factors?
title_full_unstemmed Supply chain configuration conundrum: how does the pharmaceutical industry mitigate disturbance factors?
title_short Supply chain configuration conundrum: how does the pharmaceutical industry mitigate disturbance factors?
title_sort supply chain configuration conundrum: how does the pharmaceutical industry mitigate disturbance factors?
topic Supply chains
Pharmaceuticals
Disturbance
Risk
Outsourcing
Reshoring
url https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/41471/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/41471/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/41471/