Modelling the cost-benefit impact of integrated product modularisation and postponement in the supply chain for pharmaceutical mass customisation

Abstract

Realisation of pharmaceutical product and production systems capable of delivering product customisation cost-effectively is essential for adding value to patients and society through improved tailoring of therapies to individuals relative to current mass-produced products. To address the continued lack of evidence-based system solutions, this study presents a holistic design framework and a novel computational platform for enabling design explorations of integrated pharmaceutical product and supply chain (SC) reconfiguration. The design and modelling framework developed herein takes an end-to-end SC perspective, adapts the mass customisation strategies of product modularisation and postponement, and demonstrates case study simulations based on real-life therapy and SC archetypes. The cost-effectiveness assessment with the derived integrated systems computational platform confirm that product modularisation drives patient benefit through variety provision and that postponement drives cost reduction in an end-to-end SC. A novel insight is therefore that both product modularisation and postponement, in an integrated manner, are required for maximising cost-effective customisation. Moreover, the computational simulations, founded and modelled on real-life scenarios, provide design requirements for reconfigurable product and SC systems in a pharmaceutical context. In all, these findings are imperative for providing guidance on integrated pharmaceutical product and production systems design and mass customisation/ mass personalisation/mass individualisation realisation.