Warehouse Capacities in the Pharmaceutical Industry – Plan or Outsource?

Abstract : The pharmaceutical industry is undergoing a change. Different future developments such as the increasing amount of biopharmaceutical products and even stricter regulations increase the need for a reliable long range warehouse capacity planning. Results from a literature analysis indicate that managing these operations will mainly remain the responsibility of the pharmaceutical company itself and may not be outsourced. Hence, the capabilities must be built up within the pharmaceutical companies itself, too. However, none of the models identified in the literature can fulfill all requirements of a reliable and detailed long-range planning process in the pharmaceutical industry. Providing suggestions for further research areas, the paper contributes to the further development of more reliable planning processes.