Research scientists at SINTEF have developed a control dashboard for the pharmaceuticals industry. This enables all pharmacies, wholesalers and manufacturers to check where products are in the supply chain, availability, what stocks the neighbouring pharmacy has and the future prognoses.
When a packet of pills is scanned at the pharmacy checkout today, information is simultaneously transferred to the wholesaler about the remaining stocks on the shelves, which in turn results in a stock order. Several Norwegian pharmacies have such automatic supply systems, and it takes only 24 hours before out of stock products are back on the pharmacy shelves.
Automatic for the entire industry
"For a pharmaceutical manufacturer on the other hand, in the worst case it can take three months before they are able to supply products that are out of stock," says Heidi Dreyer at SINTEF Technology and Society. "For essential medicines, such as with the bird flu and severe influenza epidemics, there can be advantages in cutting this time down."
"And time is money," adds her colleague Torbjørn Netland. "The pharmaceutical companies themselves will profit by being better able to supply products faster."
When the research scientists commenced the AUTOMED project three years ago, they wanted to incorporate this demand and develop a system where automatic product supplies could apply to the entire pharmaceutical industry, including the pharmaceutical manufacturers. The project was commissioned by pharmaceutical wholesaler Holtung AS, which wanted a closer collaboration with customers and suppliers in the supply chain.
The new control dashboard has been developed in collaboration with Oracle Norway, while the three-year AUTOMED project is funded by the Research Council of Norway.
Backdrop
In recent years, strong deregulation and commercialisation has led to a substantial increase in the number of pharmacies in Norway. Today, small pharmacies, such as Apotek1, Vitus Apotek and Alliance, are located in most shopping malls. The ownership is dominated by three international corporations with head offices in Germany and Great Britain.
The more actors that have entered the playing field, the harder it is to have an overview of products and availability. The partitions between the various actors have also become tight - and this has not invited collaboration.
Control dashboard
With the new dashboard developed by SINTEF and Oracle, everything that occurs in the line between manufacturer, wholesaler and pharmacy becomes visible.
The images and information appearing on the computer screen depend on who the user is. While a pharmacy employee in Trondheim will see availability at their own and neighbouring pharmacies, a wholesaler like Holtung can search by counties, select a pharmacy and see what orders have been placed with the manufacturer and what are expected to be the best and worst sellers next year.