Designing Sustainable Distribution Network in Pharmaceutical Supply Chain: A Case Study

In order to compete effectively in the international markets, pharmaceutical companies must improve their competency. They need to select certain levels of commitment for sustainability practices to sustain their supply chains. This research presents a multi-objective model to design a pharmaceutical distribution network according to the main concepts of sustainability, i.e. economic, environmental, and social. This model helps managers to make strategic and technical decisions in the pharmaceutical distribution network (capacity of main and local distribution centers and the flow of drug in the network). Minimizing the costs and maximizing the welfare of society along with minimizing the adverse environmental effects lead to sustainable decisions. The NSGA-II algorithm was also applied to catch the Pareto-optimal front for the proposed model with respect to three objective functions. To test the model with real data, Darupakhsh Distribution Company was chosen. The results of the customized model for the case reveal the strategic and technical decisions in the pharmaceutical distribution network.