A pharmaceutical supplier is an important part of a pharmaceutical industry. Because the smooth business operation largely depends on smooth supply of materials. Where pharmaceutical supplier lifecycle management is an end-to-end approach to manage the external suppliers or vendors in an organized way to ensure the quality products. That's why the supply chain professional and quality operation team always concern about a supplier qualification and manage the life cycle of a supplier.
A Supplier Lifecycle Includes -
- Select a supplier
- Qualification request
- Receive the material and R&D evaluation
- Prepare a questionnaire and send to Supplier
- Analyze the material quality and GMP requirements
- Site audit (physical or online)
- Provisional approval of vendor
- Final approval of vendor based on the large scale/commercial data
- Periodic assessment of vendor (site audit or desktop audit)
Following the above mentioned activities, a supplier lifecycle can easily manage and can ensure the quality of materials through the lifecycle. This activities aim to minimize disruptions arising from external forces to approve any supplier/vendor.
During preliminary selection of a supplier following points are to be considered to reduce the hassle during further assessment-
- Company vision and mission
- Manufacturing origin, facilities and capacity
- Certifications
- Logistics
- Global footprint
- Any regulatory warning or black listed in any regulatory body
- Previous history
Once the company has selected a vendor, it is important that the supply chain team negotiates the contract details and works through a systemic way. Where both the company and the vendor must agree upon the contract and should maintain through the lifecycle.
The benefits of the supplier lifecycle management process includes -
- reduction of the process costs,
- easily determine the supplier’s qualification,
- better understanding of the risks involved with the vendors,
- helps companies quickly to mitigate the risks,
- can avoid unnecessary failures and crises of materials.
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