The pharmaceutical industry is very important in the industrialized world due to its leading role in sustaining a healthy nation. Within the industry, there are several companies or companies that are engaged in one form of trade or another. While some specialize in research and development regarding drugs or drugs to cure a new or existing infection or disease, some are in the business of manufacturing drugs and others in prescribing drugs, marketing drugs, and the like. This scene, as if it were a play, is watched, valued and controlled by reputable organizations, associations, agencies, commissions and special committees so that things do not go beyond the normal.
As an experienced warehouse / warehouse manager and later as a warehouse and logistics manager, I have always wanted to gather a few things together for future individuals who eventually find themselves working in a company like pharmaceuticals. Many find it difficult to work as one and those who had actually worked as one had a lot of difficulties such as losses that they could not be responsible for and have to pay for, many inquiries to answer why the drugs unknowingly expired, damage, supplying the wrong force or SKU for another, lost in transit if burdened with a little logistics responsibilities and so on.
As soon as I got into work, I implemented what I want to achieve, what every store manager is expected to do if he is to be successful at work. Take a look at mine.
The store / warehouse undertakes to:
I. serve you better through fast delivery or stock shipment,
ii. improve effective communication,
iii. handle your complaints with courtesy, absolute care and prompt response,
iv. adequate and accurate documentation for effectiveness and efficiency, and
v. due process for the entry, exit and subcontracting of inventories.
This is mine and you need something similar to this, not exactly. It all depends on your organization and what you want to do or achieve. Therefore, inventory management and control is a very vital knowledge that a store or warehouse manager must have in order to perform well on the job.
In practice, inventory management is about ensuring that everything related to your stock is well planned and organized so that there is an easy flow of stock in and out of the company. This means that you need to have enough stock to fulfill all orders and ensure that customers continue to be in stock at all times. It is a complex and quite challenging thing. However, some programs have helped reduce the stress of using varieties of formulas to obtain the reorder level, the maximum and minimum stock level, the warning level, the annual demand, etc. This is INVENTORY OR STOCK CONTROL.
When managing your stock in a pharmaceutical company, you must first learn how to keep proper records. You need to be very versatile in this and similar figures, especially when handling more than 100 different types of drugs and some have different concentrations, for example 10mg, 25mg, 50mg, 100mg, 500mg, 1g, 4000IU, 10,000 IU, 20,000 IU, etc. Some of the documents that you must have and use are:
DELIVERY NOTE (DN): Registers all medications and materials that leave the store to customers, REPs, office workers and donations to institutions. It must have date, particular (for drug name, expiration date, lot number and strength), packaging details (for example, bottles, vials, PC, etc.), name and shipping address, serial number, space for the signature of the store manager and the receiver. It can be doubled in pink or tripled.
GOODS RETURN FORM (GRF): Records all returns of goods and in good condition.
GOOD RECEIPT NOTE (GRN): Records all imported stocks as they enter the store, that is, stocks imported from the manufacturer and received in the store or stocks received from the production department in the store and ready to go. be issued.
PRODUCT REQUEST NOTE (PRN) – Records all order fulfillment requests sent to the purchasing manager or procurement department when stocks reach reorder level. You must specify what stock to replenish and the quantity to order (although the purchasing manager may know the correct quantity to purchase within the financial constraints of the organization).
WAYBILL: This is a document from the store that accompanies the stocks that are moved outside the organization and that must be presented when they are stopped on the way, either by the security men of the organization or on the way to the warehouse or the customer’s store.
BIN CARD: This is a document that shows the daily entry and exit of stocks inside and outside the store or warehouse. It must show the name and address of the shipment, lot number, expiration date, quantity, signature and balance (continuously). FIFO must be strictly enforced to avoid losses due to expiration of drugs.
INVENTORY SOFTWARE: Inventory control and management software can be installed in the office system for daily posting and accurate report generated by tried and tested program. Good ones include the inbound inventory program, Chronos eStock Card, Inventoria Manager Stock, etc.
In managing stocks or inventories in a pharmaceutical company, the following should be taken into account:
1. The expiration date of the stock must be checked and documented. It should be written on the container card.
MANAGEMENT ACTION: Ensure that there is adequate vigilance on the expiration date of each medicine to avoid losses due to expiration.
2. The batch number should be noted and documented as there may be many batches of the same drug class.
MANAGEMENT ACTION: FEFO (First Expiry, First Out) should be used here. The first batch to expire must come out first.
3. The temperature and storage conditions should be well noted. Some of these instructions are: store between 2oC and 5oC, store between 15oC and 25oC, protect from sunlight, store in a freezer, etc. Follow these instructions.
MANAGEMENT ACTION: The temperature must be adequately controlled to avoid damage due to excessive or insufficient temperature.
Others include:
4. Stock should not be packed in it. There should be enough space and the tent should be well organized to allow easy placement and free movement.
5. There should be computer data for all stock in the store that will be updated daily or almost immediately as stock leaves or comes in to allow the manager to know the remaining quantity for each stock at a glance in the system in case of urgency. ask.
6. Cleanliness is part of proper warehouse management.
7. Proper documentation and updating of records are also necessary here from the source document to the Bin Card.
The stock control strategy is also necessary for effective and efficient warehouse management. Now there is a great deal of software to eliminate difficulties in this area. When controlling the warehouse stock, the control measure / software / program must be able to determine the following about which correct decision should / could be made:
1. MAXIMUM STOCK LEVEL
2. MINIMUM STOCK LEVEL
3. LEVEL OF REORDERING OF STOCK
4. AMOUNT TO REORDER
5. LEVEL OF WARNING FOR STOCKS
6. NORMAL CONSUMPTION
7. NORMAL PERIOD TO REORDER
8. DEMAND OR ANNUAL AMOUNT
The manual method of stock control is rapidly disappearing, although it is still used by some organizations. However, daily monitoring is needed to ensure efficiency. Computers these days have helped save that time because alerts are triggered when stocks need to be reordered, below the minimum level, when stocks are present, etc.
Ultimately, stock management and control is an important aspect of the warehouse manager’s responsibility that must be handled effectively and efficiently if they are to remain on the job, since all that is required of them is this function. Therefore, the warehouse manager should strive to keep up with development through training and development in the form of additional education, workshops, seminars, Internet research, etc.