The production planning and inventory management of finished goods for a pharmaceutical company

Thesis (M. Eng.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, 2007.Includes bibliographical references (p. 77).This thesis is the result of a three month internship at TCG Pharmaceuticals, Singapore. With the worldwide initiative of lean in TCG, it has implemented the TCG Production System which finds its roots in the famous Toyota Production System. The recognition of the importance of reducing the waste of inventory by TCG is the main motivational force for this internship. This thesis documents the inventory levels of the finished goods in the current production scenario and also analyzes the inventory levels for the future as the production of a new product is aimed to be launched this year. The main purpose of this thesis is to suggest ways to better manage the finished goods inventory at TCG. The future states are modeled using a single stage multi product system and various scenarios are developed. A comparison is made between the TCG's planned production schedule and the production schedules developed based on the different scenarios generated using the model. The performance is measured in terms of the space that is needed in each case to hold the inventory.by Sumit Gupta.M.Eng