Effects of Warehouse Automation in Hospital Medication Supply Chain
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Journal Title
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School of Business |
Master's thesis
Authors
Date
2019
Department
Major/Subject
Mcode
Degree programme
Information and Service Management (ISM)
Language
en
Pages
60
Series
Abstract
This thesis examines the effects of technology and automation investments on the operational performance of hospital pharmacies. Until recently the hospital medication distribution and warehousing in Finland has largely relied on manual work and level of automation has remained low. During the last five years several hospitals and hospital pharmacies have made significant investments for electric medicine cabinets and picking and storage robotics. However, the studies on the effects of these investments remain limited. This thesis tries to fill this research gap, aiming to study that do the technology investments meet the stated objectives. The research focuses on hospital medication distribution; the flow of finished medicinal products from pharmaceutical factories to health care professionals and their patients. Hospital pharmacies are in a key role in this distribution network, acting as centralized warehouse and distribution hub. This thesis focuses on recognizing the key drivers for medication administration technologies investments in hospital pharmacies and on analysing the effects of picking and storage robotics on hospital pharmacy’s warehouse processes and performance. Based on the literature review on pharmaceutical supply chain management and warehouse performance evaluation, a framework for analyzing effects of the picking and storage robot implementation is created. The balanced approach includes three different perspectives with seven performance indicators: cost per order dispatched, medicine loss rate, inventory turnover, dispensing error rate, orders shipped on time, labour productivity and ward pharmacy services’ share of total working hours. The empirical part consists of a quantitative analysis of a specific case of introducing picking and storage robotics to HUS Pharmacy central warehouse in 2015. The study is conducted as before-after analysis, comparing the indicator values before and after the investment (2014-2017). Main drivers for the analysed picking and storage robot investment were to enhance medication safety via automated processes, bring personnel cost savings due to reduction of manual work and free pharmacists’ time for clinical pharmacy work. The findings imply that the investment has at least partially met these objectives. The main finding is that the introduction of the picking and storage robot seems to have increased the labour productivity by 15% through the automatization of manual tasks in the receiving, storage and picking phases of the HUS Pharmacy warehouse process. This increase in labour productivity enables cost savings, which can be realized either by cutting personnel or refocusing personnel time for more valuable tasks.Description
Thesis advisor
Kemppainen, KatariinaPenttinen, Esko
Keywords
varastoautomaatio, sairaala-apteekki, lääketoimitusketjun hallinta, varastonhallinta