Solution

1.0 PART 1: Case Study Analysis

1.1 Introduction

AbbVie is a global biopharmaceutical company operating one of the most sophisticated supply chains that now delivers products to over 60 million people of 175 countries. Its supply chain strategy focuses on three pillars: adaptable supply chain management, an effective method of choosing and controlling suppliers, and risk management strategies. These strategies are consistent with AbbVie’s business needs for delivering innovative high-quality medicines despite the following: This analysis focuses on analyzing AbbVie supply chain context, configuration, motivation, vulnerability, issues, futures, best practices, and improvement actions (Abbvie,2024) as shown in Figure 1 below.

Figure 1: Supply Chain Strategy Pillars

1.2 Supply Chain Strategy and Objectives (Strategic Fit)

The supply chain plan of action at AbbVie resonates well with their mission of providing advanced medicines that are safe for use by the patients. This alignment that is established is done taking the following three principles::

1. The distributed manufacturing system reduces vulnerability to supply shocks and increases the possibility to address changing regional requirements due to greater geographical mobility.
2. Supplier Management arrangement for over 47,000 suppliers accompanied by vigorous assessments, relationship management and Monitoring Management ensures that the supply delivers consistent quality and reliability.
3. Through AbbVie global product protection team, this organisation carries out routine check-ups, and oversees the supply of products to the market, all in an effort to uphold safety.

Altogether these strategies help AbbVie achieve the company’s business plan of innovation, quality and reliability. However, one of the major challenges that arise out of this strategic agility is the have to keep the firm agile while competing in a highly regulated environment. Thus, while using risk management and intermediary supplier strategies is quite effective for AbbVie, increasing its responsiveness with the help of such advanced technologies as real-time data integration and advanced predictive analytics would also be beneficial (Gattorna,2021). Such technologies would ensure quicker response to the changes in the market and better performance, which is crucial to AbbVie operating in the unsteady pharmaceutical commercial environment.

1.3 Supply Chain Design

The current supply chain design of AbbVie means that it incorporated a complex, global network of manufacturing plants, regional distribution centers and cold chain to its pharmaceutical products and get them to markets around the world without compromising its quality as shown in Figure 2 below.

Figure 2: Supply Chain Design

Key features of this design include:

1. Temperature control because AbbVie’s manufactured products are sensitive to temperatures, transportation requires use of temperature-controlled means. This makes sense for products that are most susceptible to degradation including heat sensitive products such as vaccines and biologics.
2. Singular place where ordering is done with an aim of co-ordinating the supply relations in different zones. This system aids in improving the organization’s methods in terms of process control, making tasks viewable and to ensure effective stock management.
3. The company also uses local warehousing to raise the company’s sensitivity to the market and guarantee the necessary flexibility. These facilities enable AbbVie address specific market needs within short lead times hence reducing on stockouts.

An advantage of AbbVie supply chain design is that it is sound and appropriate for an international firm. But significant challenges exist when it comes to product quality assurance especially during transport. Cold chain transportation results in bottlenecks because it has long lead times primarily due to the vulnerability of the products to the environmental conditions (Iranov et al,.2019). Second, with most of the distribution depending on sea transport, the shelf life becomes an issue and needs to be so accomplished swiftly. These challenges require constant improvements in logistics and supply chain management including developing two transportation channels (air and sea) and search of more efficient susupply chain cold chain. Furthermore, embracing smart trends such as predictive analysis in an AbbVie supply chain could reduce more risks that are associated with the regulation of temperature and shelf life which will, in turn, advance the supply chain productivity and reliability.

1.4 Supply Chain Drivers and Metrics

A few of the critical success factors are as follows: AbbVie SCM is metrics driven focusing on operation, inventory, and transportation cost as shown in Figure 3 below.,…..

Please click the following icon to access this project in full