A preliminary examination of the deployment of lean and reverse logistics within the pharmaceutical supply chain (PSC) UK

Drug treatment is the most common form of healthcare intervention and represents the highest non-staff revenue cost in the UK National Health Service (NHS).The annual drugs bill in the UK equates to just about 10% of NHS expenditure (McKee, 2012). Demand for NHS healthcare is effectively infinite (Lodge and Bamford, 2008); there are constant efforts to increase capacity and operational budgets are constrained. One area where hospital pharmacies are looking for cost saving and better services is through improving their Supply Chain Management (SCM) (AT Kearney, 2009). However, they have not only to manage the forward components of the logistics process to minimise waste and maximise patient wellbeing, but to manage the reverse components as well (Jamali et al., 2010). Success in this area can be realised through the application of a Lean Philosophy which focuses on eliminating waste by defining value (Brandao, 2009).