The impact of a consignment inventory strategy in pharmaceutical retail industry

The aim of this research paper is to analyse the impact of a Consignment Inventory (CI) strategy on patient satisfaction in the pharmaceutical retail market. The consignment inventory solution is implemented in a particular business to business (B2B) company, active in the pharmaceutical retail market in Mexico, where usually companies suffer from a low fulfilment rate which leads to unsatisfied customers and also a reduction in their profits. An Economic Order Quantity (EOQ) with non-instantaneous receipt mathematical model and simulation techniques are developed to identify the optimal fulfilment rate. The obtained results of this research paper demonstrated that the implementation of the proposed Consignment Inventory strategy would permit reaching the goal of a much higher fulfilment rate and consequently, higher customer satisfaction.