Date of Award

12-2013

Degree Name

Master of Science in Engineering

Department

Industrial and Entrepreneurial Engineering and Engineering Management

First Advisor

Dr. Steven Butt

Second Advisor

Dr. Azim Houshyar

Third Advisor

Dr. Laila Cure

Access Setting

Masters Thesis-Open Access

Abstract

Some retail pharmacies offer home delivery services to establish a competitive advantage in the growing healthcare market. The handling of orders for home delivery includes several internal and external processing and transportation activities. In this work, models were developed for use in a pharmacy delivery system to assist personnel in their daily activities. This work includes standard operating procedures for picking, packing and loading of delivery orders and the assignment and routing of vehicles to deliver customer orders. Results from simulated delivery areas identified interesting tradeoffs when comparing densely populated areas to sparsely populated areas. In addition, recommendations for order handling, transport and stowage are presented in an effort to increase product safety and reduce personnel movements. The resulting spreadsheet tool and data storage system were constructed for operation by pharmacy personnel and integrate with current data management systems. Opportunities for future work were also identified.

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