Title: Performance optimisation of a pharmaceutical production line by integrated simulation and data envelopment analysis

Authors: Naser Habibifar; Mahdi Hamid; Mahdi Bastan; Ahmad Taher Azar

Addresses: Department of Industrial Engineering, K.N. Toosi University of Technology, Tehran, Iran ' School of Industrial Engineering, College of Engineering, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran ' Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Eyvanekey, Garmsar, Iran ' Robotics and Internet-of-Things Lab (RIOTU), Prince Sultan University, Riyadh, KSA and Faculty of Computers and Artificial Intelligence, Benha University, Egypt

Abstract: It seems that the use of mathematical models is not suitable for pharmaceutical production line optimisation and the use of simulation leads to better outputs and provides more flexibility than mathematical models. Therefore, in this study, a novel methodology based on the integration of simulation and data envelopment analysis is developed for performance optimisation of a pharmaceutical production line. For this purpose, first, an actual pharmaceutical production line was simulated, verified and validated. Afterwards, Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) was developed for the scenario analysis. Finally, the weight of each indicator is identified through paired t-test. Results suggested that all the indicators are significant in the production unit. Optimisation model suggested that certain inputs and outputs had to be improved for the performance optimisation of the pharmaceutical unit. This is the first study in which an integrated simulation DEA is used for the performance optimisation of a pharmaceutical unit.

Keywords: pharmaceutical plants; performance optimisation; pharmaceutical production simulation; pharmaceutical process modelling.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSPM.2019.103587

International Journal of Simulation and Process Modelling, 2019 Vol.14 No.4, pp.360 - 376

Received: 08 Aug 2018
Accepted: 16 Jan 2019
Published online: 12 Nov 2019 *

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