Good Distribution Practices
Discuss about the Good Distribution Practices In The Medical and Business Sector.
In the medical and business sector, good distribution practices are of great importance especially to the active substances and medicinal products. These practices ensure that the integrity and quality of these products is maintained since they are easily affected by lack of proper control measures. The importers, manufacturers and distributers of medicinal products share common roles and duties that are aimed at ensuring that the products remain in the best conditions for the intended users (Gandhi et al., 2018). Therefore, good distribution practices ensure that there are necessary control measures in place during storage as well as distribution of such products. However, some control measures might not be applicable to every situation, company and environment. However, it is important to adopt the good distribution practices by a given company to meet its needs as well as the needs of the customers. At the same time, good distribution practices should be adopted considering the nature of the risks involved to achieve the quality of commodities. There are some commodities which require the storage and distribution at some specified conditions such as room temperatures, while others require frozen or use of cold chains. The aim of this essay is to explore the use of good distribution practices in pharmaceutical industries and businesses.
Personnel
The key personnel placed in charge of a warehouse activities needs to be competent enough and have the relevant knowledge and expertise for these duties (Billett et al., 2015). Thus from time to time, these personnel should be offered proper training related to good distribution practices, safety and operations. More training is emphasized especially for he personnel involved in products of special categories in terms of handling and storage conditions (Nafukho et al., 2017). These include those products that are toxic, fragile, infections, special risk and those in the cold chain conditions.
The storage facilities for use during distribution should be designed in a way that they can handle the recommended storage conditions (Shah et al., 2016). Of great importance is the security to the premises whereby there is restricted access to unauthorized persons. Additionally, the reception and dispatch locations should be distinct enough to avoid any form of confusion or inconveniences. Thus these bays should be designed in a way that protects the goods from bad weather and other risks. The storage bay should be spacious enough to allow for enough space for segregated and ordered placement of goods. This should also allow the goods to be separated based on various categories such as the quarantine, returned, and recalled among other categories. For the goods which are quarantines and rejected, there needs to be highly restricted access to prevent possible mixing with other goods. In case there are computerized systems for separation that use the bar coding method, they need to have reassurance of accessibility and segregation (He et al., 2018). Moreover, the storage areas should be clean, dry and free of dust. If possible, the warehouse management can use written timetable on the cleaning frequencies and methods to be used. Frequent cleaning ensures that there is no risk of contamination to the products in the supply chain and more so during distribution. Concerning the sensitive products such as the infectious ones, appropriate cleaning methods should be indicated (McCain, 2012). Inside the storage facilities, proper lighting should be provided to facilitate the ease of movement and reduce possible falls and injuries to the personnel, while ventilation ensures good air supply. However, for goods that should be stored in the dark, these provisions should be observed to ensure product integrity.
Personnel
Once the goods are received, the incoming deliveries should be checked for possible damage and seal tampering. The packaging materials should contain labels of product description, quantity, weight and type. This information needs to be verified against the incoming goods through physical and computerized systems. If need be, a delivery which is in doubt or does not meet the expected standards of warehousing should be quarantined for further analysis. Upon delivery, the goods which need specialized storage conditions like the narcotics and cold-chain goods should be stored based on the required storage conditions. From time to time, periodic storage reconciliation should be conducted to compare the actual products in the warehouse against those in the records (Abdallah, 2016). In case of any observed discrepancies, proper and detailed investigations should be done to determine the mix-up or the source of errors. All products whose expiry date has been reached should never be received to ensure that the customer needs are met. For the purpose of goods whose expiry dates are near, there should be systems in place to ensure these goods are distributed first based on the Earliest-expiry-first-out or First-in-first-out methods. For proper deliveries, only the appointed or authorized persons or the wholesalers that the goods need to be distributed to, with the relevant accompanying distribution documents. During distribution, the distributors should ensure that; the identity of the goods are not lost, no contaminations occurs, and that high protection is offered to prevent damage and theft.
Safe distribution practices, the documentation systems should be thorough to ensure that all product specifications are recorded (Brown and Gilbert, 2014). Moreover, the documents should include instructions on handling procedures to ensure that the integrity of the goods are maintained throughout the supply chain. These documentations can be done in paper, electronic formats or both, and made available for audit by the relevant authorities upon need. Additionally, there should be documents that explain the practices that could negatively affect the quality of products during distribution (Giralt et al., 2017). These are the precautionary measures that the personnel should observe at all times. The most common documents used during distribution include the client orders, recalls, returned goods, storage conditions and withdrawal of sealable stock by the respective distribution company (Cemus and Cerny, 2017). Another good practice involving documents during distribution of goods is that every time an action is performed at the warehouse, a record should be made. At the same time, incase an alteration is made during entry, a signature should be made and a date against the signature.
Equipment
When some goods are returned to a distributor, a written procedure should be made describing the goods, and reasons for return. The returned goods should be stores aside from the sealable stock so as to avoid possible redistribution until a final decision is made concerning their disposal (La Scalia et al., 2014). For the returned goods to be made on the saleable stock, they should be; in their original and unopened condition, have acceptable shelf life, and that proper storage and transport of the goods to the distributors. The returned goods should be released to the saleable stock upon thorough investigations. During distribution processes, there could be possibilities of an encounter with counterfeit goods (Khan et al., 2011). According to good distribution practices, any counterfeit goods during the distribution process should be suspended. First and foremost, the counterfeit goods should be segregated and kept separately to avoid mixing with other goods during handling. Moreover, a label should be placed on such goods prohibiting their possible sale, and relevant documentations prepared. Once the counterfeit goods are investigated and confirmed, other related goods should be removed from the market and proper measures taken by the distributer to ensure that they do not re-enter into the market again (Buckley and Gostin, 2013).
Another remarkable good distribution practice is the performance of self-inspections by the individual distribution companies. This enables them to determine whether they comply with the good distribution practices or not. In the event there are other upcoming issues or challenges in the distribution chain, corrective and preventive measures should be adopted in line with these practices. The self-inspections by product distribution companies need to be conducted in a detailed and impartial manner by qualified personnel. This means that a s written standard procedure should be available for conducting self-inspections. As noted with documentations, the self-inspections by respective companies should contain the names of the inspecting personnel, dates and methods used.
Since distribution practices involves the passing of goods from the suppliers to the consumers, there are a number of intermediates involved in the process of distribution. Therefore, the main intention of good distribution practices should be to ensure that the products get to the right people at the right time and in good condition.
Conclusion
The good distribution practices form an important pillar in all activities of product distribution in the markets. Considering the diverse nature and composition of products including medical supplies, the practices and infrastructures provided by distributers should ensure that the products can be handled safely until they get to the customers. However, the quality and integrity of the products during distribution should be under the restrictions of efficiency, effectiveness and profits of the distributors. While facilities should be of good standards, the nature in which the personnel operate, all which is based on their level of training, plays a critical role to the observance of these practices. Documentations are also very important because they ensure that businesses operate within the stipulated legal frameworks. Thus, there are a number of documents that form part of good distribution practices, which are used for every action involving product distribution. To ensure that the distribution companies are practicing these safe practices, self-inspections should be performed so that relevant corrections, which would otherwise affect the distribution channels of products, are made in good time.
Product handling
Reference List
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