Optimizing Inventory for Stocking-up Medical Drugs in the Goa Pharma Retail Industry

Abstract

Cedric Silveira69329* and Nigel Barreto69330

Drug retail outlets are mushrooming and when it comes, the need to stock up drugs for the society. Many drugstores are in a quandary as to how much they must stock up to meet the patients requirements. The study was conducted to determine which factors were found to responsible or most needed when it came to stocking up medicines. The factors selected were demand for the product, storage conditions, supplier reliability, storage capacity, capacity to pay the suppliers and expiries of drugs. Around 300 retailers and their staff from various drugstores around Goa were selected by a convenience sampling method. The results were as follows; demand for the product was ranked as number one, followed by capacity to pay the supplier, expiries of the drug, storage capacity, storage conditions and supplier reliability. Pearson’s coefficient of correlation was also conducted wherein two above variables were checked for correlation. It was found that there was a high positive correlation between capacity to pay the supplier and demand for the product. Secondly there was a medium positive correlation between capacity to pay the supplier and storage capacity.