MSD: Continuous Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Data for the 2024 MSOM Data-Driven Research Challenge

To support the 2024 MSOM Data-Driven Research Challenge, Merck & Co., Inc., Rahway, New Jersey (hereafter “MSD”), provides pharmaceutical manufacturing data from a continuous tablet production setting. The data set contains approximately 300 million data points related to around 75 process parameters monitored over 120 hours. In this paper, we present the data set and share our vision to inspire and facilitate new applications of operations management (OM) methodologies in pharmaceutical manufacturing. We begin with an introduction to pharmaceutical manufacturing for OM researchers and then elaborate on emerging technologies, common industry challenges, and research opportunities. We explain the data set and propose a roadmap for future research directions. Researchers are welcome to examine the proposed research questions or analyze other research questions using the data set. History: This paper has been accepted as part of the 2024 MSOM Data-Driven Research Challenge. Funding: This work was supported by The Dutch Research Council - NWO VIDI Grant. Supplemental Material: The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/msom.2024.0860