Economies of scale can be used as a tool for measuring efficiency. The wholesale pharmaceutical industry recently received regulations mandating pharmaceutical wholesalers provide a pedigree to document the flow of pharmaceutical products through the pharmaceutical supply chain. Each wholesaler had to create a new system for generating these pedigrees. Economies of scale was used to decide which wholesaler was best suited to implement a pedigree program. The largest wholesalers could not move quick enough to match pedigree deadlines while smaller companies struggled financially to afford a new pedigree program. It was found that midsized companies had the appropriate balance between quantity of products sold and overall business size.
