Look for cost patterns out of the standard and benchmark internally and externally.
Fremont, CA: Healthcare supply chains are often high-margin, regulated companies with stringent quality standards, such as cold-chain storage and transit demand. They are, however, frequently ripe for improvement across the board.
Inefficiencies are common due to outsourcing capabilities to logistics service providers (LSPs) without proper oversight, the cross-border nature of many items, and complicated rules frequently misunderstood.
The following are five suggestions for improving healthcare supply chains:
• Target your suppliers
Consolidating or enhancing the management of their supplier base is among the simplest areas to start. The procurement of resources, goods, and services accounts for significant supply-chain spending. LSPs, warehousing suppliers, raw-material providers, and re-packagers are examples. However, if users outsource such talents, the business must properly manage them– or they will manage users.
• Focus on performance
Define and manage a hierarchy of outcome-based supply-chain metrics that matter to business consumers. They should be wide and comprehensive, allowing tradeoff analysis among important performance measures (KPIs).