Healthcare Supply Chain Technology and Strategy

For most companies today there is great room for improvement in the supply chain. It is  cautious, reactive and traditional. We have designed it to be that way. Companies want a supply chain that is more aligned and agile. But, guess what? We have not designed it to be that way. Supply Chain leaders will state in one breath that they want to be innovative and try new technologies; however, in the next sentence, they will ask for a definitive Return on Investment (ROI) for a project. How can you drive innovation if you hamstring yourself to only take a step to try a project with a definitive ROI?  While we sell software tools for the supply chain sometimes it's important to take a step back as well and before throwing technology at a problem, see where it's needed most. Then work with your technology partner build a long lasting solution.  I encourage everyone to have an “oops” day. What is an “oops” day? It is a day for you to have a mea culpa meeting with your team. It...

Maybe you are not ready for robots just yet, but here are some tips that will get you part of the way there.  The high-tech warehouse is taking shape as organizations seek to get ahead of the material handling systems challenges of the 21st Century supply chain. A big component of that formation is automation, but it has to be more strategic than just throwing machines at a problem. http://www.chonday.com/Videos/how-the-amazon-warehouse-works Nearly three in four managers rank distribution center (DC) automation as the No. 1 way to increase productivity, according to a survey by Intermec Technologies. Customer demands to move more product faster through more channels combined with a shrinking labor pool have driven organizations to automate processes in their DCs. Yet while many organizations have started automating, the parts don’t always add up to a holistic system. With nearly 3,000 hours lost each year to DC inefficiencies, Intermec reports, organizations can’t afford to have a...

Digital Signage for your Warehouse and Offices As I wandered through Costco last week looking at all the flat panels and how the costs have dropped, it occurs to me that there is a place for them in the warehouse and possibly the office. Many times workers are looking in the rear view mirror of the business, making choices based on goals and achievements made last week, last quarter, or last year. digital signage puts the focus on the future.  In your company you may have spreadsheets, bar graphs, and charts, posted on the walls,   Well that's about how we did yesterday. Real-time information, though, can let workers see how they have done in the first few hours of the shift and what they have to do going forward. Increasingly, warehouse operations are looking to digital signage to provide that sort of real-time data. That's part of a bigger move toward the technology: The worldwide digital signage marketplace is predicted to have strong growth, increasing annua...