Healthcare Supply Chain Technology and Strategy

There is a expression that relates walking with elephants. Do you lead the elephant? or does the elephant lead you?  The interesting truth is that while we would all like to think we are leading the elephant around , it's not really true. And we all know that if the elephant wants to go somewhere it's going to to go there, we really don't have the tools to change it.  So today's lesson is about understanding the forces of change and how elephants can be lead around and applying that lesson to an elephant in your business, namely...  Dead Inventory Quite often, even among well-run businesses, the actual costs of inventory are inaccurate, underestimated and incomplete. While most distributors know they have dead inventory, many are unaware of just how much. Even in well-run companies, anywhere from 20-30 percent of inventory is dead or obsolete. While that is huge and alone could have devastating ramifications for a business, how do you calculate the real costs t...

As a followup to our blog post from a few weeks ago, it would see that we have a new issue to join the protest on.   Ok so this this will likely not make the list but in a AMAZING show of solidarity.    Sidebar here for an interesting note on protest songs.   Five major Healthcare Associations came together:  Healthcare Distribution Alliance (formerly HDMA) National Community Pharmacists Association National Association of Specialty Pharmacy National Association of Chain Drug Stores Health Industry Distributors Association And they all signed a letter that amounts to a what most would call a fairly heavy handed response to the letter OptumRx sent out regarding the requirement of VAWD Certification. In short, the industry already has the DSCSA requirements so what do we need the VAWD Certification for?  For those not familiar, here is the original blog post and the new letter from these groups. In Keeping with our protest theme ,   One might argue.....

Lot and Serial number control are a key element of new regulations about securing the US drug supply chain. B ut implementing lot control in a warehouse environment can be a sometimes tedious and or problematic process. Converting an item to lot controlled typically requires warehouse setups, software changes and upgrades and physical label changes for many distributors. So how can we stay in compliance without crippling warehouse through put and business operations? The answer is our MDS Product Lot Conversion Utility. Rather than take an item off the shelves, remove it from open orders , change sales history or create a new item and transfer inventory. The MDS system now simplifies the process of setting up an item as lot controlled  and allows you to convert items on the fly without impacting business operations. Newly updated as part our Standard Health Care Distribution Guarantee, The MDS System has been updated to comply with the latest Serial number updates and requirements ...