Healthcare Supply Chain Technology and Strategy

Your company’s reputation and revenue rest at least partially on your inventory: If you constantly send the wrong items or have late orders, you will lose customers. In order to manage inventory properly, you have to know where that inventory is, and make sure you always have the right amount. An while of course it's easier with an outstanding computer system, it doesn’t always mean a major investment in software. Try a few of these tips to eliminate inventory problems. Keep it Clean  Mom knew back in the day if you didn't clean up your room you would never be able to find your clothing. Same thing holds true in your warehouse Neatness counts. Use uniform bins in the right sizes for your items, and be sure they are clearly labeled. Use labels that can be printed using a Zebra or  laser printer for readability and include bar codes on the labels to improve accuracy. Remove old labels if you use the bin for a different part later. If using metal shelving which most every one doe...

  The quote, “trust, but verify,” is actually an old Russian proverb that President Ronald Reagan used during arms control negotiations with Russian President  Mikhail Gorbachev  in the 1980s. He learned the quote in the Russian language and used the phrase frequently as he and President Gorbachev worked to prevent the promise of mutually assured destruction if the two superpowers failed to get along during that era.  Our message for today is not really a history lesson but more of wake up call for those of you in the pharmaceutical space , or looking to go into.  FiveYears Ago OptumRx one the largest pharmacy care services, and the pharmacy that manages our health care plan as well, Sent a letter to all it's member/partner pharmacies.  Informing them that if they were not VAWD Certified then they might likely no longer be able to participate.    IMPORTANT INFORMATION REGARDING  Pharmacy – Wholesalers Effective Date: 10/01/2016   Op...

  Why chatbots can’t replace B2B customer support agents yet.... Chat bots are computer programs that mimic conversation with people using artificial intelligence. They can transform the way you interact with the internet from a series of self-initiated tasks to a quasi-conversation.  Often  TECHNOLOGY CAN CHANGE AN INDUSTRY. In the ’90s, email completely revolutionized the way customers interact with companies, and live chat made these interactions even more instantaneous. So what will be the next technology trend to come along and change the way businesses communicate with each other? Some professionals in the B2B (business-to-business) customer support industry are speculating that  chatbots , a way of receiving automated responses based on the user-submitted text in chat, will be the next major evolution in customer communication. But are they right? Let’s take a look at how chatbots currently mesh with B2B customer support and if they truly have the po...

Supply chain professionals likely don't recognize the names BlueKai or Silverpop. These companies built their technology to assist online marketing and advertising services. Earlier last year, Oracle acquired BlueKai, which manages data for online marketing services. Similarly in early April, IBM said it would acquire Silverpop, which offers a suite of cloud-based marketing services. These companies were built from the ground up to manage online data and services. Both have technology to create a major advantage for the electronics manufacturing supply chain. Jay Henderson, global strategy director of IBM Smarter Commerce division, said Big Blue continues to acquire online marketing technology that can  "feed back up into the supply chain"  to help manufacturing supply chain professionals with demand sensing and planning, along with shortening the replenishment cycle times between production and sales. Using snippets of the marketing technology can help to compress procu...

  The Bullwhip Effect and Your Supply Chain If you own a business, then you might be aware of the  bullwhip effect , Sorry no Indiana Jones involved here. The Bullwhip effect is is an important  supply chain  phenomenon first noted by MIT systems scientist Jay Forrester. Even if you have never heard of this effect, perhaps you are familiar with the  beer distribution game , which is an experiment designed to show the dynamics of  managing a supply chain . If you are not please click on the links to learn more.  To put the bullwhip effect in simple terms, in looking at businesses further back in the supply chain, inventory swings in larger and larger "waves" in response to customer demand (the handle of the whip), with the largest "wave" of the whip hitting the supplier of raw materials. What causes the bullwhip effect? There are numerous reasons cited for this phenomenon. First of all, there are the more obvious operational factors, some of which you h...