STRATEGIC SOURCING & LOGISTICS
or stockless methods, they are putting all reliance on a distributor or manufacturer,” indicated Cory Turner, CMRP, Senior Director, Healthcare Strategy, Tecsys Inc. “It takes control away from the hospital’s supply chain and puts it into the hands of these third parties.
“Supply chain teams are the experts in what their facilities and clinicians need in terms of products to care for patients, so supplies must be in a place where they can manage them effectively. More and more hospitals are looking at consolidated service centers (CSC) as more of a need than a want. They are increasingly lever- aging CSCs to put supply chain squarely in control over supply management as opposed to relying on distributors or manufacturers.” Still, Supply Chain experts agree, by and large, that JIT isn’t dead and done – not by a longshot.
“I think the industry has learned that
just-in-time has its place, but it should not be adopted across the board,” said Tom Redding, Senior Managing Director, Healthcare Services, St. Onge Co. “When considering the use of a CSC, an organi- zation can continue a just-in-time model, which is based on their ability to carry a
larger subset of inventory to handle the larger variation in demand.
“There is some hesitation in the market to actively pursue a stockless program with a distributor, versus considering the option to do it themselves,” Redding continued. “As the market changes, the distributors will further bolster their [third-party logistics] services to assist their clients with running a CSC. The easy answer is to do it yourself but having the knowledge, experience and systems to run a distribution center should be taken seriously.” Alex Wakefield, CEO, Longbow Advantage, concurs.
“We aren’t seeing just-in-time necessar- ily go away as a strategy, but supply chain teams are definitely revisiting how they approach these types of strategies,” he observed. “For some, this has come in the form of stocking up. However, the reality is warehouses or [distribution centers] can only hold so much product. For supply chains that are looking to restructure their just-in-time strategies, they’ll need to be hyper-vigilant about efficiency when it comes to storage, throughput and things like cross-docking for more immediate shipments in order to maximize the space they have. Visibility into – and maximizing
warehouse capacity and order fulfillment across the network will be more important than ever before for companies that need to increase contingency-order storage.”
Finding balance JIT among other LUM models certainly has its limitations, which should encour- age supply chain professionals to expand their toolsets, according to Steve Kiewiet, FAHRMM, FACHE, COO, CCS Medical, and Immediate Past Chair, AHRMM. “I don’t think the concepts shattered,” he reassured. “They have been effective tools for decades. However, they are not the only tools, and it means we need to be more proactive in understanding the balance of supply chain cost and risk. This allows us to deploy the correct inventory management and supply chain tools to fit the risk and cost situation. The breakdown we all experienced here is because many supply chains became highly focused on one tool and had too strong of a focus on removing cost, etc. “IT was built specifically for a single-
piece ow assembly line environment while operating with well-known demand and little-to-no variation,” Kiewiet continued. “Healthcare is not that environment. We
ENGINEERING. HEALTHCARE. EXCELLENCE.
^ƚ KŶŐĞ ŽŵƉĂŶLJ ĐƌĞĂƚĞƐ ƚĂŝůŽƌĞĚ ƐŽůƵƟŽŶƐ for your most complex problems
WWW.STONGE.COM/HEALTHCARE | 717-840-8181
2201HPN_StOnge.indd 1
ASSESSMENT OPTIMIZATION
FACILITY DESIGN
OPERATIONS PLANNING FACILITY ACTIVATION
CENTRALIZATION STRATEGY
hpnonline.com • HEALTHCARE PURCHASING NEWS • January 2022 17
12/10/21 4:19 PM
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52
