H.D. Smith is using cloud analytics software to get a better handle on its supply chain, allowing it to slice and dice inventory by profit margin and customer as well as track the shipping route of prescriptions and health and other wellness products.
Doug Bowen, vice president supply chain, and Terry Loftus, medical director, surgical services and clinical resources, discuss the initiatives that Banner Health has undertaken in recent years to cut inventory and logistics costs, without affecting the quality of service to doctors and patients.
Amit Devpura, head of analytics, global supply chain and strategy with AstraZeneca, talks about how the pharmaceutical and biologics giant is using sophisticated analytics to get a better sense of demand, production and cost to serve.
Pharmaceutical companies are running hard to keep pace with changes brought about by digital technology. Mobile communications, the cloud, advanced analytics, and the Internet of Things are among the innovations that are starting to transform the healthcare industry in the ways they have already transformed the media, retail and banking industries. Pharma executives are well aware of the disruptive potential and are experimenting with a wide range of digital initiatives.
Having undergone a raft of acquisitions and name changes over the years, the pharmaceutical giant formerly known as Actavis scraps its legacy manual processes and embraces formal demand-planning and advanced-scheduling technology.
Over the last several years, the biopharmaceutical industry worldwide has intensified its focus on quality in manufacturing - but with little to show for it. Manufacturing quality levels remain well below those in other industries, such as semiconductor manufacturing and aerospace. And major recalls are still all too common.
Healthcare supply chains have all the challenges of supply chains in other industries, but they also have unique issues that add an extra measure of complexity: The strict government regulations that healthcare supply chains must conform to increase the difficulty of balancing speed, visibility and control. Here's a look at some of the problems healthcare companies face in supply chain management.