Healthcare Matters

We understand that supply chain management is no longer a discipline whose definition is limited to the relatively controllable confines of a warehouse. Today, it’s about the effective management of a network of resources, strewn across facilities and entities in different cities, states and countries. To manage these networks, we seek to interconnect or link our partners and suppliers  in ways that allow us, simply put, to know what’s going on. When we have a question, we need systems in place that not only comprehend our question, but can quickly provide us an appropriate answer.

Real-time visibility has become a strategic imperative. Visibility to suppliers’ production rates, shipment lead times, in-house inventory and transit data can drive benefits in efficiency that improve SCM performance across the board. Without it, SCM professionals are relegated to reactionary status. For example and at a minimum, track and trace solutions provide a means to reduce lead time variability –and that enables the redirection of working capital and a path to reduce fixed and variable cost. Not knowing and/or not having the ability to trace drug and product information in detail (historical locations; time spent at each location, record of ownership, transaction history, packaging configurations, and environmental storage conditions) is quickly becoming  unacceptable.

Hey, I don’t mean to discourage the big smile we all share when the technology we have adopted to interconnect our networked resources actually works. But remember that how you ultimately interact with your network(s) –including what resources are shared and not-shared– the factors that actually determine the value that each interconnected firm contributes to your supply chain is a function of your relationships.

I started out this post talking about the need we have to invest in the technologies that provide visibility. And while that’s true, acquiring such visibility is just the beginning. Professor Dovev Lavie, whose credentials are impeccable by the way, has focused his research into the area of value creation in interconnected firms/alliances. It’s heady, but very good stuff. Here’s one of the professor’s conclusions: “After reassessing the heterogeneity, imperfect mobility, imitability, and substitutability conditions, I conclude that the nature of relationships may matter more than the nature of resources in networked environments.”

A good thought for the day.

—Tom Finn