Supply chain leaders have been navigating through supply constraints and obstacles since 2020. And it is clear the healthcare industry will require new ways of inventory management to stay ahead of these challenges.
In a recent Q&A with Becker’s Hospital Review sponsored by Cardinal Health, Joe Walsh, founder of Supply Chain Sherpas, shared that supply shortages will carry over into 2022 along with a culture that prevents taking a more proactive approach to risk prevention1. In today’s age of unpredictability in the healthcare supply chain industry, taking proactive steps to manage backorders, gain visibility, and implement contingency scenarios is what can set you apart in the industry.
Walsh also shared his thoughts on what advancements in data and technology he anticipates in 2022 for the supply chain industry: “Promising technology innovations include solutions that identify the products that become critical in various disruption scenarios and then cross-reference clinically equivalent products across a broad network of manufacturers without competitive bias. Other important solutions are advanced analytics, and event monitoring solutions to help sense primary and secondar shortages. Demand sensing, demand planning and tools connecting trading partners are also showing early promise1.” Continuous technological advancements that target problems healthcare customers are currently facing show the need for investments in the right technology to achieve the proactive steps to success.
Concurrent planning is one of these technological advancements driving the supply chain industry forward with insights and data analyzation. One company currently leading the way in supply chain solutions is Kinaxis. Focused on delivering supply chain agility and resiliency, the Kinaxis platform combines human intelligence with concurrent planning to monitor future risks and respond at the pace of change. The technology services Kinaxis provides leads to four main advantages for supply chains:
- Increased visibility: Break down silos to gain visibility across your global supply chain and respond sooner to arising challenges.
- Stronger supplier collaboration: Alignment throughout the production process leads to better communication and fewer errors.
- Agile scenario analysis: Make smarter, confident decisions with scenario-based planning to evaluate multiple options.
- Increased forecast accuracy: Assess the impact of unexpected changes in supply and demand instantly2.
Cardinal Health has recently invested in the Kinaxis® RapidResponse® platform with a commitment to further improving business continuity, customer service levels, and ensuring optimized inventory levels across our medical supply chain. Kinaxis will enable fast, information-based decisions and will increase the agility of supply management by having sales and operations planning on one platform. The investment in Kinaxis will enhance Cardinal Health's medical supply chain through:
- Concurrent planning, end-to-end visibility and transparency while factoring in seasonality and pandemic planning;
- Instant balance of demand and supply while accounting for capacity safeguards; and
- Simulation of product supply scenarios in seconds to create best-fit solutions for customers
Cardinal Health will focus initial implementation efforts of the Kinaxis RapidResponse® platform within the Cardinal Health at-Home Solutions business with an expected completion date of Summer 2022. Full implementation of Kinaxis RapidResponse® across our remaining Cardinal Health medical businesses in scope is anticipated for completion by the end of the calendar year 2023.
"Integrating Kinaxis RapidResponse® allows us to view our entire supply chain in real time to proactively mitigate and minimize potential impacts to our customers – and ultimately, their patients," said Paul Rodio, SVP Global Planning at Cardinal Health. "Kinaxis is a key enabler to driving optimization in our end-to-end global planning process."
With the addition of RapidResponse®, Cardinal Health will standardize medical planning within one platform, further improving overall planning, supplier management, risk management and inventory capabilities. “RapidResponse® is the world’s first and only concurrent planning platform,” said John Sicard, Kinaxis CEO. “We’re excited to collaborate with Cardinal Health to bring this advanced planning to healthcare customers and increase accessibility to the products they need most.”
Read more on Cardinal Health’s investment in Kinaxis and commitment to supply chain resiliency here.
Sources
2https://www.kinaxis.com/en/about