FAST FOREWARD
FAST FOREWARD Always on
CHICAGO – As a dynamic duo, supply and demand never really shuts off. In manufacturing. In distribution. In retail. In healthcare. This was evident at Eyefortransport’s latest annual 3PL Summit
& CSCO [Chief Supply Chain Offi cer] Forum here in late June where supply chain executives from industry explored the product vs. service supply chains, including the threads woven through retail, manufacturing and logistics, and what they can learn from each other. One common theme permeating the educational sessions and panel discussions during the three-day conference involved the “seamless” experience that consumers expect for online shopping that must translate into seamless inventory and the idea that “everybody knows where everything is.” They further attempted to blur the lines between distribu- tion and fulfi llment, a concept as organizational and transactional as it is cerebral and emotional.
If it sounds like transparent nirvana, utopia or even storeroom Xanadu in healthcare, you’re not necessarily off-base.
In eft’s last two annual conferences, speakers addressed such “science friction” topics as 3-D printing as an on-site manufacturing alternative and how drones might disrupt traditional distribution. At this year’s conference, attendees learned about tech a lot closer to the storeroom and warehouse in the form of augmented and virtual reality where computerized glasses enabled heads-up displays that activate pop-up 3-D diagrams and images that can be manipulated for 360-degree views. It’s straight out of Tony Stark’s lab in the Avengers and Iron Man fi lms. Imagine being able to stock shelves accurately or clean and disinfect a surgical device
prior to sterilization, courtesy of immediate mentoring and training strapped to your head. The regularly entertaining and insightful Reuben Slone, Senior Vice President, Supply Chain and Logistics for Walgreens Co. charged attendees with balancing the heart (art) and head (science) of supply chain excellence in a 24/7 “always on” Digital Age by stress- ing cross-functional integration. “We certainly don’t work alone across the enterprise,” he said. “We all have to serve somebody.” Slone emphasized that Supply Chain can (and does) increase economic profi t and shareholder value in industry. Slone recounted how Walgreens started out in the local delivery business but evolved
into a retail business over time that through mergers and acquisitions is now global. “Your customers don’t care about your infrastructure,” he said. “Just their experience. It’s all about why you do something and not how.”
Collaboration between the customer and supplier is a lot like marriage, Slone mused. “It’s based on the frequency of interaction, the level of commitment and the ability to build trust,” he said. “That’s how I proposed to my wife. I feel like the supplier in our relationship because I’m always being told what to do.”
Other sessions and speakers focused on “the Internet of People,” “the Internet of Things,” and anything clogging the lines between them. They assured attendees that both of these nebulous concepts would be pervasive and standard operating procedure in all industries within a few years — just like “cloud computing” now.
A former retail executive of Macy’s-turned-consultant told the crowd to forget about the “race to the bottom” to get the cheapest price you can pay. It’s all about the “omnipresent consumer who expects and demands satisfaction wherever they may be, whenever, how and how often and instantaneously,” she said.
This New Supply Chain Order emerging is all about experience as well as omnichan- nel readiness and transparency with interconnectivity and interoperability of devices. While that may be a mouthful of high-falootin’ strategic marketing and planning terms that sounds more like fl umadiddle, it’s also a peek into a highly automated future where process is emphasized as much as, if not more than, product.
Perhaps the process is the product. To compete in a post-reformed game, however, healthcare providers have to learn from their industry colleagues and counterparts and master both.
EDITORIAL Publisher/Executive Editor Kristine Russell
krussell@hpnonline.com
Senior Editor Rick Dana Barlow
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Contributing Editors
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vdimond@hpnonline.com (941) 927-9345, ext. 202 Kara Nadeau
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EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD Joe Colonna, Vice President, Supply Chain Management, Piedmont Hos- pital, Atlanta, GA; Karen Conway, Executive Director, Industry Relations, GHX, Louisville, CO; Michele De Meo, CRCST, (Ret.) Sterile Processing Manager, Memorial Hospital, York, PA; Dee Donatelli, Director Healthcare, Navigant, Wichita, KS; Mary Beth Lang, Vice President, HC Pharmacy and SCM Commercial Services, UPMC, Pittsburgh, PA; John Mateka, FAHRMM, Executive Director of Supply Chain Operations, Greenville (SC) Health System; Melanie Miller, RN, Manager Central Processing/Supply Chain/ Materials Management, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA; Dennis Orthman, Senior Director, Strategic Marketplace Initiative (SMI); Michael Rudomin, Principal, HealthCare Solutions Bureau LLC, Bolton, MA; Jean Sargent, CMRP, FAHRMM; Rose Seavey, RN, BS, MBA, CNOR, ACSP, Seavey Healthcare Consulting Inc.; Richard W. Schule, MBA, BS, FAST, CST, FCS, CRCST, CHMMC, CIS, CHL, AGTS, Director, Clinical Education, STERIS Corporation; Robert Simpson, CMRP, President and CEO, LeeSar Regional Service Center and Cooperative Services of Florida, Fort Myers, FL; Barbara Strain, Director, Value Management, University of Virginia Health System, Charlottesville, VA; Deborah Petretich Templeton, R Ph., MHA, Chief of Care Support Services, Geisinger Health System, Danville, PA; Ray Taurasi, Eastern Regional Director of Clinical Sales and Services, Healthmark Industries
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4 August 2015 • HEALTHCARE PURCHASING NEWS •
www.hpnonline.com
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