Supply Chain Visibility

As we consider the role of IT in current supply chain thinking, it is easy to get lost in prophesies of doom as in Rettig [1] or fall into the trap of thinking that carefully considered IT implementations can cure all of our woes.

One evolving aspect of supply chain development is the concept of Visibility – it is impossible to begin casting about for information on current thinking without encountering references to visibility and how to maximize it.

Check out this verbiage:

Infosys unveils enhanced Supply Chain Visibility & Collaboration Product Suite 

“New and enhanced product suite enables organizations to leverage closed loop analytics for unlocking efficiencies and strengthening their supply chain for collaborative decision making and actionable insights.” [2]

Sounds impressive, doesn’t it?

In short, the concept of Supply Chain Visibility simply refers to methods that make it easier for participants in a supply chain to see where everyone else is, ideally in real-time. For a supplier this might mean being able to track a customer’s inventory and current rate of consumption so that they are ready to produce and deliver when the customer needs to be restocked, but not before. For a manufacturer, “visibility” might mean real-time tracking of an anticipated delivery in order to adjust the tooling of a specific production line “just in time” in order to minimize disruption to work flow. The more various players in a given supply chain know about the state of their counterparts upstream and downstream, the more efficient their operations can become.

Supply chain visibility is a game changer, and there are a lot of players in the arean looking at ways to monetize it or integrate it into their existing set of processes. Here’s the thing: the entire concept is impossible without ubiquitous IT.

Question:

It is becoming cheaper to gather real-time information on the current state of any given component of a supply chain. What low-overhead game-changing uses for that information are yet to be realized? Where can you find “low hanging fruit” for your industry or application?

References:

[1] Rettig, C. (Fall 2007) “The Trouble with Enterprise Software” MITSloan Management Review Retrieved 2 October 2012 from http://www.lhstech.com/ISM/Articles/Rettig_Enterprise%20Software.pdf

[2] Infosys website accessed 2 October 2012: http://www.infosys.com/newsroom/press-releases/Pages/enhanced-SCV-collaboration-product.aspx

Smarter Medicine: The next step in the CDC’s revolution in delivery of childhood vaccinations.

Vaccine: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sanofi-pasteur/5283533286/

The CDC went live with VMBIP, the Vaccine Management Business Improvement Project in Febrary 2007, deploying in a step-wise fashion over a little bit more than a year. [1] This program consolidated a scattered and inefficient supply chain into a more simple and streamlined state designed to be more responsive to providers and hopefully more fault-tolerant.

In an article on VMBIP’s genesis and deployment “Smarter Medicine” the CDC observed that there was a great deal of resistance to the notion of a centralized ordering process for vaccine. Rather than have end-point providers order directly from a single source, local health departments instead preferred to field and process orders themselves so that they could preserve direct contact with the providers and capitalize on opportunities to continue to promote new vaccine programs and evolving practice. Rather than push the issue, the CDC prudently decided to let that component of existing process remain intact. In the longer run, however, it is clear that preserving an extra step in the order process is not only inefficient but also preserves an opportunity to introduce error and delay in the process.

Unsurprisingly, the CDC appears to have seen things in a similar light, and is working actively to remove that intermediate step with their Vaccine Tracking System to which they have attached the typically unwieldy acronym “VTrckS.”

Launched December 2010, VTrckS “allows health care providers to input their vaccine requests (orders) directly online thereby improving efficiency and accountability of public dollars,” [2] that is, it does exactly what the CDC proposed initially with its centralized call center. (Italics mine.)

This system is the next step in the CDC’s transformation of its childhood vaccine supply chain allowing it more direct control over the supply process and optimal delivery sizes. Direct order entry also increases visibility of the ordering and distribution process for both supplier and recipient.

From a change management perspective, one might reasonably argue that delay in implementation of a centralized ordering clearinghouse cost the CDC nothing: it would have taken time to design the system and bring it online in any event, and clearly the first order of business was consolidation of the supply chain. Additionally, it is likely that had they pushed the issue at the outset of the VMBIP program, they would have encountered resistance from local health departments, possibly jeopardizing the entire initiative.

Question:

The CDC delayed implementation of a centralized ordering clearinghouse initially because of pushback from local health departments. How are the same departments responding now, five year later?

References:

[1] Copeland, M.V. (August 26, 2008) “Smarter Medicine” Strategy + Business. Retrieved 25 August 2012 from http://www.strategy-business.com/article/08307.

[2] CDC website: Vaccine Tracking System (VTrckS) accessed 25 August 2012.