Wade Blom, Caresfield director of supply chain and operations, recently appeared on the Power Supply podcast. With nearly a decade managing logistics in the healthcare and food industries, Blom is a supply chain expert. Wade maintains that just-in-time inventory practices are still an essential part of the supply chain in 2022.
“We took just-in-time to the absolute raggedy edge of what it was meant to do…You’ve got to adjust your just-in-time to have a little more lead time than we are used to.”
Highlights From the Podcast:
“There’s no denying that things coming inbound from ports is taking longer. There’s no way around that. I always look at the FedEx shipping map….The FedEx map pre-COVID and now are almost identical…Once it’s cleared the ports and it’s in a warehouse in the U.S., it’s really not that bad.”
“History is usually the best forecaster for the future of the supply chain. If you use 27 specimen cups last month, and you usually use 27 specimen cups every month, you’re probably going to need 27 specimen cups next month. Take your annual usage…if you use 12,000 of a product in a year, your average is 1,000 a month. You may have a max one month of 1,100 and a min. of 900. You’re always going to be between 900 and 1,100 in a month so that’s what you have to order.”
“We took just-in-time to the absolute raggedy edge of what it was meant to do…You’ve got to adjust your just-in-time to have a little more lead time than we are used to.”
“Most hospitals don’t have warehouses that are capable of holding three months’ worth of every single item they could possibly use. You have to set a replenishment rate for those items.”
“Your reorder point is consumption times the amount of time it takes to get there in days. If I use 10 a day and it takes 47 days, when I have 470 left on the shelf that’s when I need to reorder. Then you build yourself a little buffer in there, so at 520 I reorder.”
Listen to Power Supply
You can also find on the podcast on:
iTunes -> https://lnkd.in/eksdh65r
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Stitcher -> https://lnkd.in/ee2t-HZz
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About Caresfield
Caresfield is a family-owned manufacturer and distributor of healthcare labels, patient identification bands, disposable tourniquets, cohesive bandages, medical exam gloves and specimen collection products.
Check out some highlights from our blog:
- Medication Labels 101: Categories, Regulations, and Best Practices
- Latex Allergies | Causes, Symptoms, & Prevention
- Is your Blood Bank Labeling compliant?
- Reliable Medical Supplies – A Family Priority at Caresfield
