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Supply Chain Optimization


Supply Chain Optimization programs offer a strategic approach and include a range of services to help health care providers improve operational efficiencies and implement cost saving measures.

An Interview With

Bryan Gilpin, director of supply chain solutions at Boston Scientific, talks about how working with health care providers has changed, what change management has to do with it and why having skin in the game makes Boston Scientific a partner for the long haul. 
 

Working with You for a Better Supply Chain

As part of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Leaders for Global Operations (LGO) program and Boston Scientific’s Supply Chain Optimization Services, M.B.A. recipient Suman Machinani, M.D. led a supply chain process-improvement pilot program at a hospital endoscopy department — revealing opportunities that can be reproduced at other Boston Scientific customers' facilities.

With patient lives at stake every day, healthcare as an industry must exercise caution when implementing new ideas that other industries would readily adopt with a spirit of innovation. This restraint, though, can be turned into an advantage as healthcare – following in the footsteps of other industries – can observe best practices while avoiding pitfalls that early adopters experience.

Synchronizing materials management for better patient care

By Steven Spear
 
Synchronizing materials management for better patient care by Steven Spear

Healthcare has to coordinate increasingly complex supply networks to bring the best possible care to the bedside, office or home. It needs to cover most people, at the fairest cost. Static planning and scheduling, no matter how precise, will never be robust.

 


Decreases in Annual Supply Chain Costs

Typical results from customer projects have yielded decreases in annual supply chain costs:
Decreases in Annual Suppy Chain Costs

Why is this significant? 
Decrease of hospital expenses
Boston Scientific has worked with customers to optimize solutions and achieved quantifiable results such as:
Optimize Solutions
 

How a device manufacturer became part of the cost savings solution

In a three-year period, Geisinger Health Systems realized a savings of approximately one million dollars by finding ways to better manage its inventory.


GS1/GTIN Transition: Global Standards Helping Customers Improve Supply Chain Efficiencies

GS1 are the most widely used supply chain standards in the world. By adopting these standards and implementing Global Trade Item Numbers (GTIN) for its packaging, Boston Scientific is helping to better serve its customers and play a part in improving supply chain efficiencies.

GTINs adhere to GS1 standards and serve as globally unique identification numbers of an item in the supply chain as it moves from manufacturing through distribution and use. The GTIN numeric code and corresponding bar code identify key product attributes.

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