Health Supply Chain Management

We strengthen and improve access to life-saving medicines and services by assessing market systems and implementing contextually appropriate solutions to better match supply and demand. By engaging the private sector, we advance a total market approach that helps governments achieve equitable and sustainable access to advance universal health coverage.

We have the expertise to:

• Conduct market assessments that include total market opportunities, barriers, and trends related to product sourcing, policy and regulatory environment, consumer insights, and product quality.
• Facilitate public and private partnerships as needed to strengthen and scale supply chain systems and innovations.
• Support the end-to-end coordination of supply chains to promote the availability of high-quality products.
• Introduce new products to increase access to optimal and appropriate treatment and services.
• Help governments outsource supply chain functions including strategic purchasing to increase performance.
• Inform policy and build government stewardship of public health commitments and resources.

We provide end-to-end supply chain execution services. Our sourcing expertise allows us to determine the right procurement strategies to meet customer needs. Using our risk-based quality assurance approach and our network of quality-assured local and international suppliers, we obtain the best health products at the best value.

Using our own 4PL (fourth-party logistics) expertise and our network of 3PL freight and logistics providers, we can deliver medicines and medical supplies to a central warehouse or to a remote district store. Throughout the process, orders and shipments are monitored using real-time data to flag concerns. As a result, millions of people have access to vaccines, HIV medicines, malaria products, contraceptives, and other life-saving medicines and health supplies.

Expertise:

• Sourcing and procurement
• Quality assurance and control
• Freight and logistics including warehousing
• Shipment and order management
• Financial management and reporting
• Policy development
• Applied research

Real-time information and the ability to use it drive performance and enable a resilient supply chain. We adapt the best practices of private industry to meet the needs of the public sector, continuously looking for new and improved solutions such as mobile technologies that extend the speed, reach, and accuracy of data collection.

Having the data is not enough, however. As we improve data collection within organizations, we foster a culture of using data for operational, tactical, and strategic decisions.

We have the expertise to:

• Implement digital logistics management information systems to improve visibility of supply and demand
• Implement facility- and community-level digital reporting systems to enable demand visibility
• Build a culture of data use to increase accuracy and accelerate responsiveness
• Identify and adopt new tools and technologies to improve efficiency

In an increasingly complex and rapidly changing demographic, health care, and markets, an agile supply chain makes all the difference in the ability of countries and local providers to meet the needs for health supplies. We evaluate local needs and work closely with partners to design and implement fit-for-purpose solutions that can respond to shocks in the environment and changes in the supply chain and health landscapes.

We have the expertise to:

• Analyze and optimize the design of health care supply chains to increase efficiency
• Calculate the cost of supply chain operations and the total cost of ownership to improve resource allocation
• Improve performance through the application of commercial best practices and key performance indicators
• Take systems to scale through the use of proven implementation tools