Module 1 – Planning Demand and Supply in the Healthcare Supply Chain

In the first module of the programme, you will consider what a supply chain is and the impact that supply chain decisions have on a healthcare organisation’s performance. You will examine the relationship between supply chain strategy and the overall strategy of your hospital or health system, emphasising the importance of ensuring a ‘strategic fit’ – i.e., the alignment of these two strategies.

Since most healthcare supply chain decisions are based on estimates of future demand, you will examine ways to forecast future demand based on historical demand data before moving on to consider aggregate planning methods that you can use to plan production, distribution and allocation in the short- or medium- term (i.e., over the next quarter or year) through making trade-offs between capacity, inventory and backlogged orders across the entire healthcare supply chain.

The topics covered in Module 1 include:

• the importance of healthcare supply chain decisions
• organisational and supply chain strategies: achieving ‘fit’
• the six drivers of supply chain performance
• forecasting demand in a healthcare supply chain: a six-step approach
• the role of IT in forecasting and planning

Module 2 – Planning and Managing Inventories in the Healthcare Supply Chain

Inventory plays a vital role in healthcare supply chains, yet most healthcare organisations cannot efficiently manage their flow of materials, sustain correct

levels of inventory, or maintain accurate inventory information. Unofficial inventories found throughout a hospital or clinic can account for almost half of total inventories. In Module 2 of the programme, you will look at factors that affect the level of cycle inventory within a healthcare supply chain and the actions that managers can take to decrease it without increasing costs. You will examine how safety inventories are used by hospitals to counter supply or demand uncertainty and the variety of managerial levers available to reduce the amount of safety inventory without harming the level of product availability.

The topics covered in Module 2 include:

• the role of cycle inventory in a supply chain
• managing multi-echelon cycle inventory
• the role of safety inventory in a healthcare supply chain
•  the role of IT in inventory management
• setting product availability for multiple products under capacity constraints

Module 3 – Designing a Healthcare Supply Chain and Transportation Network

During the third module you will consider the frameworks and tools that you can use to design your hospital’s supply chain network, taking into account how facilities, transportation, inventory, information, sourcing and pricing can be used together to support your organisation’s strategic objectives and minimise supply chain costs. You will also explore the strengths and weaknesses of various modes of transportation, different options for designing transportation networks and the trade-offs that must be made between transportation cost, inventory cost, and responsiveness.

The topic covered in Module 3 include:

• the role of distribution in the healthcare supply chain
• the role of network design in the healthcare supply chain
• the role of IT in network design and transportation
• transportation infrastructure and policies
• risk management in network design and transportation

Module 4 – Managing the Cross-Functional Drivers in a Healthcare Supply Chain

In our final module we will examine the ‘cross-functional’ drivers – sourcing, pricing and information – as well as the ‘ideal’ end result these cross-functional drivers are all trying to create: better co-ordination. You will also examine enterprise software and the role played by each type of software system when designing, planning and operating a healthcare supply chain. The programme

will end with an examination of the role of co-ordination in the healthcare supply chain, why poor co-ordination can result in poor performance, the ‘bullwhip effect’ and how healthcare organisations can minimise the impact of this effect and improve co-ordination.

The topics covered in Module 4 include:

• the role of sourcing in a healthcare supply chain: in-house or outsource?
• supplier scoring, assessment and selection: running auctions and negotiations
• using pricing and revenue management in practice
• the future of IT in the healthcare supply chain
•  lack of healthcare supply chain co-ordination and the ‘bullwhip effect’

Among other things, this training will show you how you can achieve substantial benefits by not only changing purchasing practices, but also by improving how you manage your labor force, supplies, equipment and facilities.

Modern and effective training techniques will be used by facilitators, including:

• Presentation: PowerPoint and/ video
• Case studies review
• Demonstrations