DSC Identifies 10 Problems Faced By Health Care Companies

The DSC Health Care Leadership Team, including both operations leaders and strategic partnership leaders, has compiled a list of some of the most pressing concerns of medical device and life science companies. DSC works with companies to manage change and information in the supply chain to solve significant challenges such as these.

Margin Pressures — Industry consolidation and single source contracting with GPOs and IDNs are driving prices (and margins) down. DSC designs, builds and manages customized, highly efficient and adaptive supply chain solutions that align with your business goals. DSC is committed to reducing your total operating costs every year.

Mergers & Acquisitions — Integrating new product acquisitions increases the risk of service disruptions in the supply chain, and the risk of FDA non-compliance. DSC leadership, robust systems and operational flexibility ensure seamless integration and continuity of service.

Health Care Reform — Current systems and processes don’t support recently enacted reform, and upgrades / modifications are costly and may impact customer service. DSC’s sense-and-respond culture, best practices and system customizations ensure rapid mobilization and responses to the known and unknown challenges that face health care supply chain executives.

Supply Chain Integrity — The risk of theft, diversion, product fraud and adulteration are real threats to product and brand integrity. Safe guarding product assets goes beyond securing licenses and certifications. It takes DSC’s regulatory expertise and operational discipline to execute the daily processes required to isolate, assess and prevent supply chain risks.

Inefficient Supply Chain Processes — Many companies have limited access to and expertise in implementing Lean Six Sigma supply chain processes. The health care supply chain is ripe with opportunities to eliminate redundancy and reduce waste. DSC’s Lean Six Sigma processes drive network-wide efficiency, quality and accountability in facilities and customer-facing functions.

Shifting Customer Base — Fast growing channels make network and inventory planning difficult. Growth requires operational scalability and flexibility…and the ability to transport your customer experience and brand to new markets. DSC understands the cost and customer implications of growth, and enables companies to penetrate markets quickly with zero capital investment.

High Transportation Costs — Significant volume of parcel and LTL shipments to healthcare facilities means higher transportation costs. Parcel carriers are the preferred choice of many medical device/product companies for last mile delivery to health care providers. DSC help these companies align their distribution network with their customers so as to minimize parcel costs and improve service.

Supply Chain Visibility — Visibility to Lot, SKU and serial number information at every step in the supply chain is poor, fragmented or delayed; reconstructing the chain of custody is difficult. DSC provides serialization and Lead Logistics Partner (LLP) solutions for capturing and reporting inventory status and transactions across diverse supply chain partners.

Integration of Supply Chain Activities — Use of co-packers and other 3rd party supply chain partners may add significant cost, redundancy and time to a supply chain. DSC logistics centers consolidate horizontal (co-pack) and vertical (light manufacturing) supply chain functions for the purpose of streamlining costs and accelerating time-to-market

Customer Profitability — A significant portion of Provider orders are special, complex or time-sensitive. Achieving customer satisfaction profitably requires an understanding of the Cost-to-Serve each customer. DSC tracks costs down to the shipment destination level to give companies total visibility into the true landed cost of a Health Care customer.