Kevin Sample, Product Consultant at Elcom, examines the final mile challenges in a delivery’s journey from R&D to their endpoint location
In healthcare, efficiency not only reduces costs but can also improve patient safety and experience. Solving the logistical issues in a supply chain is a fundamental part of this, with final mile challenges being the cause of significant problems.
Learn more about healthcare’s final mile challenges, how they affect healthcare, and some steps towards a solution.
A neglected link in the supply chain
As the name suggests, the supply chain comprises many links to provide an end-to-end solution for ordering and receiving goods.
Some of these links are stronger than others and have been developed and improved through procurement expertise and the use of technology.
NHS Trusts have P2P or ERP solutions to improve the visibility of ordered products. Once an item is ordered, it can be tracked through Purchase Order Acknowledgements, Advanced Shipping Notices, and delivery tracking apps. However, when the item is received into Goods In, a weakness in the links of the chain is often evident.
Most hospitals do not have a solution that follows an item’s internal path to ensure it reaches its point of use or storage. This can result in items being delivered to the wrong place, delayed, or even lost altogether.
What are some of the final mile challenges associated with delivery?
The delivery of the last mile is one of many final mile challenges in hospital logistics operations.
Some of the issues associated with this inability to monitor the last-mile delivery accurately include:
- Loss of items, such as goods being delivered to the wrong location and not being returned;
- Conflict between requestors and the R&D team around timeliness of delivery and whether items were actually delivered;
- Delays or cancellations of procedures because the necessary items cannot be located; and
- Overstocking and carriage charges associated with reordering, where requestors are unaware that their goods have arrived.
A lot of time and effort is put into ensuring suppliers meet contracted lead times and Purchase Orders are efficiently created and authorised. However, once goods arrive at the Trust; this diligence is rarely as thorough.
Consider items that are required for an urgent procedure – if these items are not in the right place at the right time, there is no other option but to re-order. Consequently, the number of emergencies or overnight deliveries for the replacement of lost items can increase immensely.
Adding inefficiencies into the process increases costs and the carbon impact of NHS Trusts. This impacts their hard work to meet NHS sustainability plans and targets.
Procurement partnerships and consolidated storage in offsite facilities have grown and will continue to grow, since the inception of the Integrated Care System (ICS) model.
This added layer presents opportunities for cost savings through smarter procurement but also magnifies the final mile challenges. Distribution across several organisations and sites increases the complexity of final mile distribution and the risks mentioned earlier.
How can final mile delivery concerns be solved?
There are four key stages in solving final mile challenges. They are:
- Logging receipt of the goods;
- Adding goods to the delivery round;
- Delivering goods and capturing Proof of Delivery (POD); and
- Analysing and reviewing performance to find additional efficiencies.
The first step is to record the goods’ receipt into the Trust; a simplified receipting process is critical in supporting the R&D team. To achieve this, all of the means of ordering goods, like requisitioning systems, NHS Supply Chain ordering, and Inventory Management Solutions, need to be integrated into a single receipting application.
Once goods are booked in, they can be added to a delivery round or route. Depending on need and resource, a round can be a single department or several drop-off points to ensure effective use of the available resources.
Once delivered, POD information can be captured, which is available in real-time to requestors and the wider R&D team. By using technology like handheld scanners, the drop off location can be scanned, or photographic and signatory details can be captured where possible. The scanning devices also allow communication through messaging apps and team locations monitored through GPS tracking.
Finally, the data captured through the technology used in distribution should be analysed to evaluate final mile challenges in the process.
Several questions should be addressed when analysing this:
- Do some delivery routes take more time than others?
- Do some departments need more or fewer drop-offs?
- If so, are these drop-offs is seasonally affected?
The ability to analyse this information means that efficient solutions can help address issues and play a key role in improving the service provided.
Easy-to-use tools with real-time notifications are needed to understand the internal delivery process. Elcom’s DistributIN solution offers organisations the opportunity to solve final mile challenges and create an effective, streamlined internal distribution service.
Benefits to organisations include a reduction of overstocking, fewer re-orders due to errors, and a decrease in emergency deliveries.
Moreover, the solution provides real-time stock delivery notifications, using the organisation’s network to ensure timely updates. Trusts can increase delivery efficiencies by planning routes and delivery rounds to help R&D staff complete their deliveries as efficiently as possible.
The first step in solving final mile challenges is to understand the process and how efficient processes, coupled with technological solutions, can address issues and support ongoing improvement.
