As we have covered in our previous articles in this series, the COVID-19 pandemic had a devastating impact on our global supply chains and, while this may not be the end of the world for more frivolous customer products, the same cannot be said for potentially lifesaving medical equipment and supplies.
We’ve all been banging on about digitization across all industries for some time now, but the COVID-19 crisis really shone a light on the ways digital technology can help us build more transparent and resilient organizations, better able to respond to global events such as the pandemic.
Aside from all the other disruptions it has caused, one particular achievement the global COVID-19 crisis can claim is that it has shone the harsh light of day on the fragility of our world-spanning just in time supply chains. This is especially relevant for medical equipment suppliers which need to get lifesaving supplies to end users so that treatments can be effectively delivered. Perhaps the most salient example of this when discussing the pandemic was the global shortage of respirator machines when the full force of the SARS-COV-2 virus began to bite.
When Amazon announced its intention to shut down its existing healthcare arm – Amazon Care – many commenters hailed it as a sign that the ecommerce giant was abandoning its plans to disrupt the medical space and was returning to a focus on its core function in retail and entertainment.
Gaining full control and visibility over and into your medical inventory is a top priority for any brand in the space today. However, this is not always the simplest task due to the way separate inventories such as consignment and field are managed.
The superficially simple business of bringing products from one place to another can, in reality, be fraught with danger. Responsible logistics managers must take risk seriously and make sure their supply chains are operating in a manner congruent with the ethos of the company and within applicable rules and regulations.
As we all know by now, data is the lifeblood which pumps through the arteries of the modern business. As work is ever more steadily assimilated into the online world, the volume of data being produced grows exponentially and the utility of that information grows in kind.
When COVID-19 first entered our lives, it's probably fair to say that most of us thought it was going to be a flash in the pan and didn't assign it the seriousness it deserved. However, when it was officially labelled a pandemic and the reality of the situation became impossible to deny, industries all over the world found themselves faced with a steep learning curve as they scrambled to adjust to operating within an unprecedented global crisis.
Supply chains have arguably been one of the worst hit sectors when it comes to disruption during the COVID-19 crisis and the businesses of simply getting products from one place to another has been an uphill struggle of late. Possibly one of the most critical sectors affected by these supply chain issues has been the medical industry which has seen significant problems accessing essential COVID adjacent products such as PPE and life-saving devices like respirators.
It's certainly been a challenging couple of years in the world of medical logistics. Few could have guessed, when we first heard rumblings about a new coronavirus spreading from Asia, the truly devastating effect SARS-COV-2 would have on our individual lives and the world as a whole. The medical logistics space has had a critical role to play in battling this virulent plague, making sure essential equipment - such as lifesaving ventilators - reaches those most in need.