Session Recap: Case Study — Supply Chain Excellence (Cook Medical × Cleveland Clinic)

In this LogiMed 2025 case study, Ross Harvey (Cook Medical) walked through a 12-month fellowship model built with Cleveland Clinic to accelerate real-world supply chain skills: demand forecasting, master data governance, and end-to-end visibility. Fellows rotate across provider and manufacturer teams, tackle live projects, and ship measurable improvements — from better lead-time calibration to higher OTIF — while strengthening trust and collaboration across the ecosystem.

Participants

• Ross Harvey (Cook Medical)
• Jared Featherstone (Mayo Clinic)
• Em Strieter (Assigned to Mayo Clinic)
• Rajeev Rohira (Cook Medical / Cleveland Clinic)
• Russell Toppin (Cleveland Clinic)

Key Takeaways

1. A 12-month, two-sided fellowship closes the skills & context gap

Rotations split time between the provider (Cleveland Clinic) and the manufacturer (Cook Medical), so fellows see both sides of planning, inventory, and fulfillment — and learn how decisions propagate across the chain.

• Deliverables include a final capstone with measurable outcomes (e.g., OTIF lift, backorder reduction).
• Fellows contribute to daily ops — not just shadow — to build credibility and speed.

2. Data governance is the foundation, not an afterthought

A centralized Center of Excellence standardizes master data (UOMs, conversions, part hierarchies) and maintains quality so analytics and control-tower views remain trustworthy.

• Normalize units/conversions the same way across all systems and teams.
• Assign data owners, SLAs, and change control to keep signals clean.

3. Crawl → Walk → Run is essential for control-tower rollouts

Teams often want to “skip to run.” The program enforces phased adoption: define the vision, pick a narrow high-impact flow, prove value, then scale.

• Start with exceptions that hurt most (e.g., backorders, late components).
• Instrument dashboards with owners and next best actions (NBA).

4. Trust and transparency prevent over-ordering & bullwhip

Open discussion of constraints and risk exposure curbs hoarding (“usage = 1, order = 3”). Structured comms and shared data keep demand realistic and supply fair across partners.

• Share supply signals early; don’t let customers be the last to know.
• Document substitution rules to accelerate decisions.

5. Measure improvement like a product team

Treat playbooks as software: version them, roll them out, and track lift. Fellows report against a small KPI set tied to patient availability and service levels.

• Core metrics: forecast error, lead-time adherence, OTIF, backorder duration.
• Show before/after deltas for stakeholder buy-in and budget continuity.

In Their Words

“You can go in so many directions with a control tower. The point is to keep the vision, start small, and learn as the data speaks to you.”
— Ross Harvey, Cook Medical

Why It Matters

Hospitals and manufacturers often optimize locally and talk past each other. This fellowship model creates a shared skill set, shared language, and shared incentives — tightening forecast-to-fulfillment, lifting OTIF, and reducing waste. It’s a practical blueprint any provider-supplier pair can adapt to build resilient, data-driven operations.

Actionable Insights

• Stand up a small data governance COE to normalize units, conversions, and product hierarchies.
• Launch a pilot control-tower flow (e.g., backorders) with owners and next-best-action playbooks.
• Set guardrails to prevent demand inflation; publish substitution and allocation rules.
• Require before/after reporting on forecast error, lead-time variance, and OTIF for every project.

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