Is your supply chain effectively translating the market’s needs through your business? 

While your first reaction may be “yes, of course it is,” you might assess by stopping to consider the following: 

• Are you currently managing backorders for high demand items?
• Are you consistently able to cover cases with fully stocked sets? 
• Are you able to accurately forecast inbound supply?
• Can you translate that inbound supply into realistic set assembly schedules? 
• Are you able to see which sets can be built right now based on current on-hand components?
• Is your field sales force reliably able make customer commitments based on set build schedules?

If the answer to any of the above is “no,” then your supply chain is not a fully connected supply chain—and it’s not translating the needs and the demands of the spine and orthopedic device market effectively through your business. This fact means that you’re likely missing opportunities to support cases and build better relationships with customers, and you’re foregoing valuable marketing and field sales activity that can ultimately help you grow. 

The supply chain is how you plan, source, make and deliver most effectively to drive growth and enhance customer satisfaction. A connected supply chain ensures you’re pursuing better asset utilization strategies so you’re able to forecast what’s coming in—and when—from a variety of different vendors. Then, you coordinate that inbound supply into a just-in-time assembly and delivery schedule. With a connected supply chain, you’re neither holding too much inventory (which of course, traps working capital) nor are you contending with rising backorders that can hamper your profitability and constrain your growth. 

Developing a better asset utilization strategy really comes down to managing a series of critical interconnected functions. The overarching idea is to reduce internal complexity, which can restrict your team’s effectiveness and make it difficult for them to prioritize, produce, and perform among competing demands. This ideal state is impossible to accomplish with spreadsheets when you can’t see real-time supply and demand together. 

Managing inbound supply chain and vendor prioritization

Such simplification enables you to establish and communicate vendor prioritization, so your team is able to receive components and raw materials—and even know with confidence when they’re due in from your various vendors. 

Construct assembly schedules

With real-time visibility into your inbound supply chain, you are able to create realistic, effective, efficient assembly schedules that support current demand. Rather than being constrained to only the materials you have on hand, you’re able to forecast schedules in advance. As a result, your team’s throughput is optimal—and not too busy or idle, as drive by on-hand component availability. 

Growth through utilization

Better asset utilization creates confidence for everyone:

• For your customers, that you’ll have what they need when they need it
• For your field sales team, that they’ll be able to meet customers’ expectations as well as plan activity that generates new demand
• For your sales operations team, that they’ll be able to support the field sales staff
• For your assembly teams, that they’ll have what they need to do their jobs—and do them more effectively with streamlined kit production
• For your finance team, that inventory is being turned in a timely fashion, generating revenue and enhancing profitability

If you scrolled back to this article’s opening questions, you’d see the difference now between reality and possibility. It all comes down to a connected supply chain and the improvements in asset utilization it enables. 

At ImplantBase, we’re a leader in digital transformation for the orthopedic implant industry. Our platform provides manufacturers of every size with a unique cloud-based solution that transforms how the business operates on every level and across your critical functions of finance, sales, and operations. That means bringing automation—and revolution—to scores of mission-critical business processes—including your supply chain—so that your team can stop flailing in chaos and start driving improved performance. 

If you’re ready to embrace the future, ImplantBase can help. Give us 30 minutes to assess your performance and help you determine a roadmap to digital transformation—and you’ll see how our Supply Chain and Advanced Supply Chain modules can change the way you work for the better.