Fulfillment/Logistics
Disaster Preparedness
The state of Tennessee (www.state.tn.us) has selected a mobile emergency response solution from Integrated Warehousing Solutions (www.irmswms.com) (IWS) to support disaster preparedness strategies. A self-contained mobile warehouse, the "Go-Kit" supports the activation of distribution and treatment centers in as little as 15 minutes and maintains rigorous control of supplies, according to IWS. It provides visibility both upstream to command centers and downstream to field operations, allowing crisis teams to focus on the most important priorities. The system comes with options to record critical medical information such as lot control and patient-level information, making it well suited for day-to-day public health initiatives such as onsite delivery of flu vaccines or other routine preventative treatments, IWS said. Incorporating emergency response decision support wizards to control and monitor medical and pharmaceutical supplies, the "Go-Kit" supports command and control personnel, allowing these teams to monitor distribution of supplies in real time without the need to call field personnel and shift resources.
Integration/ERP
Brewing Industry
The global brewer InBev (www.inbev.com) has chosen HighJump Software's (www.highjumpsoftware.com) Supply Chain Advantage suite for its worldwide warehouse operations. The first implementation of the HighJump solutions will be in the UK later this year. In the competitive beer industry there are constantly shifting supply chain requirements and regulations at local, regional and national levels. In order to increase customer satisfaction, InBev said it sought the backing and support of a global brand that understands the needs of its customers, as well as the major supply chain issues and challenges. InBev will use the HighJump solutions as part of a comprehensive IT strategy, designed to link disparate production facilities, strengthen process execution and improve management visibility with consolidated, real-time information.
Solutions Updates
Sourcing/Procurement
Healthcare
OneOncology Inc., (www.oneoncology.com) an oncology drug procurement solutions provider, is offering an impartial electronic negotiating network for the oncology community. OneOncology's electronic negotiation technology will combine individual orders from community oncology practices to allow drug distributors to bid on larger, guaranteed blocks of drug purchases on a line-item basis. The combined orders achieve pricing power and purchasing volume, and allow oncology practices to observe how distributors are pricing drug transactions. OneOncology said similar electronic trading networks in industries such as chemicals and fuels have seen average price decreases between 3 and 35 percent. "The current system is having an adverse affect on the quality of patient care," said Steve Coplon, CEO of The West Clinic in Memphis, Tenn. "Oncology practices are under inordinate pressure to treat patients while being reimbursed below their costs. OneOncology has the promise to unify the oncology community, bring about needed changes in the drug distribution pipeline and empower the autonomy of the physician-patient relationship."
Decision Support
Benchmarking
The Supply Chain Consortium (www.supplychainconsortium.com) is offering a solution with its Strategic Assessment Dashboard, an index for supply chain benchmarking and best practices. Using an updated user interface, the Dashboard allows Consortium members to compare operations to their entire industry, to specific segments of their industry, or to supply chains in other industries. The new Dashboard provides such key knowledge as how your operations perform in detail compared to other groups of companies, and your organization's strengths and weaknesses as compared to industry segment peers, including opportunities to close any gaps. It also provides specific metrics and processes that the best performing, top quartile are using, and shares the multi-year trends for supply chain best practices in your particular industry and across all industries. Company-specific data is safeguarded by the review facilitator, Tompkins Associates, and is not shared with other members or external entities, and individual responses are kept confidential.
Demand Management
Supply Chain Management
Sockeye Supply Chain (www.sockeyesupplychain.com) has rolled out its Allegro Suite with modules for inbound and outbound supply chain management, inventory management, demand management and supply chain event management. The new Allegro Suite provides enterprises with a range of supply chain management capabilities, including features to enable collaboration and inventory visibility. The Allegro Suite is built and deployed on the Collaborative Application Framework (CAF), a service oriented architecture (SOA) platform designed to deliver applications that address customer's unique business needs. Sockeye said its approach allows companies to implement and deploy new applications rapidly and reconfigure the applications as business requirements evolve. A supply chain event management solution, known as Allegro SCEM, is included within the suite. This feature allows enterprises to set a number of time-critical synchronization processes using real-time supply chain events, alert notification and problem ticketing.
