Name: Supply Chain Risk & Resilience in Healthcare
Uploaded: 2026-03-31T16:16:10.306Z
Duration: 1 h 12 s
Description: Supply Chain Risk & Resilience in Healthcare

Transcript for "Supply Chain Risk & Resilience in Healthcare": Before Amazon Business, buying for work was chaotic. Now it's easy to find products from thousands of suppliers in one place. Save on every type of purchase from individual items to bulk orders. At any time, you can view your spending on prebuilt, easy to use dashboards. Plus, you can free up cash flow if you choose to extend payment deadlines and view and approve your team's purchases easily. With Amazon Business, things just got a lot more manageable. Hello everyone and welcome to today's webinar in partnership with Amazon Business. I'm Tom Chapman, Senior Editor of Supply Chain Digital. Now this webinar forms part of an ongoing series with Amazon Business where we explore the big issues impact procurement, supply chain and manufacturing. Today we'll be exploring supply chain risk and resilience in healthcare, taking a deep dive into the strategies that transform vulnerable supply chains into resilient lifelines. We'll examine how world leading health systems are leveraging data, diversifying supplier networks and aligning procurement directly with clinical outcomes. You can catch all the webinars in this series over on the Supply Chain Digital website or of course over with our sister brands Procurement Magazine and Manufacturing Digital. Now joining me today we've got a fantastic expert offering what I'm sure will be a really insightful perspective on this topic: Darryl Culpepper, Vice President of Supply Chain at Integra, who can count on more than twenty five years leadership across medical devices, aerospace and industrial manufacturing. Daryl, great to have you here with us today. If you don't mind, just for our viewers, you could just start by introducing yourself and telling us just a little bit about you and your career, that would be fantastic. Oh, absolutely. So I've been in the supply chain arena probably about twenty five, twenty six years, dating back to when I was in the military, started my supply chain career in the military, was an industrial engineer, and then moved over to the private sector. So spent a lot of years working in the health care sector, medical devices, companies like GE Healthcare, Novus, used to be DJO. So had a lot of time to spend at hospitals, wait for clinicians, surgeons, and really understand the risk around supply chain. So I've built my career on building that ecosystem from a supply chain standpoint, and have had a chance to work across multiple, multiple industries, so good and bad. So I see some of the challenges that is faced in the health care arena, similar to some of the risks that I've seen in aerospace, I've seen in industrial solutions. So my career spans pretty much a lot of different industries, which has been helpful for me. But it's been a great career thus far. Great stuff. Yeah, sounds like it certainly sounds like a varied and a real sort of extensive career there with plenty of experience in there, Darryl. Now I want to kick off our conversation by talking about shifting the healthcare mindset, so to speak. So not from instead of responding to shortages, I should say, really anticipating disruption through digital visibility. How would you say healthcare organizations can really move from simply just inventory tracking to really achieving that end to end visibility that's going to predict a shortage before it really makes a discernible and negative impact on health care systems? So I believe in three principles: people, process and technology. I think if you can get the people in the process correct, then you can start to enable technology. So, let's jump ahead to the technology, assuming that you have the people and the process in place. And so technology, I think, in a health care system is maybe lagging a little bit. Being able to kind of scale that upwards to try and bring technology into the health care system, I think, helps you start to look at several different risks. So, think about somebody that's working in a storeroom in a health care system or in a hospital. You know, their major thing is I want to make sure that I don't have stock outs. I want to make sure that if there's a surgery going on, that those nurses or even the supply chain people can deliver those products as needed to complete a surgery. And so their main thing is their focus on the inventory, making sure that they don't stock out, making sure that procurement knows that they've to go buy a certain amount of this particular instrument or band aids or packages, whatnot. So let's look at how you infuse technology in that. Because now, when you start to look at the mindset, I want to go from just making sure I not have stock outs to actual scenario planning is something that I talk about a lot. And so when you start to infuse technology like AI and some of the other things that are out there, they can actually help you plan your storeroom activity. So whereas you're spending all day trying to do cycle counts and trying to understand the story, you can have something that can be a powerful tool that can help you plan. Let's say, We have 180 surgeries that go on on a daily basis in this particular hospital. This amount of material is used for those surgeries. This is the amount of times that we've had to replenish this. This is the amount of times that we've had to go to a second dentist because that vendor couldn't have that material readily available. So, you start to use technology to really make I'm not going say make the job easier, but actually make it more efficient. So now you can plan for those different outcomes. And now you're building an ecosystem around really how technology is being leveraged to help you run that storeroom activity. And there's multiple things that you can look at from a technology standpoint, even your receiving. How many times on your receiving dock within a hospital system that you're receiving product. Do you have the right amount of people? What are some issues that can make it pop up? What is your inbound, your outbound? And you start to leverage technology to be able to look at all those things. Because I always ask the question, How do I know that I'm winning? How do I know that I'm achieving the goals that I need to achieve? And, you know, in the past, it's all been about a manual process. Now, you can utilize technology to really help you measure and help you understand, am I really winning? Am I really making the right decisions that help not only helping my department, but also helping the surgeon? Because at the end of the day, in the healthcare system, patient outcome is what you're really looking for. And so when we look at supply chain, it starts with making sure that we have the material and the products inside of these operations to make sure that the patient care is being satisfied. So, Daryl, so you've got that technology in place with your sort of background in mission critical operations. The next step, what are your primary sort of red flags in a supplier's data that you're looking out for that might indicate a systemic risk? And then following on from that, how can leaders then act on those red flags? So red flags, you're looking for recurring things. You're looking for something that is going to contain that you see continue with happening in each one of those scenarios that you play out. That every time you load something, you can see that they're they stock out at this point, or there's an issue with truck coming, or you don't have enough supply chain people that can actually deliver material up to you to operate. So, you look for consistency, but you also look for where is that lagging indicator that you conveyed with 30. Those look from your actual red flags. And you also have to look at the data that you're employed. So you have to make sure from a data standpoint that you scrub the data, because I I think that is always an issue where sometimes it gets overlooked. And so, when you have these indicators, it either points to if there's a systemic issue or if there's a data integrity issue. So, those are the things that you want to constantly draw red flags on. I think another strand to it we've covered. I'm glad we kicked off there with the technological side of things. But when we talk supplier relationships and diversification, of course, all important these days, I think maybe especially so to really leverage partners like Amazon Business and to diversify networks to ensure that continuity of care when we're talking about the healthcare sector. So in this era of, of course, you know, real geopolitical volatility, what from your perspective is the ideal mix between global cost efficiency and that, as is increasingly being discussed local or regional supply security for essential medical supplies? So I think, and I'll mute this from a manufacturing standpoint, You have to have a category strategy. You have to build that. I I think a couple months ago, we I the company that I met, we went through a series where we needed to build a more robust category strategy. That meant a lot of that meant, you know, looking at the supply chain from a global standpoint, but also looking at where where are areas that we can actually manage with some of our suppliers. Because we all understand we live in a climate. We live in a very changing climate when it comes to geopolitical risk. And a lot of the material that we import come from some of these countries that we're seeing a bit of a high risk. So, you have to have a plan. You have to have a category strategy that allows me to continue to operate with global suppliers, but at the same time, I'm looking to build kind of that near shore suppliers as well. So I'm looking for more suppliers that are, you know, US based that can have that turnkey type solution, but not alienate the suppliers that I have built a partnership with globally. Because, again, in order for a supply chain to operate, it has to be global. I I know there's a lot of times there's conversations around, hey. Let's go and near shore everything and for everything, you know, US. That works in some industry. That works with some companies. But the reality is that most companies are global companies, so you have to have global partners. So you the you utilize utilize things like technology to help you understand global risks. Is there going to be a fork, a strike at the fork? Is there going to be a possible invasion of a country with another country that they're they're living in climate that that is possible? Then, if that is the case, what are your risks? What mitigating are options? So, you build a supply chain around agility and I was in another podcast, and a person talked about that, and we kind of collaborated on that is really how you have to look at a supply chain. I want to have a resilient one, and I also want have the agility to, if I do have an impact, how will my economic impact? And so all that goes back into kind of planning. And how important then, this is something that we discuss a lot on certainly in our features in supply chain digital. How crucial would you say it is these days to foster what are strategic partnerships rather than just those merely transactional vendor relationships to ensure that you are a preferred customer during global crises? Oh, that is key. I mean, any category strategy, you to define your supply base. You have to define which ones are more transactional that you go through for these kind of smaller transaction things. But then you also have to have those really strategic partners. Those are the ones that you have the continuity plans with. Those are the ones that you do for the business reviews with. Those are the ones that you have the long term contracts with. Those are the ones that, when there is an issue, whether it is a product issue, an engineering design issue, whatnot in either industry, they are able to lend support and help you. And so, those are the ones that are your more strategic partner. Those are the ones that you have to really, I would say, mature those relationships with, build those relationships, because there are gonna come times where there may be a grip and a foretask, Whether you're working in the healthcare industry, whether you're working in aerospace, whatever industry it is, there are some times that there are issues within the forecast, and you wanna have that strategic partner that has that ability to react with you and has the ability to make changes with them. Those relationships and those partners are really, really strategic and important to any supply chain when it comes to really delivering product. Something as well I'm keen to ask, Daryl, more on the procurement side of things. How can those automated procurement tools, such as Amazon Business, be used to help those mid sized health care providers really compete for the same critical inventory as those larger health care systems? Well, I I I think when you look at, you know, smaller organizations, you know, from a technology standpoint, I I I think it really becomes the level of speed and the access that they have. And so, you look at the fact that you can do a lot of technology where you don't have to have, you know, a huge staff. If that is a way of operating from a more efficient standpoint, And, I think technology, you know, it's kind of where I don't have to spend all day trying to create and write a PO, whereas I have the technology where I can input the data in the system that spits out a PO, and then I give my I give my supplier that visibility. So the the visibility in my procurement forecast, the visibility of, hey, you know, this PO is coming in. And and I think a lot of times, that is a piece that is not talked about as much because any supplier that you deal with, especially on the procurement side, they wanna make sure that they're getting the right deal, that they're not gonna have issues with it actually being paid. So, a lot of times, you will find in larger companies that sometimes just the overall security pay cycle runs into issues. So, I think where smaller companies have really excelled, that these companies are being supplied or not having a solution to be in place. They're getting the fear, they're getting the correct fear, they're getting the visibility. And so I think that has been something that has been, I would say, a competitive advantage to some of the smaller ones because They're never going to compete from a bargain standpoint. Where they compete is the efficiency standpoint. And the fact that they do pay on time, the fact that they do drop to zero, if they have a they have visibility to their forecast. So as far as never guessing, hey. What are we getting from you all? They know exactly what they're getting from this particular smaller business. So, I think that is the competitive advantage that they would have over a larger system. I think another thing that's important that cover is closing the gap between the procurement function, which maybe is perceived as that back office function, but is it increasingly being seen as a more sort of, I suppose, well a more important function, think it's probably fair to say, you know, closing that gap between procurement, supply chain, you know, those may be behind the scenes work that goes on in the clinical front lines, you know, in the health care context. You know, we often talk about supply chain resilience in financial terms, you know, naturally that is the case in business environments. But of course, in health care, it's a, you know, it's an imperative. It's sort of a life and a life and death thing. Know, it really is. So how can we better communicate the ROI of those investments in resilience to the C suite execs, you know, to the clinical boards as well, of course, in health care? How can we get that across? Well, I think I'll use the reference as like a new product introduction because this is done in health care as much as can be done in any other industry. Because when you're trying to launch, say, a new recruit experience or you have new surgical tools that you want to have your physician buy into, you know, that goes through the goes through kind of the same process as any type of new product investment. So, where you start to get the buy ins that you have what we like to call state hits. We basically introduce a product. We talk about what is going to be the impact of the product from a patient care standpoint. We talk about what is it going to be from a cost standpoint to implement this, but at the same time, what is the actual ROI? So, when are you getting your return on investment? When are your breakeven points? And so, you talk through these things in what we call a value analysis type group. That value analysis group really does all of the value analysis, and they take that information to the surgeons, or they take it to the clinical board, and they really explain and say, Hey, this is what we see the value. This is the analysis that we've done. We've leveraged procurement based off of, Hey, it's going to take this amount of time to implement this. We've talked to our actual planning group that's within the healthcare system that say, if we're going to introduce this around this time, if it is replacing something, then we need to ramp the other one down to be able to put this on within the cycle. So you do all of this through your value analysis group, and you basically take it to that org. And you say, hey. Here is the projected OOI. Here is what we see the actual, you know, impact. And you get feedback. And, you allow them to say, Okay, no, I don't think this will work, or, Yes, I think this has worked. So, you do it in a committee standpoint. That way, you don't go into one of those situations where, I'm just trying to pitch this. No, this the whole entire committee centered around value analysis. And that's how you really kind of move products within the healthcare system. At least that's what I've been able to do in my past role in healthcare. We spoke as well, Daryl, earlier in the conversation, especially about the technology piece in this conversation. How from your perspective can the integration of AI and real time logistics monitoring really directly improve, I should say, the day to day workflow of a frontline nurse or a physician? What's the direct impact there? Well, I think if if I'm looking at it from a nurse practitioner standpoint, I think with, you know, AI, whether or they are looking at how many beds is there an item on their floor and what needs to have to be supplied on a supply cart that's going to help them take care of the patients. So, for instance, if you are working on a trauma room floor, you can utilize AI to tell them this is their amount of patients, this is their patient turnover. This is the amount of material that you're going to need on your actual part, whether it's a crash part or it's a health part, this is the time that it actually gets refilled. This is, you know, the actual fulfillment cycle that supply they have. So it gives you you could basically utilize AI to create an entire dashboard that actually helps you plan each that helps you plan your floor And from a supply standpoint, from a patient standpoint, from this is what I need from the inpatient care. This is the amount of discharges I expect or the amount of patients I expect to see on this four or three hours a day. So, those are multiple things you can utilize AI within. I go back to it really and truly most powerful when it helps you plan. So, every different type of scenario phase you can really run through the system to help you plan out whether you are a nurse or you are a doctor performing surgeries or whether you are a supply chain person just trying to make sure that you have materials stocked on the floor or in the storeroom or where you are working in the warehouse and you're trying to understand how many incoming trucks that you have on a daily basis and how many packages that you're seeing on a daily basis to help you plan around that, I think that's where the tool becomes most powerful. And Daryl, another thing I just want to ask you about and just get a little bit of insight on, you know, say we're part of it. Let's say, you know, we're part of a health care system. You know, we're strategizing from a procurement and supply chain standpoint. What metrics and you may have just touched on some of these already, but what specific metrics do you feel can be used to ensure that that efficiency never comes at the cost of clinical safety and patient care continuity, which of course is of the utmost importance? Well, think, you know, within healthcare, you also have to look at materials that have expired, so I mean, that may come up expired. So, I mean, you have to look at, you know, your first in first out type methods, which material is going receive in through the system, which material has expiration. So, that goes into kind of a cycle comp process that is done within your healthcare supply chain system. We are very, very cautious of that just because of the risk with that. Inventory accuracy, site count, that is really key. But also, at our optional rate for us, at our purchase order placement times, looking at what we would call one time delivery. That is basically delivery material to the actual floor. So, it's those type of metrics that you start to look at just to make sure that you are supporting the patient there. Great stuff. Now, Daryl, we are approaching the tail end of our conversation. We do just have a couple of minutes left for some of our audience questions, which we've had coming in as we chat. One of the ones I'm just going to pick out here is, you know, going back to the, the digital side of things that, you know, the technology side of things, I suppose. So it reads beyond the hype, which specific digital tool will have the biggest impact on patient safety over the next five years? Any thoughts there, Darryl? So that's, I guess that's going to be kind of subject to it really depends on what that tool is going to be used for. Obviously, we talk about patient safety and patient health, so there is multiple ones out there. I don't want to highlight either one, but I would say when you start to implement technology, you have to look at business case and business needs. Obviously, patient impact may be the same, but for one hospital, it may be a different type of system based on the size of the system. They may have 500 or 600 beds, so they may need a more robust type AI software or system or platform, whereas there could be, like, a more local hospital that only has, say, 150 beds, and the technology package may be different for them. It's really there's multiple things out there that's really geared to patient safety and health. The business or the hospital itself just has to find the right one that fits their company size, their vision and their mission statement. Another interesting one, Darrell, that's come in is what is the one legacy habit or mindset that health care supply chain leaders need to unlearn or maybe eradicate is an alternative way of phrasing it in order to survive the next five years? You know, there any old habits of years gone by that need to be sort of gotten rid of, so to speak, in order to really up that resilience over the next few years? I think really and truly, one is going to be innovation. Innovation is always lagging or having the mindset that what we're doing now is fine, and which it is. Because a lot of times, what we're doing is fine for now, but does it really lead you to where you want to go from a vision standpoint tomorrow? So, I think a lot of the health care leaders I've had have come across, they've been fine doing things the other way and kind of think innovation slows them down. I would say innovation doesn't slow them down. Innovation actually helps push forward if it's done the right way. So, I think having the mindset of, hey, what worked five years ago or what worked ten years ago is still fine. I think getting out of that mindset and looking for what we like to tolerate and seeing the improvement aspect, I think, really helped me to look toward the future. We run innovation across equipment all the time. You always see new technology discoveries when it comes to equipment as far as helping patients, you know, from a rehabilitation standpoint, or surgery duties. I think we have to also get the mindset from an administrative standpoint that just the things that we do on a daily basis, like placing PODs, delivering product, receiving product, looking at new product injection, those type of things. I think we have to start gearing towards more innovation in our view, versus just all being on the equipment side. Fantastic. Daryl, thank you so much. That is, I'm afraid, just about all we have time for. That brings us to the end of today's session. Again, a massive thank you Daryl for sparing the time to be with us today, for sharing what I hope our audience would agree, such a candid assessment of the complexities of modern day healthcare and really sharing some actionable insights to overcome some of those big hurdles that are being faced across procurement and supply chain in healthcare. I think it's probably clear from our discussion that resilience really isn't just about having a plan B. It's really about building a digital first transparent ecosystem where procurement and patient care are really in total lockstep. So hopefully some of what we've discussed today, or at least some of what we discussed today, can really help our audience really kind of take action as we move forward in what I think it's fair to say some uncertain times in the context of global healthcare. Finally, a big thank you to our partners at Amazon Business for making this conversation possible. And a big thank you to you for joining us today, and we look forward to seeing you for the next webinar. Before Amazon Business, buying for work was chaotic. Now it's easy to find products from thousands of suppliers in one place. Save on every type of purchase from individual items to bulk orders. At any time, you can view your spending on prebuilt, easy to use dashboards. Plus, you can free up cash flow if you choose to extend payment deadlines and view and approve your team's purchases easily. With Amazon Business, things just got a lot more manageable.