Dan DeLaySenior Vice President, Supply Chain Analytics, VHA Inc.
With Christmas right around the corner, I find myself thinking about how automation and analytics could help Jolly Old Saint Nick. We all know he’s making a list and checking it twice, yet such manual processes can be labor-intensive and rife with inaccuracies. Think of how much time could be saved if he created the list in Excel and had it automatically updated with address and list changes and a Naughty or Nice Notification Alert, the NNNA. In addition, children should stop handwriting notes to Santa anymore--they should submit online requests for holiday gifts that would automatically arrive in Santa's electronic inbox.
In addition, there has to be a more efficient way to manage worldwide distribution than having one man make overnight deliveries via sleigh. According to a recent report from Swedish researchers, Santa delivers presents to 2.5 billion homes between Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, giving him 34 microseconds at each stop to slide down the chimney, drop off the presents, have a quick snack and hop back on his sleigh. Imagine if he outsourced distribution or had multiple overseas partners. Santa could ensure that deliveries were made and still get a good night’s sleep.
Instead of wishing for a more efficient supply chain for Santa this Christmas, most of my time is spent wishing for a more efficient supply chain for health care. Fortunately, this wish doesn't depend how nice I've been. Hospitals are indeed finding new ways to track their purchases and better manage how they use supplies, so they can make better business decisions and identify opportunities to save money and conserve resources for patient care. They’re also finding ways to collaborate with other hospitals to aggregate their spending, obtain better prices and improve their delivery schedules. Maybe Santa could learn something from hospitals, which have a long history of being hesitant to accept change. I certainly wouldn't mind getting my Christmas gift earlier than I expected.
Implementing change though is never easy...changing the way your organization has done things for years takes a huge amount of faith. Santa has had success using his tried-and-true methods, but surely he must be getting tired of pulling all-nighters to meet his yearly deadline. If he could leverage the latest technology and find new partners, he could take a much needed rest and spend more time with Mrs. Claus.
For hospitals, using new supply chain technologies will conserve time and resources for more patients.
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