Companion Website to Chapter 13, “Supply Chain
Management,” from Healthcare Operations Management, authored
by Daniel B. McLaughlin and Julie M. Hays, and published by Health Administration Press, 2008
Escalating healthcare costs are driving the need for many
healthcare organizations to examine and optimize their supply chains. Efficient
and effective supply chain management is becoming increasingly important in the
healthcare arena. This chapter introduces the concept of supply chain
management and the various tools, techniques, and theories that can enable
supply chain optimization. The chapter covers the following major topics:
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Supply chain management basics
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Tools for tracking and managing inventory
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Forecasting
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Inventory models
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Inventory systems
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Procurement and vendor relationship management
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Strategic supply chain management
After completing this chapter, the reader should have a basic understanding of
supply chain management; how it can be used in healthcare organizations; and how to
employ the tools, techniques, and theories related to supply chain management to
optimize an organization’s supply chains.
The author invites reader’s comments, recommended readings, website
suggestions, and any other material to be added to this webpage for this chapter or any
other chapters. Please click here to send an email. Be sure to include ―Healthcare
Operations Management‖ in the subject line.
Resources
PowerPoint
A PowerPoint presentation of the key points of Chapter 13 is available here:
Chapter 13.ppt
Excel Templates
Forecasting Template
This template provides spreadsheets that enable the use of various forecasting methods in
Excel :
Forecasting Template 2006.xlt
Inventory Template
This template provides spreadsheets for inventory management and analysis:
Inventory Template 2007.xlt
Examples and Problem Data from the Text
U.S. Healthcare Expense—Data for Problem 1:
C13 Problem 1—US Healthcare Expense.xls
Inventory Data—Problem 2:
C13 Problem 2 Inventory Data.xls
Websites of Interest
Software
StatTools is an Excel
available.
add-in for statistical analyses. A 15-day free trial version is
Minitab is inexpensive spreadsheet-based statistical software that enables more
powerful statistical analyses than Excel . A 30-day free trial version is available.
Tutorials
Inventory Management Models: A Tutorial—from the Supply Chain Management (SCM)
Information Portal, sponsored by the Supply Chain Resource Cooperative (SCRC) at
North Carolina State University, as a service to the supply chain field
Very Basic Excel Tutorial
Excel Tutorials—from Microsoft
Approaches to Forecasting: A Tutorial—from the Supply Chain Management (SCM)
Information Portal, sponsored by the Supply Chain Resource Cooperative (SCRC) at
North Carolina State University, as a service to the supply chain field
Estimation and Forecasting Tutorials—This site contains tutorials for simple moving
average, weighted moving average, exponential smoothing, and trend-adjusted
smoothing.
Forecasting—This site provides a simple explanation of quantitative and qualitative
forecasting, including simple moving average, weighted moving average, exponential
smoothing, adjusting for trends—double exponential smoothing, and multiplicative
seasonal method.
Principles of Forecasting—This extensive forecasting site is related to the book, but most
of the information is stand-alone.
Demonstrations
Time Series Forecasting—This site provides a java applet for time series forecasting.
Data Sources
The following data sources are useful in considering supply chain management issues:
Health Insurance—from the U.S. Census Bureau
Kaiser Family Foundation
National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS)
Philosophies/Programs/People
People
The ABC inventory classification system separates inventory items into three categories
based on the Pareto principle. Vilfredo Pareto studied the distribution of wealth in 19th
century Milan and found that 80 percent of the wealth was controlled by 20 percent of the
population. This same idea of the vital few and the trivial many is found in quality
management (Chapter 8), sales (80 percent of sales come from 20 percent of customers),
and inventory management.
This website provides more information on Pareto—Pareto, Vilfredo.
List of Organizations
Organizations
The finance departments in many healthcare organizations have a special interest in
supply chain management. Here is a link to the Healthcare Financial Management
Association (HFMA) website.
References
Anonymous. 2006. ―Transforming U.S. Health Care, Supply-Chain Makeover
Rejuvenates Medical Center.‖ Knowledge@W.P.Carey April 6.
BearingPoint and National Alliance for Healthcare Information Technology. 2006. RFID
in Healthcare: Poised for Growth. McLean, VA: BearingPoint. (You will need to
sign up for a free account to access to this article.)
Box, George E. P., and G. M. Jenkins. 1976. Time Series Analysis: Forecasting and
Control. 2nd ed. San Francisco: Holden-Day.
HFMA. 2005. HFMA’s 2005 Supply Chain Benchmarking Survey. Westchester, IL:
Healthcare Financial Management Association.
———. 2002. Resource Management: The Healthcare Supply Chain 2002 Survey
Results. Westchester, IL: Healthcare Financial Management Association.
———. 2001. Resource Management Update: Healthcare Supply Chain. Westchester,
IL: Healthcare Financial Management Association.
Reh, F. J. 2007. "Pareto's Principle—The 80-20 Rule." [Online information; retrieved
6/4/2008.]
Wright, C. M. 2007. "Where's My Defibrillator? More Effectively Tracking Hospital
Assets." APICS 17 (1): 28–33.
Additional Readings
Case Studies (links to sources)
An Integrated Supply Chain Management System: A Case Study in Healthcare Sector
Case Studies (available online)
Mastering the Supply Chain—Illinois’ largest integrated delivery network combines
integrated business applications with organization-wide best practices.
Books (available online)
Gattorna, John, ed. 1998. Strategic Supply Chain Alignment: Best Practice in Supply
Chain Management. Aldershot, UK: Gower Publishing Company.
Bovet, David, and Joseph Martha. 2001. Value Nets: Breaking the Supply Chain to
Unlock Hidden Profits. New York: Wiley.
Copacino, William C. 1997. Supply Chain Management: The Basics and Beyond. Boca
Raton, FL: CRC.
Poirier, Charles C., and Stephen E. Reiter. 1996. Supply Chain Optimization: Building
the Strongest Total Business Network. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publishers.