When you are in a growth phase and are growing too fast, inventory issues can be a big problem. When you have product holds or recalls, inventory shortages can hurt your business. Without full visibility to your actual inventory by location, you are always playing catch-up.
True visibility is what initially drives better asset utilization. To get there though you need sales rep buy-in and compliance.
Easier to use tools create better processes which result in better visibility. Of course, staying SOX, FDA UDI, and HIPAA compliant are a given. All tools and processes must enable stronger compliance.
When you have a better tool you can quickly get the data you need while making everyone’s life easier at the same time.
In order to get full inventory control and visibility, your processes need to be simplified.
Today, most of the people we work with come to us because they have cumbersome processes. The work they need to do is made even more difficult because there is no easy way to get it all done. They use multiple systems, have too many steps to take, don’t understand the purpose, and most of all the process doesn’t add value to their bottom line. This drives bad behavior, creates miscommunication, and results in higher operational costs.
You shouldn’t have to…
- You shouldn’t have to take 7+ minutes to schedule and request inventory for a surgery.
- You shouldn’t have to look at 15 different screens and 60+ clicks to allocate kits, trays, and items for a case.
- You shouldn’t have to place 6 different phone calls to confirm case details.
- You shouldn’t have to figure out new ways to communicate with your team.
- You shouldn’t have to use fax machines, sticky notes, whiteboards, notebooks, and manual pick sheets.
- You shouldn’t have to use multiple systems (ERP, CRM, etc..) to fulfill all scheduling, inventory, and billing.
- You shouldn’t have to enter procedure codes, know the right lot number, or guess where inventory came from.
You should be able to…
- You should be able to do everything you need to do in one tool, easily and quickly.
- You should be able to have case specific, HIPAA compliant communication at your fingertips.
- You should be able to manage consigned inventory, trunk stock, and loaners all from one system.
- You should be able to schedule cases and capture usage from your mobile device on a purpose-built app.
- You should be able to auto-generate bills, sales orders, and invoices.
- You should be able to control all kits and trays at the item level.
- You should be able to have access to your own data.
- You should be able to see sales reports and account/surgeon trends.
- You should be able to see all inventory by location, outstanding POs, expiring inventory, and turn ratios.
Sales force effectiveness drives better operations.
When sales reps are saving time by not doing extra admin work, they have more time to focus on new business. When sales reps are saving time by not doing automated busy work, they have more time to focus on servicing the surgeons better. Sales reps want to do their job, by giving them a tool that makes their life easier, the operations teams will get much better data. Data that can help allocate resources and drive better decisions. Operations will get data that can help forecast, plan, and prepare for cases thus reducing waste in shipping, time, and manual effort. When sales reps have all the information they need, they will not be placing extra phone calls, wasting both their and the customer support’s valuable time. Trust will be built and operations will improve as a result.
In order to make your inventory go farther to make it work for you to really utilize your assets, it is important to have better processes in place.
Without a comprehensive tool, the right processes will never be found.
Yet, if your tool enables compliance because the users want to use it, you will find treasures of actionable data. The only way for a tool or system to generate user adoption is if the tool makes their job easier and gives them what they want.
Everyone wants visibility. Everyone wants control. Everyone wants access.
It is always a team effort.
Give them what they want, and you will get what you need.
In order to increase the effectiveness of a sales team, everyone needs the ability to do their job easier, have quicker access to data, and have full communication that is relevant and timely. The more effective a sales rep becomes, the more trusted information operations have so they can run leaner and increase asset utilization. It is a team effort.
Call to action:
If you want to discuss how we help medical device sales and ops teams work better, together, give us a call.
Contact us: 858.956.0219 or info@movemedical.com
WATCH DEMO NOW (you can personalize it to your needs/wants)
A good field inventory solution is worth its weight in gold, a fully integrated medical device specific operations and sales force effectiveness platform is priceless.
A complete tool should be able to or have:
- CRM / Case & Opportunity Management
- Directed Picking & Put-away (Bin Mapped)
- Surgery Scheduling (+ Calendar)
- Active Order Visibility
- Shipping Coordination (FedEx, UPS Integration)
- Customer/Account Management
- Opportunity/Lead Management
- Surgeon Preferences / Preference Cards
- Inventory Control & Visibility (All Locations, All Buckets)
- Auto Product Replenishment
- Commission Calculations
- Expiration Notifications
- Direct Orders
- Send & Receive Tools (Rep to Rep etc.)
- Contract & List Pricing (Real-time)
- Audit/Cycle Counts
- Reporting & Billing
- Image & File Sharing
- Secure HIPAA Compliant Communication
- Mobile Usage Capture
- UDI Compliance
- Barcode Scanning
- RFID Integration & RFID Reconciling (HF/UHF)
- ERP/CRM/EMR Integrations
- Demand Planning Tools
- Consignment/Loaner Management
- Pluggable Workflows (Programmatic Integrations, Integrated Prediction Models)
- Sourcing Matrix Tool
- HIPAA Compliant Communication Platform (Messages, Calendar, Usage, Notes, Files)
- Sourcing Optimization
- Future Stock (Virtual Inventory Assigned to Future Events)
- Atomic Inventory (UDI Ready, Piece Level Tracking, Serialized or Not)
- Hybrid Kitting (Skinny Kits, Kit Management, Kit Versioning, Tracking)
- Cross Boundary Workflows
- Lost & Found (Automatic Cycle Counting )
- Merger/Acquisition Integration
- Par Management
- Multi-Catalog Management
- Loan Optimization (1 Loan Per Day)
- Separate or Combined Sales & Operations Alignment
- Cost-to-Serve Metrics
- Turn Ratio Dashboards
- Sales Metrics / Data (Reps, Leaders, Corporate)
Need to talk with someone? We understand. Call anytime.
phone: 858.956.0208
email: mm@movemedical.com
or visit: www.movemedical.com/product