Collaborative Product Introduction

The CPI Team has recently introduced the New Product Introduction Management Tool (NPIM), a product request pipeline management tool for healthcare product introduction management professionals. The New Product Introduction Management Tool has been designed to support supply chain professionals at integrated delivery systems and/or individual hospitals in managing their product decision making processes. The NPIM Tool not only helps manage a pipeline of requests in various stages of review, it also integrates with an organization's email system, automatically sending email notifications to user-selected parties, improving communication and awareness about the product review process. The tool does not replace or alter an organization's new product decision process, but supports that process with communication and strict audit trail maintenance of the process. The NPIM Tool is intentionally flexible, recognizing that each provider's decision process is different, based on each organization's specific policies, procedures, and historical practices.

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810 Transactions

The 810 Transaction Team's goal is to increase the utilization of EDI 810 transactions among SMI members and the entire industry. In order to achieve that goal, the Team is working on designing an 810 implementation roadmap resource. The roadmap will be supported by provider and supplier calculator templates that will help an organization identify the value of implementation to their own organization. Team research has shown that savings and efficiencies can be gained by eliminating the staff time related to opening, date-stamping, sorting & keying invoices, capturing prompt pay discounts, lowering the potential for duplicate invoices/payments, reducing days-sales-outstanding for suppliers, and reducing the frequency of out-of-period expenses. The Team's efforts are guided by their over-arching goal: "810 by 2010"

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Link between Supply Chain and Revenue

The Link Between Supply Chain and Revenue team recognized that throughout the healthcare supply chain, there is an incomplete management approach to product decisions, with the current focus primarily on "cost" and minimal consideration given to the "revenue" impact of product decisions and overall supply chain management. Thus, the Team has sought to identify, define, and document the best practices for the integration and linkage of revenue considerations during the product acquisition analysis phase. With the adoption of best practices, SMI members and industry provider organizations could optimize both the revenue and expense perspectives, improving overall decision making processes and assisting the industry in developing a new perspective on the art of supply chain management.

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Vendor Managed Inventory

There are currently multiple versions of vendor managed inventory applications that exist today in healthcare, such as consignment, just-in-time, and third party logistics. Vendor managed inventory models are also used within the non-provider segments of the healthcare supply chain, particularly between manufacturers and distributors. Currently, it is not known if there an optimal model that balances the requirements in each supply chain segment. The Vendor Managed Inventory Initiative is designed to explore our industry's current applications, as well as the various models of VMI in non-healthcare industries, such as automotive, retail, technology, aerospace, and others. The goal is to identify optimal models, conduct pilots to test the models, and eventually to introduce these optimal practices to SMI members and the industry.

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Industry Standards - GLN Workgroup

Led by a member of the HSCSC, this workgroup is focused on assisting SMI members in identifying their GLN, incorporating it into their systems and operations, and using a GLN to conduct transactions. The Workgroup's goal is to document the processes and steps required to reach the transaction stage, and to create an adoption roadmap for the industry to utilize.

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Industry Standards - GTIN Workgroup

This workgroup, also led by a member of the HSCSC, is focused on utilization of the complex pilot system involving the use of the Global Trade Item Number (GTIN) for product identification and the Global Data Synchronization Network (GDSN) for the coordination and distribution of data throughout the industry. This workgroup is also focused on the creation of an adoption roadmap for the industry to utilize.

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