Inventory Management Cuts Costs and Improves Efficiency for Medical Device Suppliers

Medical device manufacturers and suppliers face significant challenges with inventory and asset management. Keeping track of healthcare equipment, medical supplies, and other inventory items while servicing customers can be complex and time-consuming, and these challenges have only increased following the arrival of COVID-19 and the supply chain issues it has brought with it.

 

But an effective inventory management system, such as the one built into Oracle’s NetSuite ERP, is also crucial for a business’s success. Improved inventory management can help track inventory levels, monitor usage patterns, and detect discrepancies, saving time and money while improving customer satisfaction in a number of ways, including:
   

1. Reducing inventory shrinkage. That is, the loss of inventory due to theft, damage, or human error. A reliable inventory management system can help you track inventory levels, monitor usage patterns, and detect discrepancies in real-time.
2. Increasing first-time fix rates. By tracking the inventory used during medical equipment servicing and repairs, you can ensure that the necessary parts and supplies are always in stock, avoiding delays and building a reputation for reliability and efficiency.
3. Automating manual tasks. Such as barcode and RFID scanning. Automation increases the speed and accuracy of stock-taking, receiving, and fulfilment.

Your return on investment is further boosted by managing your operations with a field service management system built onto your NetSuite platform. Next Service works seamlessly with NetSuite’s inventory functionality, eliminating data duplication and unlocking a suite of new tools, including:
   

1. Improved scheduling and dispatching for medical equipment suppliers. By using Next Service’s advanced scheduling and dispatching board, you can streamline your operations and provide timely service to your customers.
2. A mobile app that enables field technicians to access all the information they need from anywhere at any time on any device. With the Next Service mobile app, field technicians have visibility into each job’s date, time, and location. And the mobile app automates the flow of information from field to office. Data collected via customer checklists and forms is immediately available to back-office personnel.
3. Lifecycle asset management provides full visibility into asset hierarchy, history, usage, and maintenance. This increases productivity and enhances data transparency – both in the office and in the field – and helps ensure regular maintenance activities are completed, and warranty requirements are met.

Paragon 28 Medical Equipment Manufacturers create new and improved solutions to the challenges faced by foot and ankle specialists. The company took their operations to a new level by working with Klugo to implement NetSuite in their business.

“Klugo is very responsive. They were able to understand our business needs and personalise NetSuite for us, deploying an implementation that works even better than SAP, which is what our global brand uses. I’ve personally used Xero and Myob before, and I can say that NetSuite is by far a superior system.”
Kate Tomlinson, Finance Manager at Paragon 28

Kate’s experience highlights the importance of selecting the right enterprise resource management system for your business and working with the right partner in that implementation. Klugo are experts in enterprise resource management systems and optimising workflows in inventory management. Above that, Klugo are experts in the medical supply and repair industry, with a deep and broad understanding of the sector’s challenges and opportunities.

For example, take anesthetic machines. An anesthetic machine check is a routine inspection to ensure the machine functions correctly and safely. The machine must be checked before each use to minimise the risk of equipment failure and patient harm. An efficient asset management system tracks equipment history, making it easier to ensure maintenance is up to date and anticipating repairs that need to be made before the equipment breaks down. An effective inventory management system implemented with support from Klugo helps ensure necessary machine components are always in stock and available when needed. This can improve the overall efficiency of servicing and repairs and enhance customer satisfaction.

Ecolab Healthcare, a top medical equipment, chemistry, and services provider, has achieved new efficiencies after adopting NetSuite and Next Service. Ecolab worked with Klugo to implement NetSuite and Next Service. With expert guidance from Klugo, Ecolab Healthcare centralised all its software requirements into a single solution. The implementation enabled Ecolab Healthcare to achieve a 100% reduction in paper usage and provide visibility over their entire business.

“Our previous systems were quite manual, and we had no service management capability. With NetSuite and Next Service, we now have visibility over our entire business, and we can schedule our technicians efficiently.”
Chris Vat, Ecolab Healthcare’s Operations Manager

 

Conclusion

Post-COVID, medical device manufacturers and suppliers have experienced supply chain issues. Inventory and asset management have become even more critical as a result of these challenges. Companies can reduce costs, improve efficiencies, and enhance customer satisfaction by implementing an ERP system that includes inventory management, asset management, and efficient field service management tools. Selecting NetSuite + Next Service can make a significant difference in a business’s success.

 

About Klugo

NetSuite + NextService

Klugo’s vision is to unlock the full operating potential of our customers to maximise the value of their business. We do this by helping our customers achieve operating excellence using NetSuite + NextService, the world-leading cloud ERP and FSM business platform for small-to-medium-sized businesses.