Healthcare supply chains are complex. From sourcing in multiple locations to managing time- and temperature-sensitive deliveries – all while keeping a close eye on costs – it’s no wonder that ensuring these supply chains run efficiently and effectively can prove challenging.

The extent of this can be at least partially recognised by looking at the expected growth of the healthcare supply chain management market. This comprises solutions and services to help professionals address supply chain challenges, and is forecast to surge from $3.71 billion in 2024 to $5.06 billion globally by 2030 – fuelled by the growing pressure to build cost-efficiency, agility and resilience into supply.¹

So if your business wants to play a valued role in these supply chains, it’s essential to realise the difficult circumstances your customers are facing – whether they’re medical facilities, pharmacies, or even other manufacturers further along in the chain – and find ways to support them. A good way to do that is to focus on key performance indicators (KPIs) for supply chains, their relevance to healthcare industries, and how your business can help its customers to succeed.

This is the time from placing an order to the products being delivered. It’s a key metric – some shipments will need to be delivered quickly but, even for those that aren’t urgent, your customers still need to be able to accurately work out when their orders need to be placed.

Keeping lead times short is especially important due to the unpredictable nature of healthcare needs. They enable facilities to re-stock as needed, which helps them to manage a finite amount of storage space without carrying too much stock they don’t have space for. Short lead times also help to avoid shortages to supplies or equipment in the event of sudden increases in demand.² Failing to mitigate this can have dramatic consequences for patient outcomes.

As such, KPIs for lead times will measure how many days it takes from placing an order to receiving it, as well as the frequency of late deliveries and the impact they have.³

Two key elements to tackle are speed of production and reliability of delivery. You could start by taking steps to reduce your cycle time. This can include removing bottlenecks, simplifying workflows and increasing training.⁴ You may also find it useful to research and potentially adopt lean manufacturing principles, if they work for your business, and make sure that your own raw materials supply chain is working efficiently.

Automation is another way to take time out of production schedules – not just in the production itself but by using integrated software to streamline time-consuming manual tasks such as order processing and inventory management. And as lead times are also determined by how fast you can deliver the products, make sure you choose a logistics provider that can offer healthcare shipping solutions that meet your customers’ needs.

A major component of this is optimising your last-mile delivery, which can be crucial when shipping time-sensitive products. Ensure your provider can offer advanced service options that contain solutions such as same-day delivery, hold-at-location and real-time proof of delivery.

Your choice of shipping provider also impacts your reliability, in terms of getting your goods to your customers when they are expecting them – an essential component of a just-in-time healthcare delivery system. Make sure you’re able to closely monitor your shipments with advanced tracking capabilities that can help provide reassurance for all parties, as well as enable effective action to be taken if anything unforeseen happens.

There are other areas you can consider to make your delivery promises more reliable too. A regular maintenance schedule could be key to avoiding production downtimes and associated delays, for example, while implementing a root cause analysis to identify the reasons behind any recurrent problems could be valuable in ironing out persistent issues.⁵

This is another important supply chain KPI that can have particular relevance to the healthcare sector. As discussed above, with unpredictable healthcare needs and often limited amounts of storage space, providers can need fast turnarounds when they order supplies. And that goes beyond just optimising lead times – suppliers also need to be able to respond quickly if they are to get products to customers when needed.

Focus on agility and responsiveness, as enhancing these will mean you could be more valuable to customers who require immediate attention. Agility can be increased in several ways, including having an innovative outlook, maintaining a flexible business model, and having a customer-centric approach.⁶

That approach can be bolstered by close collaboration. Stronger, long-term relationships – and the familiarity they breed – can enable you to respond more quickly to customer demands through a better understanding of their likely needs and the ability to work together to address challenges quickly.⁷

You may also be able to improve your responsiveness through better forecasting. This could allow you to improve stock availability, as well as mitigate against potential supply chain disruptions and better anticipate shifts in demand.

Using artificial intelligence is one way to ramp-up your abilities. By utilising large amounts of data, AI systems can spot patterns and relationships that people cannot, fuelling more accurate forecasts into customer demand.⁸ A recent survey shows that 35% of companies in the healthcare sector are using AI to forecast demand, while 32% are using it to enable better supply chain planning and reduce disruptions.⁹ Joining them could mean you are more able to accommodate customer requests when they need you.

The perfect order KPI tracks the number of perfect orders delivered out of the total volume your customers receive. A perfect order is one that arrives on-time, is accurate and is damage-free, and also includes the correct documentation.¹⁰

There are many factors to consider when targeting this KPI, and it’s important to remember that those considerations should go beyond just the logistics elements to incorporate the whole production and delivery process.

Fulfilling orders correctly is essential in the healthcare sector. Doing so can often be life-critical – particularly if the shipment requires temperature-controlled logistics, high regulatory compliance, or is needed for an urgent procedure. With many facilities operating demand-driven, just-in-time supply chains, the perfect order KPI is a crucial metric to excel in.

Quality control is essential, so it’s worth considering whether there are any improvements you can make in this area. Could your employees benefit from additional training, for example, to ensure regulatory standards are being met and quality control protocols are being followed?

Similarly, it’s worth making sure your quality management system (QMS) is as strong as it should be. If it’s performing well it will maintain consistency across processes including document management and control, internal audits and record keeping, and corrective or preventative actions that have been taken.¹¹

It could also be worth keeping a close eye on your own suppliers’ quality control processes, as well as conducting regular evaluations yourself to ensure the materials and components they provide are of sufficient standard.¹²

And as the perfect order KPI involves customers receiving goods damage free, your healthcare shipping solutions come into play again and it’s essential to make sure your chosen provider offers the necessary quality assurance throughout the shipment.