Reflections on SMI Community Member Site Visits

I hate admitting it, but I am a sucker for opportunities to see how supply chain works. I have a touristy fascination with any behind the scenes view of a manufacturing or distribution operation of whatever scale.

I've toured biologics manufacturing plants containing large stainless-steel vats and bioreactors, everything hyper controlled against contaminants. I've toured discrete manufacturing facilities where materials are snapped together with amazing efficiency and conveyor belts stretch across the entire space. And I've toured facilities containing the cutting-edge in 3D printing and personalization technologies. In every case, I walked away with a stronger understanding of supply chain and engineering and how both continue to evolve.

Medline Distribution Center Tour

Most recently, along with 22 other SMI members, I toured Medline's distribution center outside of Chicago. SMI's involvement in the tour was not without controversy. Members expressed serious concern that the event would provide a member with the unique opportunity to "sell" its capabilities to a captive audience, undermining SMI's principle against such activities. They worried about the law of unintended consequences, and the opening of doors that should perhaps remain closed.

I'll give you my take on what I experienced before turning it over to you, the SMI community, for your thoughts on these types of special events. As you can imagine, other members have expressed interest in hosting members at their facilities since the Medline visit, so it will be essential to get your perspective on whether or not we should continue to support these site visits.

An Opportunity to Learn

From my perspective, the event was an opportunity to learn about the ways automation and robotics are playing a more prominent role in the supply chain, particularly as sites of care proliferate and each picking becomes more commonplace.

The centerpiece of the tour was Medline's goods to man picking system called "Autostore". "Autostore" is an elevated grid system that resembles a large cube with lots and lots of mini-cubes inside of it. At the top of the cube, robots move back and forth along the grid pattern, picking items, and delivering them to an operator to complete order fulfillment. It was very cool and seemed a highly efficient way of picking slower moving inventory and eaches.

Some may ask do we really need an in-person tour to see how autonomous robotics are enhancing supply chain practices. Isn't this something we can just google? Perhaps. But Medline did something that I would argue demonstrated that they heard the concerns of the community and were not treating this as an opportunity for the sales team to sell: they took a back seat and handed the ball to members of their supply chain team to lead the knowledge sharing.

Supply Chain to Supply Chain Collaboration

One of the more interesting aspects of the tour involved hearing directly from one of Medline's demand and inventory planners on Medline's planning and forecasting processes. Everything he said highlighted the opportunity that the healthcare value chain has to get closer to demand and to collaborate more closely when it comes to demand planning and the removal of unnecessary inventory from the pipe. There was no discussion on how members could do more business with Medline; rather they provided a view into the processes and technologies that move goods across the supply chain.

I left the tour feeling as if I wanted to hear more from the supply chain team about collaborative planning opportunities, about ways to remove inventory waste from the system, about ways to smooth inefficiencies in the ordering process. This might be tactically oriented, but a tour focused on operations should have this focus in my opinion.

Part of me thinks we will miss an opportunity to support greater supply chain to supply chain collaboration if we decide to move away from such member site visits. The ultimate objective in my view of such visits should be to support supply chain to supply chain knowledge sharing. As long as the community sees it in a similar fashion, we will stay true to our principles.

But enough from me. Now it's time for you to let us know your thoughts and concerns, so please let us know what you think!