A Vision for a 21st Century Supply Chain

Executive Vice President James Butcher explains how the Global Health Supply Chain Program – Procurement and Supply Management Project is creating an efficient and cost-effective 21st century supply chain that provides life-saving medicines to millions of people around the globe. Photo credit: Lan Andrian.

In the age of Amazon, efficient global commercial supply chains are essential for successful companies to deliver their products to consumers. These companies use sophisticated analytics, have end-to-end visibility in all aspects of their supply chain operations right down to the last mile, and operate with a level of precision that their customers demand. As we manage the United States Agency for International Development Global Health Supply Chain Program — Procurement and Supply Management Project, or GHSC-PSM, we are increasingly incorporating these commercial tools, techniques, and approaches, and adapting them into the low-resource settings that we serve.

We recognize that the challenges we face are not experienced by established commercial supply chains of similar size and scope. Rather, our deliveries of life-saving health commodities are provided to areas with sometimes poor infrastructure, connectivity and, at times, places where civil order has broken down. At its core, our work is humanitarian. People, not profit, is what drives our mission. So, when we were challenged in the project’s second quarter of deliveries with a low on-time and in-full delivery rate, we knew we had to take action to turn things around.

Over the past two quarters, we have addressed some of the structural challenges that were inhibiting our ability to achieve our goals. I’m pleased to say that in October, we achieved a 71 percent on-time delivery rate, have delivered 88 percent of everything promised to date, and are on track to achieve and sustain our goal of an average 80 percent on-time delivery rate in the next few months. This on-time delivery rate is being achieved with parameters that are more restrictive — with shorter windows of time for a delivery and more exacting metrics — than has ever been achieved by a program of our type. Read the full article on Devex.