Maybe you’re doing a great job with order management, placing every order electronically, so you’ve got great visibility to purchasing and on-contract spend. Maybe you’re using barcoded labels in your supply rooms so you can quickly scan and reorder what you need. (Well done, you!)
Now you need more. If your goal is a world-class supply chain – that eliminates bad surprises (like stock-outs and scrambling for last minute substitutions) – what should you do next?
Receiving is the name of the game. If you’re not receiving incoming supplies, you don’t have visibility to what’s in-house. And sometimes don’t discover problems until it’s too late!
The Envi Community Builds Best Practices
With over 9,500 users, the Envi team sees and compiles the Best Practices that make the biggest difference.
Receiving is critical to great supply chain management. It not only improves visibility to supplies throughout your organization, it supports patient care and cost management. It’s a building block to reducing overstocking and unnecessary spend, and helps eliminates loss/waste from expiring products.
Seven Steps to Help You Start Receiving (and Get Value Doing It)
1) Set up a daily process to manage incoming supplies. Use mobile technology to capture and store pictures of packing slips, so you’ll have an accurate record of what was received, and importantly, know what wasn’t!
2) If you are tracking inventory, enter receipts throughout the day, so you’re building an accurate, real-time view of on-hand supplies.
3) If you’re not yet tracking inventory, enter receipts throughout the day to help avoid overspending on supplies you don’t yet need..
4) Proactive backorder management is a great opportunity for a great supply chain! Understanding back orders lets you manage by exception, so you’ll see if you’re about to stock out or need a substitute product / vendor – fast! Plus you’ll avoid overpayments.
5) Check packing slips to verify the shipment contents. This is an essential step for both inventory management and accurate payments.
6) Got reporting tools? Use ‘em! Check vendor reports to validate orders and see what items are received or still pending. Back order reports let you see what orders are received, open, or items on back order that you need to manage.
7) Increase visibility to what’s on-hand, from the receiving dock to the supply room – it’s a game changer when you know where items are stored throughout your organization.
Taking a few steps can make your supply chain more efficient. Daily recording of receipts, back order management and reporting tools help you increase visibility, reduce on-hand inventory, avoid unnecessary ordering, and drive AP accuracy.
Seriously, just start receiving.
Life is better without those terrifying moments where you discover you don’t have products needed for a case. You’ll open the door to efficiency and savings, and save yourself that next “oh no” moment!
Learn more about the Envi Receiving module, or check out some ideas for creating a “supply chain bucket list” in 2022.
