Receiving Best Practices
“One of the previous challenges was not being able to track inventory stored in remote locations; we felt like we had waste due to product expirations. Now we can ‘see’ our inventory and track by lot numbers and expiration dates. We have better oversight throughout the organization.”
Katie Risvold, Community Blood Centers of the Carolinas
Standardize how products are received for the greatest efficiency
Build visibility to supplies throughout your organization, to reduce unnecessary spending, and the loss/waste associated with expiring products
Effectively manage back orders and delays
Step 1: State the goal: Drive up-to-date, accurate information about supplies within your organization
???? Your most important task is to deliver timely, effective patient care – make sure you have the supplies you need for upcoming procedures
– Avoid delays and rescheduling that can occur when products aren’t available
– But remember – overstocking is not the answer!
???? Validating receipt of incoming products provides much-needed visibility to supplies now on-hand and those still outstanding
???? Good receiving practices increase your ability to track and manage back orders
Step 2: Determine the most effective way to manage receiving for your organization
???? If your organization is comprised of multiple facilities, you’ll need to standardize how products will be received for the greatest efficiency
– If all items come in through a central location and then get distributed, your corporate team needs to check in every receipt, validating items actually received against open purchase orders, tracking missing/open items
– If all facilities are receiving, make sure they process receipts daily, to ensure system-wide management of on-hand inventory and back ordered supplies
– When you can see bottlenecks occurring, for example, products that aren’t being delivered on time, your corporate team can work with vendors toward performance improvement
Step 3: Identify and eliminate the burdensome manual processes still embedded in your system
???? Still keeping an excel log of outstanding orders or hardcopies of purchase orders not yet filled?
– Use technology to support automation and align people and processes
Note: Manual receiving processes add staff time, delay information updates, and erode automation
Step 4: Complete receiving tasks daily to support accurate enterprise-wide information, and automated downstream processes
???? Avoid batching or weekly updates to receive incoming supplies
– Track and manage daily receipts for greatest visibility to on-hand inventory and back ordered items
Step 5: Good receiving processes improve supply chain control and overall management
???? Your 3-way price / item match is powered by accurate receipt information
???? Ensure that invoices ready for payment are for items you’ve received, not back ordered or missing items
