As significant capital investment and attention is focused on improving federal supply chains right now, these efforts may be missing the real problem: While analyzing how the national stockpile and supply chains broke down at the onset of the pandemic is one approach to addressing the frailty of our Nation’s federal supply chains, the real disruption may come from the underlying challenge of obtaining and maintaining quality data.
I’ve worked with some of the largest supply chains in healthcare and in my countless conversations with chief procurement officers over the past year, supply chain goals usually shift to an exercise in analyzing alternatives, and fixating on a single component, such as better inventory management, demand forecasting, or fulfillment. I challenge federal supply chain leaders to step back and gain a broader perspective on the systemic risks that all start and end with data.
While billions of dollars will be allocated to replenishing stockpiles across the country, relying on siloed, behind-the-scenes data will diminish visibility and foster faulty or deficient reporting, which will only further weaken business intelligence and informed decision making. By harmonizing and enriching our data, agencies can gain more line of sight and control over their entire supply chain.
Change is Starting from the Top
In February, President Biden made it a priority to shore up, secure, and invest in more resilient and diverse supply chains in the wake of the catastrophic pandemic. In his “Executive Order on America’s Supply Chains,” he calls for a federal interagency supply chain review of several agencies. Soon after, the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 was enacted and billions in new funding has been appropriated to various federal agencies for supply chain initiatives to continue efforts in updating supply chain systems to improve readiness of acquiring medical equipment.
In all instances across the federal government, new checks and balances all come down to getting a handle on the voluminous supplier-fed data coming from different sources, with varying attributes, touching multiple points across the supply chain – and having a plan to standardize that data for more effective decision making.
“Buy American” Tackles Common Weaknesses in Managing Supplier Pools
The Executive Order also highlights the Buy American Act. During the pandemic, we were reminded that supply chains must constantly monitor and minimize unverified or uncontracted suppliers, and purchasers buying off-contract products from unconfirmed sources to quickly source what they need.
Off-contract and unverified purchasing happens when there is no single consolidated catalog of items nor a well-maintained item master. Without these, there is no single source of truth into what items are available and where they come from. When that data is properly analyzed, it can be toggled and filtered in a way that serves up the preferred products that are on contract and acceptable to be purchased. Issue/Topic #3: Shifting the Purchasing Advantage to the Buy Side
Cloud-Based DaaS is a Game Changer in Supply Chain
The federal government continues its ardent push toward strengthening and increasing its Data as a Service (DaaS) and cloud-first capabilities, evident in the rise of new chief data officers as official positions and the new administration’s ongoing infusion of funding to modernize and improve health-related data collection. A DaaS platform allows informed decision making, cross-agency collaboration, and better service to constituents.
In the wake of the pandemic, agencies will be held more accountable for knowing what is happening across their supply chain at any given moment. Moving data out of static spreadsheets and making it easier for leaders at all levels to consume and analyze will help agencies better measure and track all aspects of their supply chain. Not only that, but agencies can begin to regain control of purchasing advantages, such as contract compliance, cost avoidance, and reduced p-card spend. Issue/Topic #4: Frictionless Purchasing, yet Compliant Integration with Traditional ERPs
A Chain Reaction
With much assessment and activity already underway, the Executive Order and impending policies can only boost improving any frail supply chain operations mired in existing siloed, unrationalized data. Data quality and interoperability has been overlooked for too long in healthcare. A data-driven supply chain strategy across all federal agencies will build sustainability and drive an improved healthcare supply chain – a chain reaction with harmonious results.
About the Author
Ted Dagnal is the Vice President of Government Strategy at Prodigo Solutions responsible for all public sector initiatives and programs. Ted has been shaping supply chain best practices in the commercial healthcare industry for more than 20 years, working with some of the largest health and research systems in the country. He is passionate about bringing industry lessons learned, as well as more than 20 years of leadership service as a former U.S. Army officer, to actively help government clients transform and secure their supply chains and data in a federal environment.
Ted is leading the effort to rationalize the Supply Chain Master Catalog for the Department of Veterans Affairs to improve their data quality, enrich item attribute information, and improve contract utilization. He also led the FedRAMP authorization and ATO approval process for Prodigo’s Marketplace platform at VA.