Medical Implant Manufacturers

Download Consignment Inventory and VMI for Implant Manufacturers

Pains for Medical Implant Manufacturers

Hospitals are increasingly shifting the onus to medical implant manufacturers and their distributors to sell on consignment and/or manage inventory on behalf of the hospital. When selling on consignment or through vendor managed inventory (VMI) programs, medical implant manufacturers and distributors experience common pains associated with manual, bar-code based inventory tracking methods:

• Operations  
  • Inaccurate inventory / replenishment
  • Higher inventory levels (to compensate for inaccuracies)
  • Shrinkage
• Sales / Service
  • Significant time spent taking inventory and processing invoices / orders
  • Customer dissatisfaction due to stock-outs
• Finance
  • Higher working capital requirements
  • Slow, inaccurate billing
  • Delayed cash collection

SkyeTek Solutions for Consigned / Vendor Managed Inventory

SkyeTek provides two solutions, RFID Smart-Container and Mobile-RFID, which allow medical implant manufacturers and distributors to automate the inventory management process at customer sites.

Smart-Container  The RFID Smart-Container solution retrofits existing cabinets and shelves with a network-connected RFID reader sub-system that automates item-level tracking.  The inventory process happens without field personnel involvement and can occur multiple times per day.  Data is sent to back-end inventory management and billing applications in real-time via a wired or wireless network connection installed in the cabinet / shelf system.

Mobile-RFID  Using an RFID handheld, the Mobile-RFID solution allows field personnel to take inventory of an entire shelf with a simple arm wave.  Data is sent to back-end inventory management and billing applications in real-time / near real-time via a wireless network connection.

Both solutions offer the ability to quickly and comprehensively authenticate inventory in the field based on digital signatures (ie, to prevent counterfeiting) and programmable metadata such as manufacture date, manufacture site, lot number, and expiration date (ie, for age-sensitive products).

SkyeTek Solution Benefits

SkyeTek’s solutions for consigned / vendor managed inventory provide many compelling benefits:

• Operations Efficiency
  • Industry leading read accuracy for high confidence inventory counts
  • Lower inventory levels (due to higher accuracy)
  • Reduced shrinkage
• Sales / Service Productivity
  • Minimal time spent taking inventory and processing invoices / orders
  • Increased customer satisfaction
• Financial Optimization
  • Lower working capital requirements (due to lower inventory)
  • Accelerated, accurate billing
  • Accelerated cash collection