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What I Learned While on the Road

I recently returned from two weeks on the road visiting customers and prospects. I started in Washington, DC, then on to Baltimore, Boston, Cincinnati, and finally Los Angeles. My new favorite motto is: “if you have time to spare, then go by air,” but that is for another blog.

Thank you to everyone who came by the Z5 Inventory booth at AHRMM17 in Washington, DC.  It was great to see existing customers, and we heard many times that “this year was our best inventory ever.” We never tire of hearing compliments about our product and our great services team. They are appreciated. 

It was also great to meet many new people and discuss their inventory challenges. Our message of Count, Reallocate, and Buy was simple and well received. First, use our software to conduct a physical inventory or let our team conduct it on your behalf. Second, the count results are run through our proprietary analytics, which identify excess and unused products that - if left on the shelves - will expire. Third, we provide detailed reporting that shows where you can reallocate products from one location to another, which provides a rather large savings opportunity that is achievable near term. Lastly, Z5 will purchase excess and unused inventory and make it available to others at discounted pricing. Everyone wins!

The enthusiasm for our solution was real. All hospitals know they have challenges with excess and slow-moving inventory, but they typically don’t have a method to identify what it is and where it is. Even if they can accomplish this task, they don’t have the time and manpower to reallocate products, and ultimately items are left to gather dust and then expire.  What I heard often was that people had internal methods to deal with this challenge, but it was never anything that could accomplish the task on a large scale and in a short time. An email to your colleague about a box of sutures is not a best practice. 

At Z5 we are passionate about improving the healthcare supply chain. It gives me great joy to talk to people and discuss how we can help solve their problems. Sometimes the savings numbers get very large and everyone is excited about the big $$ number. Sometimes it’s the opportunity to clean up items within locations and optimize inventory levels that resonates most. Sometimes it’s the technology and the chance to move away from paper count sheets and manual data entry. No matter what it is, the fact that it is one or all of these makes the late nights, travel delays, flat tires in rental cars, and loud noises in the hotel hallways all worth it.  

I look forward to seeing you on the road sometime soon!

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