Let’s face it. Demand volatility, geopolitical uncertainty and changing regulations are placing pressure on every supply chain
But Life Sciences companies also face mounting challenges in securing materials, controlling costs, and operating sustainably and transparently. They must ensure real-time compliance, maintain end-to-end quality control, and manage multiple tiers of suppliers. With the rise of biologics and personalized medicine, more specialty contract manufacturers, cold-temperature logistics providers and other new partners are joining the supply chain network.
Life Sciences products are essential to patients and medical teams worldwide—but it’s getting more and more difficult to deliver them reliably and profitably in light of all these challenges.
Supply Chain Digest and Blue Yonder have created an on-demand webinar that discusses proven solutions, strategies and best practices for managing these challenges. “Achieving Real-Time Multi-Enterprise Collaboration and Compliance in Complex Supply Networks” reveals a central truth: For Life Sciences companies, supply chain optimization must occur at the network level.
Think about it. Of all the disruptions that occur daily across a typical Life Sciences supply chain—which spans thousands of miles and involves dozens of suppliers and trading partners—very few originate within the four walls of the manufacturing enterprise. And the vast majority of disruptions can’t be resolved by a single organization, acting alone.
When there’s a drug product, substance or medical device shortage or a missed patient delivery, the problem typically starts at a contract manufacturer or supplier node—and it can only be addressed via a collaborative resolution, like replanning for lower-than-expected yield or ensuring adherence to cold chain limits downstream. When a regional health emergency, extreme weather event, new regulation or other external force acts on the supply network, collaboration is also required.
The modern Life Sciences supply chain faces a constant, unrelenting barrage of disruptions and exceptions. To operate profitably, it must be built to flex under that pressure and not break. It’s not enough to arrive at a collaborative decision—all stakeholders must also execute that decision quickly, in an orchestrated manner.
But most Life Sciences companies are trying to establish real-time visibility, collaboration and responsiveness across the network with manual, siloed processes, disconnected systems, and isolated planning and execution workflows. They simply can’t keep up with the complexity and fast-moving nature of today’s Life Sciences landscape. The results include high costs, low margins, lost sales, constrained revenues, compliance issues and product waste.
Blue Yonder Network: The ideal prescription
If you’re thinking to yourself, “There’s got to be a better way,” you’re right. It’s called Blue Yonder Network, and it’s purpose-built to connect and optimize complex supply networks like those in the Life Sciences industry. This powerful, innovative solution fosters real-time, multi-enterprise collaboration, compliance and disruption management—enabled by artificial intelligence (AI) and delivered via highly automated workflows.
Blue Yonder Network connects all partners, including multiple levels of contract manufacturers and suppliers, on a shared platform with integrated systems and a common data source. It optimizes and connects supply chain planning and execution not just internally, for the core manufacturer, but across their entire partner network. The result? Blue Yonder drives better decisions, based on a shared version of the truth. And it minimizes the cycle between recognizing an exception and responding in an orchestrated, optimal manner.
At the heart of Blue Yonder Network is Supply Chain Command Center, which combines the real-time data ingestion capabilities of traditional control towers with AI-enabled analysis and network-wide collaboration. It’s built to not just flag exceptions, but reveal exactly how they impact complex, multi-enterprise supply chain processes—and drive a fast, good-for-the-network response.
By connecting network-wide data and processes in real time, Blue Yonder’s next-gen capabilities make it straightforward and automatic for Life Sciences companies to achieve real-time traceability, visibility, and risk management across their multi-tier supply chains, including at the batch level. An accurate digital chain of custody is created for every product, including high-value, highly regulated, or carefully controlled MedTech and healthcare products.
For Life Sciences companies facing increasing regulatory requirements—such as the Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DCSA)—Blue Yonder helps deliver automatic, documented compliance at a minimal investment of time and human effort. As materials and products move across the supply chain, Blue Yonder solutions generate full, real-time visibility across multiple partners, including contract manufacturers and transportation carriers. It’s easy to trace and document every product’s unique journey via digitalization.
Blue Yonder Network also makes it easy to onboard new contract manufacturers and suppliers, an increasing need as more specialized product solutions emerge. Blue Yonder Network supports an established trading partner community with over 150,000 current members worldwide, 5.6 million daily transactions and more than 1 trillion total market transactions to date.
A day in the life of a pharmaceutical disruption
So far, we’ve discussed Blue Yonder Network at a theoretical level—but let’s look at how it helps Life Sciences companies master a typical disruption.
As I mentioned earlier, biologics and personalized medications are a big trend in the Life Sciences industry. These advanced products not only involve specialty contract manufacturers, but they also necessitate long development cycles and precise handling. Obviously that creates a huge need for supply chain speed, accuracy and visibility.
Let’s say there’s an exception—a quality-control violation at a contract manufacturer, a capacity issue at a warehouse or a carrier mistake that results in a temperature deviation. In a disconnected, manual supply chain, it might take days for this issue to even be recognized by the necessary supply chain stakeholders, let alone resolved. By that time, patient outcomes, revenues and brand reputations might be affected significantly.
With Blue Yonder Network, data on the exception is shared instantly; all affected partners connect in real time to understand the impact, and a fast resolution rolls out seamlessly, and automatically, across the end-to-end supply chain network. Whether the answer is finding a new supplier or accelerating a new batch of products, the issue is addressed both swiftly and intelligently via AI.
Artificial intelligence and machine learning can also help minimize the risk of that same issue happening again. For example, if a cold-chain product was stored at ambient temperature for too long, Blue Yonder AI can start to track that data more precisely, in real time, to head off a future temperature-control problem. It’s easy to see how real-time connectivity and AI-enabled analysis help build supply chain resilience and self-healing characteristics at the network level.
Optimize at the network level for better supply chain health
I hope you’re excited to learn more about how Blue Yonder Network creates a holistic platform where trading partners can seamlessly collaborate, plan and execute together. And I hope you’re ready to start realizing the benefits in your own supply chain.
To get started, watch our on-demand webinar, explore our comprehensive capabilities for Life Sciences companies, or contact us to begin a one-on-one conversation.
Any reaction to this Expert Insight column? Send feedback below.
Your Comments/Feedback
|
