St. Onge Company’s Tom Redding was recently quoted in Healthcare Purchasing News for an article about material handling. He discussed how to properly integrate modern technology to improve operations, and what to reasonably expect from them. Use the link below to read the full article!
Tom Redding, Senior Managing Director, Healthcare Services, St. Onge Co., initially points to “the availability of reliable labor” as a continual challenge for most industries, including healthcare, when looking to improve material handling performance and that likely motivates increasing interest in technology.
“Supply chain leaders will explore options to proactively manage potential service failures with technologies as [automated guided vehicles], process automation, demand management and cloud-based solutions,” Redding told HPN. “These types of technologies and systems will provide visibility, access and control across the enterprise to manage the business more effectively. Leveraging these types of technologies will require a more thoughtful and coordinated effort with the broader IT/IS business plan. Making decisions in a silo will no longer work with the future of high-integrated solutions.”
However, striving for operational improvement must be balanced with the realistic capabilities of future-oriented technologies, according to Redding.
“Technologies like virtual reality are becoming more readily available as an immersive training experience for new hires, and to facilitate the change management process for incorporating operational improvements,” he indicated. “Supply chain leaders are under pressure to prepare for the future, and there is a lot of confusion in the market on what technologies are real and here to stay versus vaporware. We are seeing many potential use-cases for artificial intelligence (AI) in supply chain, but it will take time for the technology to mature and become more reliable for further adoption.”
Click here to read the article on the Healthcare Purchasing News site!
