Has our healthcare and life science supply chain returned to pre-pandemic business as usual?

The COVID-19 pandemic was a wake-up call for many sectors, but especially for Healthcare and Lifesciences. These sectors had to deal with unprecedented challenges and quickly adapt to new realities. They had to find new ways of working, collaborating, and delivering essential products and services to customers and patients. They had to develop and distribute vaccines and treatments in record time, implement remote care models, establish new supply chain hubs to support PPE delivery to the front line and rethink clinical trials and regulatory processes.

What has happened to the healthcare and life science supply chain post COVID-19?

But what happened after the pandemic subsided? Did we learn anything from the experience? Did we adopt the best practices, the accelerated ways of working and the trust we placed in our supply chain leaders to do the right thing, or did we go back to business as usual?

These are important questions, and ones that we should not lose sight of as time passes.

The benefits of a flexible, fast and innovative supply chain

Healthcare and Life Science supply chains were the backbone of the response to the pandemic, and they showed remarkable potential to be more flexible, faster, and innovative. They faced significant supply challenges and increased demand which forced a need for quick decision making and taking calculated risks. Traditional governance structures were abandoned and new ways of working were adopted. Increased trust was placed in expert functional leadership and decision making processes simplified. These adjustments became key enablers that gave the supply chain the ability to work at unprecedented pace to deliver the critical change required. Supply chain leaders were empowered and trusted by their organisations to do the right thing and worked with a high degree of autonomy and freedom. Their expertise and skills were recognised. It is unlikely that the challenges faced by those supply chains could have been met, in the timeframes called for, had this not been the case.

Find out here how Hatmill helped NHS England manage the PPE supply chain during the pandemic.

What is the best approach for innovation and transformation in our supply chains?

As the pandemic is committed to memory, it’s worth reflecting on whether these strategies are still in place today or have organisations returned to their pre-pandemic focus on governance, cost and risk avoidance? Do we continue to place the same degree of trust in our supply chain leaders and empower them to make the right decisions, or have we reintroduced additional layers of bureaucracy and organisational control? If the consensus is that things have gone back to pre-pandemic business as usual, then it might be worth reconsidering whether this is truly the best approach for innovating and transforming our supply chains.

Trust and empowerment in the supply chain

Organisational leadership must ensure that the lessons learned and best practices developed during that period are used and built on. Maintaining the levels of trust and empowerment given to supply chain professionals and the streamlining of governance during the pandemic, when outcomes were arguably most critical, proved to be effective then; why couldn’t it continue to be a successful strategy now?

Want to know more? Contact Shaun D’Arcy or contact us directly.