Over the next five years, 84 percent of global healthcare executives will invest in new technologies, according to a recent UPS survey.
The sixth annual UPS Pain in the Supply Chain survey highlights the emerging shift changes in the healthcare supply chain, as executives look to their supply chains to meet their business goals.
Conducted in February through April of this year by TNS on behalf of UPS surveyed a total of 441 healthcare executives in the U.S. and Canada, Western Europe, Asia and Latin America.
Qualified respondents were senior-level decision-makers responsible for supply chain and logistics in the pharmaceutical, medical device and biotech industries.
Background
There is an approaching shift in the healthcare supply chain. Companies are focusing on transformative strategies and looking to their supply chains to impact business change and meet high-level objectives.
Concerns around increasing regulations, cost management and product protection remain; however healthcare executives are seeing measured success from supply chain strategies they have put in place to address these areas.
At the same time, they are preparing for further investments to build on effective strategies and for additional transformations to meet new industry demands.
Healthcare Supply Chain Concerns
The supply chain concerns keeping North American executives up at night relate to regulations and cost management. Sixty percent cite cost management as a top supply chain concern, a higher percentage than their peers around the world.
Regulatory compliance is also a top concern for logistics executives in North America, and is the top barrier to global expansion for North American healthcare executives.
Despite the high level of concern, executives are successfully addressing issues there in a variety of ways, ranging from performing supply chain optimization analyses to investing in logistics partnerships.
Other top concerns for healthcare executives in North America include:
Other key findings of the survey include:
Source: Fred Pennic, Founder at HIT Consultant Media
Download the UPS Survey: 2013 Pain in The (Supply) Chain Survey
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