Once medical device inventory leaves the warehouse, manufacturers face new challenges as products enter the field.
Warehouse inventory has an easy-to-follow life cycle. Products arrive, are stored in specific locations, counted and tracked, and eventually shipped out, ending the inventory management process.
Medical device manufacturers, on the other hand, deal with a much more complex system because products shipped out of the warehouse may remain part of the manufacturer’s inventory network since the manufacturer still owns it. Field inventory might be located in hospitals, representative stock, loaner trays, consignment locations, and various other field locations.
Once medical device inventory is in the field, keeping it visible is a priority that isn’t always easy to maintain. Products might be transferred, making it difficult to know who has them. Knowing who has the product and where it is located matters, as does knowing whether it has been used or is close to its expiration date.
Field Inventory Creates a Different Management Challenge
Since field inventory can move between representatives and locations, the manufacturer may struggle to track products. Field inventory follows different workflows than warehouse inventory, so it requires different tracking. The manufacturer may need a lot number, serial number, expiration date, location, and verified ownership.
“A central challenge in the medical device industry is the gap between physical inventory and the systems used to track it. Traditional ERP and warehouse-oriented systems can provide strong visibility while inventory remains in controlled facilities, but field inventory introduces additional complexity,” says Joe Matar, director of ABM at Movemedical.
Movemedical is a platform designed to help MedTech manufacturers manage inventory throughout the field.
When Inventory Visibility Becomes a Business Issue
Inadequate field inventory tracking can have major consequences, including tied-up working capital, disrupted billing workflows, and product expiration.
Inventory sitting in the field, undetected and unused, ties up capital. Companies need to know where their inventory is located and where replenishment is needed.
Accurate usage data is essential for billing workflows, so knowing exactly what products were used in each surgery gives the company the information required for accurate billing.
Additionally, products may be nearing their expiration date without central teams noticing. Better tracking can help manage inventory so products are used before they become a write-off and replaced promptly.
Some manufacturers may call on their representatives to search for inventory, which can take up valuable time they could spend on their primary work. Searching for inventory requires calling other representatives, tracking transfers, and reconciling spreadsheets.
Why Traditional Inventory Tools Can Miss the Field
Many manufacturers depend on spreadsheets for tracking, which can work for smaller inventory. Distributed inventory is harder to manage manually at scale, especially as locations increase, more representatives are added, transfers increase, and product-level tracking requires more detail.
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) is a valuable software resource for finance, procurement, manufacturing, and enterprise inventory, but once inventory moves into the field, it may not capture all activity.
Purpose-built software can work with ERP to track inventory in the field by providing a specialized view of consignments, representative inventory, loaner trays, surgical cases, and transfers.
For manufacturers, knowing what inventory remains in the warehouse is only part of the product-visibility equation. Understanding what is out in the field is a vital part of the medical device inventory lifecycle.
