What If Logistics Is The Real Healthcare Breakthrough

We step away from the daily hospital storeroom grind and zoom out to the bigger idea of supply chain design with Taylor Wilkerson from Design for Life. We talk about using design thinking to rebuild public health supply chains so more people get the medicines and care they need, even as budgets shrink.
• Taylor’s career path from engineering to public sector supply chain work
• Why public sector supply chains measure success in impact, not profit
• How professional groups build real relationships and career options
• Practical alternatives to shallow “networking” and why friendships matter
• What design thinking and systems thinking mean in supply chain design
• Common structural problems in national healthcare supply chains
• Warehouse count, inventory flow, and procurement choices that cut waste
• The patient impact of stockouts and the trust cost of failure
• Partnerships Design for Life is seeking: funding, technology, volunteers
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Got a topic you're fired up about, or maybe you want to be a guest on the show? Fred would love to hear from you. Just reach out at fcrans@stonge.com.

Transcript

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Welcome And Guest Setup

SPEAKER_00 0:03

Hello everyone, and welcome back to the Taking the Supply Chain Hulk. I'm Megan with Sainon Company, and we're glad you're with us. Today's episode features Taylor Wilkerson, the executive director of Design for Life, for a fascinating conversation about the power of supply chain design. Taylor's background defines formal supply chain education with hands-on experience designing supply chain solutions. Now let's hand it over to your host, Fred Franz.

SPEAKER_01 0:29

Today we have an interesting topic. We're going to sort of depart from uh hospital supply chain people talking about what they do, and we're going to get into a whole different area with Taylor Wilkerson. Taylor Wilkerson is the executive director of Design for Life, and we'll be talking uh a little bit more about that as we go along. But, Taylor, welcome to the podcast. Thank you for having me, Fred. Looking forward to the conversation. Well, uh I was we were talking just a minute ago and I wrote an article yesterday uh about uh what people need to do or should be doing if they want to advance their careers, and it will help them get a job if they find themselves without one in these trying times. And one of those things uh gets into uh sort of the of a career path that you started out. You are not a healthcare supply chain guy by by experience, are you?

SPEAKER_02 1:28

No, I'm I'm more of a pure supply chain uh person. I've I've done work across multiple industries, aerospace and defense, uh packaged goods, and and of course healthcare, but uh did not start off looking at healthcare as a a specialty.

SPEAKER_01 1:45

Yep, you start you uh got your undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering at Vanderbilt in Nashville. Yeah, and then uh you got your MBA at the University of Maryland. So that being said, uh tell us about some of the some of the or first off, some of the companies you work for, and then we'll get into some of the professional organizations you've been involved with. But tell us about some of your the companies you work for.

SPEAKER_02 2:11

Sure. So uh as you mentioned, I started life as an engineer and worked for about seven years doing environmental engineering, which really created sort of a foundation of understanding a lot about manufacturing, uh, how manufacturing leads to creating waste and how to control that waste. And then when I went back and got my MBA, um, I really wanted to sort of keep touch with that uh sort of tactical part of business, the physical side of business, and that led me to specializing in supply chain. Umce I got my MBA, I started working for uh a company here in the Washington, D.C. area called LMI, uh, which is a logistics and supply chain, or at the time was logistics and supply chain focused firm. They've since expanded since then, but really working with the the public sector. Um, so a lot of federal, uh, some other uh not-for-profits, etc. And I guess I'd start off saying, you know, when you're looking at where there are career options, don't overlook those public sector opportunities. Um, because they do have uh a lot of needs for healthcare supply chain, um, public health and emergency response, as well as just supply chain in general. And it's really it's a different way of looking at what supply chains can do. Um so I was at LMI for uh several years, and then I moved to uh a similar organization called MITRE. And what MITRE does is they operate uh what are called federally funded research and development centers for the federal government. So a little more strategic work, um, got involved more specifically in healthcare supply chain at MITRE, uh, and was at MITRE until um about uh August last year. Uh with the the budget cuts that were occurring within the federal government across last year uh impacted MITRE's business, and um unfortunately they had to cut staff and unfortunately I uh became part of those cuts.

SPEAKER_01 4:22

Well, that's interesting, but I didn't I I I had forgotten that. So actually, my article that I wrote yesterday, um which this will this podcast will come out a couple months after I wrote the article, but it was pretty timely because you have experienced uh situation where boom something uh something unforeseen happened and and you had to uh you had to uh find other options.

Public Sector Supply Chain Purpose

SPEAKER_01 4:47

Before we discuss that though, you said that um you mentioned just a minute ago, you were talking about a different way of looking at what supply chain can do. Can you explain that to me, what you mean by that?

SPEAKER_02 5:01

Yeah, I I think when you know when we go through supply chain education and and even in in most industry situations, supply chain is seen as sort of a a means to an end, a means towards delivering product, getting product in customers' hands, and therefore driving revenue. Most of my career is I've I've been working in the public sector, and this includes health as well as doing work in sustainability. It's really focusing on how supply chain can help people who are in need. Um, it's not about necessarily driving profits, it's about how you can maximize the impact of whether it's disaster response or healthcare by having a more efficient supply chain, a more agile supply chain that puts the products people need to live in their hands and in as many people's hands as possible. So it's a bit of a different perspective on um what supply chain can do.

SPEAKER_01 6:02

And that'll that'll be getting us into supply chain design in a in a few

Professional Groups That Build Careers

SPEAKER_01 6:07

minutes. But another thing I noticed when I was reviewing your background um is that you have been actively involved in several professional uh or think tank type groups associated with supply chain. Could you A tell us tell us about uh those groups, the names of them, what they did, what your role was, and number two, how that has helped you personally in your growth of your knowledge base and perhaps in the movement of your career?

SPEAKER_02 6:40

Yeah. Um so uh been as you mentioned, it's been several organizations. I've been a member of CSCMP or the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals for uh pretty much since I started my career in supply chain. Um I also worked with the Supply Chain Council, which is now the Association for Supply Chain Management, uh, and most recently was chairing their innovation and sensing committee, which is a board committee focused on identifying sort of the leading practices, emerging practices in supply chain. Um, and I've also worked with the Supply Chain Risk Leadership Council. Uh I was the uh co-chair of that for a while, and that's an industry group that, as the name would imply, is focused on supply chain risk and advancing the capabilities in terms of managing supply chain risks. Um within all of those, I think the the importance is uh a couple of things. One, you get to work on projects that are are really investigating leading practices, where the industry is going, and and you get an opportunity to you know take your head out of the day-to-day things that you're doing and really think about what is next in supply chain and what that can mean for your organization or your career. The second is it really becomes a really great networking opportunity, especially as you get involved in some of these project teams, because once when you get involved in the project teams, it's not just exchanging business cards at a conference, it's you're working with people to try and identify a solution or identify a trend or or or build something. And you really get to know those people well. Um, I I know people on the the teams that I've worked with, I'm still in communication with, uh talk to them once a month or every other month or so, and and it really builds strong connections. And you know, when when I was uh uh falling victim of the the layoffs last year, that was one of the first places I went to, is I you know calling up those people and saying, you know, hey, this is happening. I'm looking. Do you have any ideas? Do you have any uh thoughts or or connections that you know are looking for someone? Um and that really sort of was a foundation for uh what I was doing with my job search. So so it really is you know those two things. It's the the connections and the depth of connections you can get by getting more involved in those organizations, and then just understanding where where the overall industry is going. And that's been a real driver for a lot of the work I've done, especially around sustainability in supply chain and risk management in supply chain.

SPEAKER_01 9:31

Yep. So uh if I were if I were in what is it, Towson, Maryland? How's that? Uh I just remembered that a name from Maryland. Um if I were there in a community hospital of 200 beds, and I don't think they probably have one anymore. Everyone there is probably part of a uh system. Uh what how would it what organizations would it benefit me uh you know to investigate and become part of?

SPEAKER_02 9:59

Yeah, so um ASCM is and and CSCMP are are good ones in terms of general supply chain. Um there's an organization called uh the Strategic Market Initiative or SMI, um, and they work more specifically in healthcare and that interface between hospitals and providers. That's a great one to to investigate as well.

unknown 10:25

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 10:26

Um Strategic Marketplace Initiative, I've been uh familiar familiar with them for for a long time. And the other point that you make, and and uh you start you started uh earlier, you mentioned networking, and I cringe every time I hear the word networking, because I think networking is a artificial and transactional thing by itself. Becoming involved and making friends so that people so that people know who you are. They don't know you by name, they're not reading your name off a card, they're not somebody, you know, they know you from interaction. I think I I don't think you can that anything can match the importance that you get from that. Plus, you get that you get the advantage of other people and a similar career path as you, their points of view and their experience. Is that fair?

SPEAKER_02 11:18

It it is, yeah. And and and it is, as you mentioned, it's building friendships, building those deeper connections, and and it works both ways, right? I mean, it's uh when you're in a hiring position, that's also the first place you go. You can say, Oh, I remember working with Fred, he's a sharp guy, uh, knows this type of uh supply chain process or technology. I'm gonna reach out and see if he's interested or if he knows people are interested. It's it's a two-way street on that. And and it is, you're right, it goes beyond the business card exchange.

SPEAKER_01 11:52

Well, yeah, and and and given the nature of um the way hiring decisions are made these days as compared to back in the stone age when I was uh starting out in business, um, you know, a resume is almost meaningless now. Uh you got it, you know, you have algorithms determining uh what components they need and matching up the resume, and there's no human interaction there. Uh there's just if you don't if you don't uh find a way to get beyond the traditional response, you're probably going to be locked in where you are for a long time. Or become frustrated. So uh and the other part that you just said, and I I bring this up in this article I wrote, is you know, make friends, but also be a friend. When someone when someone has a situation and they contact you if they are worthy of your help. And that's the important thing that I point out is you know, some Joe Schmoe that you worked with that that didn't know who you were when you were there, calls up because he or she lost their job and want you to help him. Every time anyone you help, your reputation is on the line too. So you got to be selective, but be a friend to the people that you can help. And it comes back on you tenfold throughout your career, I believe. Um now getting off the pulpit and going to another subject here. Um

Design Thinking For Health Supply Chains

SPEAKER_01 13:19

one of the things that I saw on on the webpage is uh uh designing for a more equitable future for all. There was a um a guy uh named Mr. Valdorama, Carlos Valdorama, is that his name? Who wrote uh uh about three blogs on your on your um website, and and those blogs were interesting to me. And and I wanted uh the um that was one of the topics. The other one was how design thinking improves decision making in public health supply chains. Can you explain what design thinking is and what you mean by that statement?

SPEAKER_02 14:00

Yeah, and and uh Carlos is was is actually the the founder of Design for Life, and uh he he really set a really great vision for the organization. He he understood there was this gap in terms of what was happening in the healthcare supply chains in a lot of low and middle income countries of uh missing that design piece and the and the strategic design piece. And unfortunately, Carlos uh passed away um last fall. Um and it's really been a loss for design for life and and for the community at large. Um and I'm I'm glad to be part of keeping that legacy alive and keeping design for life going forward. Um when when Carlos is talking about design thinking and what that is in supply chain, it really is uh getting outside of the day-to-day tactical uh how much of this box do I put on a palette today, uh, and looking at how the whole supply chain is connected. It's it's very um, some call it systems thinking, design thinking. It's really looking at how how those components are put together and how the material and the orders and the money flow through that network. Um, so it's it's taking a very high-level view at how at your supply chain. And the reason that's important is because it is easy to get very locked into those day-to-day things and looking at process improvement as how do I improve the process on my manufacturing floor or in my warehouse or in my storeroom versus looking at process improvement and supply chain improvement at that end-to-end perspective. And so what we really focus on doing is there are uh sets of tools out there that are um are for helping with that design process. And and we really are trying to make those tools available and accessible to the people who are uh leading supply chains in these low and middle income countries.

SPEAKER_00 16:13

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SPEAKER_01 16:40

Yeah, you know, I would argue that um for most of us in healthcare supply chain uh in our careers, we were I can speak for myself. Um so tangled up in the day-to-day and the transactional, you know, the number one thing in the world is show up on time, uh, don't get yelled at and go home on time. Uh and don't get yelled at historically because of the leverage the doctors had in the in the community, the you know, standalone community hospital model. It was a big deal. Uh we we did not we could not explain to you uh a blue an overall picture of what a supply chain looked like. We just knew we ordered stuff, got stuff, brought it to where it needed to go, and ordered more stuff. And uh, and it's probably been in the last, I don't know, for me in the last 10 years that I've really started to learn uh about you know how supply chains are organized and how they work. Most of us are totally oblivious. And uh and uh and so bringing science to the to the situation is a great thing.

Who Design For Life Serves

SPEAKER_01 17:50

Now design for life, you you sort of you painted this uh area of targeted folks in uh small to medium-sized, under resourced countries trying to build a supply chain. So could could you sort of paint me a typical, if there is such a thing, a typical um target uh group for you to be working with and what you would do for and with them? Sure.

SPEAKER_02 18:19

So in uh most of these countries, the the healthcare system is a national healthcare system, and therefore the the supply chain and the distribution of pharmaceuticals and medical products is uh a government-run uh national system. And so the the people that we work with are the the people who are managing those supply chains. Um and you know, just as you described, they they have the same issue of you know, the the day-to-day takes over your bandwidth. And a lot of those what you would consider design decisions are decisions that were made 10 years ago, 15 years ago, you know, just as you were describing, you know, how many how many of those situations have you been in where you do things because this is how you do them, this is the rule of thumb. You always keep three months of supply of this product on hand or always need 20 of these on the shelf, and nobody asks why, right? Same thing, and and they're also in a uh situation where a lot of times the supply chains have been designed um based on political boundaries. So every region, every district needs their own warehouse, whether that makes process sense or not. Um, and they've also, because of the way um those countries have been supported or those healthcare systems have been supported, there's often different supply chains for different what we would call programs, right? So malaria, HIV, uh family planning, essential medicines, all operating a little bit differently. So what we're working to help those people who are leading the supply chains do is again take that higher level look and say, can we do this more efficiently, more effectively, and reach more people within the resources that we have? And it's really important, especially now, with the uh dissolving of USAID and the cutbacks in US commitments to funding healthcare systems in in low and middle income countries. Um there's also been a recent cutback in uh support from uh the UK uh for the same area. So these are people and systems that are dealing with a significant reduction in budgets. But at the same time, one of the things that uh has been done over the past 10 years or so is really professionalizing supply chain uh for these healthcare systems. Um when I first started, but one of the first few projects I did through USAID, it was very common in these supply chains to have nobody who had a formal supply chain background running the supply chains. Um you'd have uh a pharmacist who was sort of said, okay, now you're running a supply chain. Um that's changed. There are a lot more people who have some level of formal supply chain training. And I think these three things come together there's a great need. You have people who understand the need and understand what can be done in supply chain. And you now have a lot of technologies and tools that not only can address the issues of design and support design, but also are becoming much easier to use because of where technology is going in terms of user interfaces and being able to ingest data. Etc. So those three three things kind of come together as this is a really great time to be supporting these uh countries and supporting their mission in delivering healthcare and helping them deal with reduced resources and saying, how within these reduced resources can we serve as many people, as many clinicians as possible within our system by making our supply chains better designed, more efficient, and more effective.

Real Impacts Of Better Network Design

SPEAKER_01 22:30

So um give us an example of, I guess, a country or a just a small thumbnail sketch of a discrete project you might be working at and where that might be.

SPEAKER_02 22:45

Yeah, so um, I mean, over my career with uh within this area, I've done uh several different projects. Um, some of them are just sort of straight supply chain improvement projects, just looking at how supply chain is done and helping to improve the processes um to more of what we're trying to do now with or what we're doing now with with design for life, which is meeting with the people who are leading those supply chains and saying, let's look at your overall supply chain. Let's identify how you can uh reduce the number of warehouses you're using, how we can make inventory flow more efficiently throughout your supply chain, um, and how you can make better procurement decisions to reduce the risk of inventory um expiring on the shelf with as it goes through the supply chain. And all that to say also meeting the needs of people. And one of the things that um is not always considered when you think about a healthcare supply chain, one that we look at as well is how far do people have to travel to receive the products they need or this care that they need? Um, you know, and and this is starting to become an issue within the US, within rural healthcare. Um, but within a lot of these countries, it is uh a big issue. I I remember you know being at a care facility and hearing the stories of people who were traveling for almost a full day to get to a clinic to find out that the clinic didn't have the medicine they needed or the immunization for their child, and then they have to travel a full day back home with without getting the care they needed or the product they needed. And when you think about that, not just in terms of you missed the opportunity to care for that patient, but you think about what that patient is going to do the next time they need that product. Are they going to spend two days going to that clinic, lose two days of uh of work and uh or caring for their family, or you know, if they're in a subsistence situation doing the work they need to feed their family for a chance that they're they're gonna that those two days are gonna be wasted. So you lose that trust in the system, you lose that potentially that patient coming back the next time. Um, and and so really re look at it from that perspective as well. This isn't just looking at fill rates and stockouts as numbers, but looking at it as a stockout is somebody who may not come back to get the care they need or may not bring their family member in to get the care they need in the future.

SPEAKER_01 25:38

Yeah, you know, when if you sort of look at healthcare globally, once again, you know, from 30,000 feet, but there probably are two major aspects. Number one is clinical capabilities, clinical and medical treatment capabilities, and number two is logistics. It's all uh it it is it is has never been realized uh as to be as important as it is in Vietnam. I guarantee you this side, the logistics side, saved as many or more people than did the clinical expertise side. Because we got people where they needed to be gotten to to be treated immediately. So yeah, that's an

Partners Volunteers And How To Help

SPEAKER_01 26:22

interesting point. Um so I would say this um I know that you that uh as a as a relatively small operation, uh uh incomplete, and uh and the elements you need to provide the services you want to provide, you probably need uh help or resource input from other outside groups. Uh, what kind of help or need uh are you looking for from outside groups? Yeah, I mean that's a great question.

SPEAKER_02 26:49

Uh so we're we're always looking to build partnerships uh to help further our mission. Um, you know, as a not-for-profit, of course, uh we're we're always welcome to receive uh funding to help with the mission. That uh always goes a long way. But we also look for uh technology providers who are who want to see if we can add their technology and their capabilities to the portfolio of solutions that we are we're offering to these countries, um, as well as volunteers, uh, whether it's volunteers who want to help with um designing some of the tools that we're we're putting out in the field, um, or volunteers who are interested in helping us work with the the country partners that we have in terms of you know workshops or um education on on supply chain design. So it's really you know, we welcome company partnerships, we we welcome individual volunteers, and of course, uh always welcome uh funding.

SPEAKER_01 27:55

Uh so that being said, if I were someone who wanted to come and help you, or if I were a company that had probably some of the uh uh schools, uh skill sets or tools that uh that uh you need to do your uh to fulfill your mission, how do I go about contacting your organization? What do I need to do?

SPEAKER_02 28:18

Yeah, uh you can always find me on LinkedIn. Um I'm pretty easy to to sniff out there. Uh we can you can also send an email to uh director at designforlife.org, um, and and that will come to me as well. And uh I you know welcome anyone who is interested in in being part of our mission.

SPEAKER_01 28:37

Great. So, you know, that's pretty much uh all that I had. I know I must have left something out. So, you know, what did I miss that you'd like to uh sort of close out and make a closing point on?

Final Takeaways And Closing

SPEAKER_02 28:51

Yeah, I mean I just would love to emphasize the the power of supply chain design and and what it can do, not just in in our mission, but also with uh you know within regular healthcare systems. You mentioned that that so many healthcare systems people are uh sort of buried in the day-to-day. There really is a lot of value in um looking at the overall network, and especially as health systems are growing larger, there's more opportunity to really find those kind of efficiencies across systems. And you know, the the tools are are great. The the company we partner with, OptiLogic, has uh we we've been really happy with the tools that they have, um, but also those organizations that you can get involved with. Um, again, not just because of the connections, but also because within those connections, you're going to meet people who have gone down this path before and who can tell you, oh yes, when I started off, I thought I was going to go left, and that was the perfect way to go. And I got a hundred feet down that path and realized how wrong I was. So you really want to go right here. Um, and that's that's super valuable as you go through that and and uh look at how you can improve your supply chain.

SPEAKER_01 30:09

Well, thank you, Taylor. Thanks so much for uh for uh the good input today. I think we've discussed uh some topics that we hadn't touched before on the podcast, and uh I appreciate uh the fact that uh you've taken time to talk with us. Uh I'm um very interested in what you're doing. People can go to the Design for Life website. Uh, you've got some interesting uh information on there. You've got access to the uh three podcast article or the three blog articles that I uh referenced earlier. Um it I'm I think you're doing great work and uh I wish you the best. Well, thank you so much for having me.

SPEAKER_02 30:47

I really enjoyed the conversation uh and and glad to uh bring a little bit of a different topic of conversation here.

SPEAKER_01 30:55

Great, great job. Thanks again, Taylor. All right, thank you.

unknown 30:59

Bye.

SPEAKER_00 31:01

Well, that's all for today. Thanks so much for joining us. And don't forget to hit that subscribe button and connect with us online so you'll never miss an episode and can catch up on all the ones we might have missed. Got a topic you're fired up about, or maybe you want to be a guest on the show? Brad would love to hear from you. Just reach out at S C R A N S at S T O N G E.com. See you next time.