April 30: Capitalizing On Supply Chain Partnerships For Greater Efficiency & Customer Service

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• Debating the best methods to determine what levels of inventory should be in production, order, distribution centers, and the field
• Identifying which factors you need to take into account when setting inventory levels
• Assessing the effectiveness of inventory entitlement, enterprise inventory optimization and other buzz-word, advanced inventory planning strategies; what are the benefits and detriments?
• Identifying software and other services that can support your inventory planning efforts

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• Identifying the strategy to guide and drive the scope and scale of a restructuring
• Consolidating your manufacturing and supply chain footprint to achieve critical mass while building a foundation for ongoing leanbased continuous improvement
• Sharing case studies within the overall program

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• Visibility is key to optimizing inventory – examining case studies that highlight the realized benefits of electronically tracking and reporting of consigned and loaner field inventory
• Inventory tracking within existing Medical Device ERP deployments does not represent reality and results in costly guesswork
• Customer demands often require daily heroics on the part of a Medical Device Sales Rep resulting in inventory moves that will be recorded later
• Discussing the cost and complexity spectrum of Medical Devices requiring different field inventory management approaches
• Leveraging interactive analytics to identify issues and root causes and ultimately drive changes in policy and behavior

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Choose two (30 minutes each)

#1 Restructuring Manufacturing And Supply Chain Operations To
Achieve Critical Mass
Darrell (Andy) Clapper
EVP Operations & Supply Chain Management
Welch Allyn

#2 Electronically Tracking And Reporting Consigned And Loaner
Field Inventory To Achieve Visibility And Optimized Inventory
Howard Weathersby
VP Global Business Development
WebOps

3. On-shoring: Creating a strong business case for doing what is good for the American Economy.
John Arbuckle, VP Sales & Marketing, Javelin Logistics
• IP-How do we protect this with the known and unknown threats present?
• Rising labor rates world wide
• Sustainable supply chains (carbon footprint)
• Unpredictable transportation costs
• Knowing your true cost of manufacturing
• Speed to market: today is the new next day


#4 Improving Import Lead Times in Brazil
• Uncovering the latest challenges in Brazil distribution and how medical device firms are conquering them
• Getting more stable operators and people capable to distribute your product in Brazil while remaining cost effective
• Stabilizing global trade lanes in Brazil
• Identifying which 3PLs and global carriers are leaders in Brazil and can support your supply chain

#5 Strengthening Your China Transportation And Distribution
Strategy For Cost Savings And Efficiencies
• Outlining changes in current market entry models into China to ultimately cut costs
• Stabilizing global trade lanes in China
• Assessing whether you need to modify your postponement strategy to manage China’s recent labeling initiative
• Identifying which potential partners are experts in China and can support your transportation and distribution strategy

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• Evaluating your relationships with your current supply chain partners to determine where a stronger partnership is possible
• Getting buy-in from your partners and incentivizing them effectively
• Ensuring your partners understand that your business growth is also a success for them
• Continually monitoring the status of your supplier and partner relationships to ensure long-term success and growth

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• Identifying the benefits of deploying subject matter experts (SMEs) during the surface engineering implementation process
• Uncovering the challenges that are hindering root cause investigation
• Examining what’s preventing tier 1 manufacturers from solving the problem of internalizing surface engineering processes
• Outlining an effective implementation sequence for internalization of surface engineering processes

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Choose one:

#1 Optimizing Your Contract Manufacturers’ Surface Engineering
Process To Minimize Latent Field Failures And Reduce Time To
Market
Ajay Kumar
VP of Research & Development
Innovadontics

#2 The Changes And Challenges Of The Global Medical Device Manufacturing Outsourcing Market

Mark Guitarini, Senior Technical Consultat, BCS Advisors

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