Changing regulatory environments and new customer demands around the globe are among the reasons healthcare executives are being driven to make strategic supply chain investments, according to UPS’s sixth annual Pain in the (Supply) Chain healthcare survey.
Carried out by TNS, the study showed that challenges around product security and increasingly complex products are the other factors driving such investments.
It revealed that over the next five years, 84 per cent of those surveyed will invest in new technologies, with 78 per cent of them entering new global markets, and 70 per cent implementing new distribution channels.
59 per cent of the global healthcare executives said they will now increase reliance on 3PL partners.
53 per cent of those surveyed listed product security as their main supply chain issue, meaning that it has surpassed cost management for the first time since the survey begun in 2008, to become the second supply chain concern.
But half of these global executives admitted that, despite investment plans, they are still feeling the backlash of the economic downturn.
“Globally, we anticipate continued elevation in concern levels over regulatory compliance and product protection as supply chains grow in complexity and length,” said, Robin Hooker, director, global strategy, UPS Healthcare Logistics.
“The good news is that executives are seeing success in addressing these issues through increasingly sophisticated technology solutions, accessing regulatory expertise and forming strategic partnerships with third-party logistics providers.”
