'SCM Agendaen' on logistics in the healthcare and public sector

In the public sector, significant amounts of money are spent, and there remains considerable untapped potential for optimisation. ‘A logistics project with a large public client is definitely attractive. If we take hospitals as an example, they are large organisations. A hospital like the one in Aarhus spans an area comparable to the town of Ribe. So, we’re talking about large areas that need to be supplied with a wide variety of goods every single day. In that sense, the internal logistics tasks at hospitals are highly complex’, says Managing Consultant Peter Lamp Sørensen of Langebæk A/S.

Podcast hosts Tina Højrup Kjær and Jan Stentoft have invited Peter Lamp Sørensen to SDU in Kolding to discuss how efficient logistics solutions can be developed for the public sector. The podcast explores how logistics in hospitals and municipalities can be optimised – for example, in the area of transport. The green agenda is a major focus right now. Several new hospitals are under construction, and workflows are being challenged due to reduced space for goods in the processes carried out at each hospital.

‘The task is to ensure that effective logistics is integrated into hospital operations. There’s a major national challenge – not just for Langebæk, but for everyone involved in logistics for Danish hospitals’, says Peter Lamp Sørensen. There are also many exciting projects in the municipal sector.

‘At the moment, we’re working with a municipality on optimising green transport to all its institutions. If you take Copenhagen Municipality as an example, there are more than 1,000 institutions that need deliveries every day’, says Peter Lamp Sørensen. There’s huge potential in analysing how goods are transported from suppliers – for instance, whether one or more hubs should be established on the outskirts of the city, from where goods can be transported further into the city centre, and what type of transport should be used.

Key Logistics Parameters in Solution Design

‘It’s the classic balance of cost, time, and quality – but the main parameters are operational reliability and efficiency’, says Peter Lamp Sørensen. However, sustainability is also gaining significant ground. In the public system, operational reliability is extremely important.

‘That’s why our solutions are based on best practice’, says Peter Lamp Sørensen. Efficiency is often what initiates these projects – either because existing resources can’t meet the demands of the task, or due to top-down requirements to reduce budgets for handling goods.

A Fact-Based Approach

‘We’re strong when it comes to delving into a customer’s data to understand how the organisation is structured, with a focus on logistics. It’s particularly our fact-based approach that empowers us when looking at operational processes. And again, we continuously monitor the market for new opportunities to improve workflows using new technology’, says Peter Lamp Sørensen.

Participants:

• Managing Consultant Peter Lamp Sørensen, Langebæk A/S

• Hosts: Podcast editors Professor Jan Stentoft, SDU Kolding, and Communications Consultant Tina Højrup Kjær, SDU Kolding