Mobile devices to improve medicine SCM in Africa
Delivering medicines and health supplies in sub-Saharan Africa is not an easy job owing to the lack of timely information about quantities of product flowing through the supply chain. This, in turn, limits product availability, impedes the introduction of new products and innovation in delivery channels, and stymies efforts to understand trends in disease patterns, product preferences, and treatment-seeking behavior.
Zaragoza Logistics Center, a research institute dedicated to logistics and supply chain management in Spain, recently published the overview of an ongoing research about the use of mobile devices to improve medicine SCM in Africa.
This overview is based on a study by UNICEF made last year on the use of basic mobile phones by existing field monitor personnel, to report product flows and status, and to send urgent stock-out alerts back to the capital. Each time a distribution center was visited, the field monitor sent a one-line SMS (short message service) text message that included the current stock balance, the quantity of PlumpyNut received, the quantity distributed, and the number of new beneficiaries during the current two-week reporting period.
However, the study found a number of shortcomings the most prominent being the one that only half of the distribution centers had cell phone coverage. This led to delays of about one day in reporting. In addition, sometimes the distribution centers were inaccessible. Added to these were data errors and overly complex data entry requirements.
To overcome these shortcomings and improve the supply chain management in Africa, improvement of infrastructure and training of members were identified as key elements by the research team.
Subscribe to the comments for this post