Roswell Park’s approach to complex cancers and integrated care draws thousands of people for treatment each year. The company’s reputation for cutting edge clinical trials and improving survival rates offers hope to exhausted patients and families. When you’re treating 46,000 patients annually, your enterprise and supply chain should just work. No headaches. No surprises. And no spending money where it doesn’t need to go.
The tools to procure vital supplies
Roswell Park recognized that an outdated, inefficient ERP system was hindering its ability to operate efficiently and cost-effectively. They sought a solution that would provide real-time insights into material purchases and inventory. “Our resource management processes were limited by inefficient, paper-based systems,” says Ashleigh Gross, Executive Director, Supply Chain at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center. “We knew we needed better insights into day-to-day operations and improved ability to confirm data accuracy. The lack of transparency made it hard to identify the best vendor for each need.”
Following an open bidding process to identify a new resource-management tool, Roswell Park deployed Workday Supply Chain Management (SCM) as part of their Workday Enterprise Management Cloud. This gives Roswell Park the ability to manage strategic resources and processes across Finance, HR, and Supply Chain with one unified solution.
We needed complete visibility into our daily PPE utilization and how many days of inventory we had on hand, so we could plan better and have an easier way to fulfill our reporting requirements.
Executive Director, Supply Chain
A clear view of availability
Gross and her team have developed multiple purchasing and inventory management dashboards in Workday to increase insights and operational agility. “Initially, we wanted to monitor the stability of our go-live and see where transactions may be getting ‘stuck’ in the system,” she says. “With the continued development of our dashboards, we streamlined our procurement, requisition, and fulfillment processes. The benefit of this is real-time monitoring, increased transparency, and more efficient transactions to efficiently order and move supplies in support of patient care.”
Gross explains, “It was important to us to have complete visibility into how we use our medical supplies and how many days of inventory we have on hand. We know which products to use first, what substitutions are in place, and whether we need to tap additional sources.”
Less manual work - 900 fewer daily requisitions
Roswell Park has eliminated all manual paper-based requisitions and moved them into Workday with automated controls and approvals that can be converted into a purchase order. By using controls based on organizational policy, available inventory, and other conditions, Roswell Park expedites the requisition process to prevent delays and ensure compliance.
“We went from processing over 1,000 manual requisitions a day to fewer than 100,” Gross adds. So rather than getting bogged down in daily orders, buyers can now focus on value-added work, such as evaluating contract opportunities to minimize overhead and expenses.
Mobile access to critical information
Now that Roswell Park uses Workday, hospital staff manage receiving and inventory with rugged handheld devices. This lets them execute PAR counts, pick items, and print goods delivery labels, which has improved transparency in tracking and receiving.
“Mobile functionality was another huge priority for us in selecting our new ERP tool,” says Gross. “Before, we had a very intensive, paper-based catch-up process. Team members love how much easier and faster the new process is. There’s less paper, less end-of-day entry, and more accurate picking on the front end, so the right supplies can make it to the right people on time.”
Roswell Park has added a second loading dock to increase the volume of inventory they can receive each day. “We ship at least 20 percent of our daily order volume on the new dock. Departments get what they need faster with greater accuracy and less time spent moving inventory around. We can track and manage it on mobile devices. And efficiency on the front end means our caregivers can spend more time on other tasks.”
Gross concluded, “Effective resource management helps us serve our patients better. And we make sure we are on top of the new features on the platform so we can continue the transformation.”