UPS Survey

Time to Act on Untapped Opportunites in Healthcare Industry - Seite 2

 "Companies that embrace new technologies and transformative supply chain strategies to mitigate risks will be more likely to capitalize on new growth opportunities in the healthcare marketplace of tomorrow," said John Menna, UPS vice president, global healthcare strategy.

Successful strategies for risk mitigation and increasing competitiveness

Of those companies that are successful in mitigating risk and increasing competitiveness, the majority are leveraging partnerships along with ongoing technology investments. Of logistics decision makers surveyed worldwide:

• 78 percent cite logistics and distribution partnerships as a top strategy to manage supply chain costs
• 65 percent use logistics and distribution partnerships to successfully access global markets
• 61 percent use collaboration, including vested logistics and distribution partnerships, to successfully embrace new distribution and go-to-market channels, while 23 percent use mergers and acquisitions to do so
• 59 percent are working with a 3PL as a top strategy to increase efficiencies and improve competitiveness

Again this year, investing in new technologies is a top strategy to increase efficiencies and competitiveness for the next five years. Globally, over the next three to five years, 80 percent of respondents say they will invest in new technologies.

Untapped opportunities in the healthcare supply chain

Despite progress in addressing industry challenges, opportunities remain. One of these areas is in leveraging new distribution channels and models to meet changing customer demands as e-commerce, urbanization and home healthcare grow. Over the past two years, 70 percent or more of those surveyed both years have indicated that they plan to increase their usage of new distribution channels, yet over this same time period their channel mix remains nearly identical. This demonstrates that while the intention to take advantage of untapped opportunities is apparent, actual change is slow. Among the reasons for the slow shift, 68 percent say they are still building their direct channel strategies.