WAREHOUSING & INVENTORY MANAGEMENT FOR SUPPLY CHAIN

Workers label, inspect and conduct inventory of Family Health Day supplies at the UNICEF Warehouse located in Mbuya, Kampala. ©UNICEF

Definition: Pharmaceutical warehousing or warehouse management is the physical movement of stock into, through and out of a medical store warehouse.

Warehousing ensures the constant availability and flow of essential quality health commodities, in appropriate quantities, in a timely and cost-efficient manner, through the supply chain system. Key warehousing functions include receiving and storing stock, inventory management, and distribution management.

What is the problem?

In an ideal supply chain, large warehouses storing large volumes of products are unnecessary because products enter and exit the warehouse quickly and efficiently on their way to the service delivery point. The task before all supply chain practitioners is to determine how much storage space is truly necessary if operations are as efficient as possible.

The warehousing domain of the supply chain faces problems created higher up the chain, such as poor quantification leading to incorrect stock procured, mistakes in orders, and insufficient financing. In addition, warehouses are challenged by insufficient human resources, poor physical infrastructure, and a lack of good systems to effectively track products throughout the system. These barriers lead to stock-outs, overstocking, and wastage of health resources. These are major problems in low-income country settings where resources for health are already limited.

Promising Practices

To respond to these challenges, the Supply Chain Technical Resource Team (TRT) has compiled several promising practices that have been used successfully to address the common barriers mentioned above:

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