Oracle Helps Healthcare Organizations Automate Inventory Management with RFID

Oracle today announced a new replenishment solution in Oracle Fusion Cloud Supply Chain & Manufacturing (SCM) to help healthcare customers optimize inventory management. The new RFID for Replenishment solution in Oracle Fusion Cloud Inventory Management, part of Oracle Cloud SCM, utilizes RFID technologies from Avery Dennison, Terso Solutions, and Zebra Technologies to automatically capture usage, update stock balances, track location, and trigger restocking of supplies and materials. RFID for Replenishment helps healthcare organizations increase productivity, expand inventory insights, and prevent delays by helping ensure the right amount of stock is in the right location at the right time.

"To help ensure clinicians have the right supplies for each procedure, inventory managers in healthcare organizations require frequent stock counts that often rely on manual data entry, which can lead to errors, replenishment delays, and item shortages," said Chris Leone, executive vice president of applications development, Oracle. "We're collaborating with leading RFID vendors to deliver an end-to-end solution that will allow healthcare organizations to automate stock replenishment, expand inventory visibility, improve productivity, and enable clinicians to spend less time looking for supplies and more time focusing on patients."

With RFID for Replenishment in Oracle Inventory Management, healthcare organizations can:

• Track medical supplies: Helps organizations track a range of different medical supplies with either RFID-tagging for high-value non-implantable items; RFID-enabled cabinet, refrigerators, and freezers for items with specific climate requirements; or RFID-enabled Periodic Automatic Replenishment (PAR) bins for lower value supplies.
• Automate replenishment: Helps organizations eliminate manual product counts and automate restock by using RFID-enabled tagging, cabinets, and PAR bins to automatically create supply replenishment requests in Oracle Inventory Management.
• Gain real-time inventory visibility: Helps organizations maintain accurate stock counts by triggering a usage update as soon as an item has been removed from an RFID-enabled storage location.
• Reduce human error: Helps organizations reduce errors in lot and serial number reporting and maintain an accurate view of stock levels by fully automating inventory management.

Supporting quotes

"Speed and accuracy will always be intrinsically linked to positive patient outcomes. Our digital identification solutions and RFID inlays have been trusted by the healthcare industry for decades," said Barbara Van Rymenam, senior director, healthcare, Avery Dennison. "Integration into Oracle's broader organization-wide inventory management system means that our joint customers can increase the efficiency of the services they deliver and drive more value for patients."

"The lack of inventory visibility throughout the healthcare supply chain is a growing challenge for all stakeholders," said Joe Pleshek, CEO, Terso Solutions. "With our RFID-powered cabinets, refrigerators, freezers, and read points, and Oracle's inventory management capabilities in one end-to-end solution, we can help healthcare organizations automate processes, improve the speed and accuracy of replenishment, and optimize operations for greater patient outcomes."

"Hospital staff need the right technology to instantly identify, track, and capture the location and status of critical resources in real time," said Brent Brown, vice president, general manager, Advanced Locationing Technology, Zebra Technologies. "Our RFID readers and precise location tracking provides real-time visibility into every item in Oracle Inventory Management. This technology helps our customers work in new ways to expand inventory visibility, streamline the operations of front-line clinicians and deliver better care."

Oracle Cloud SCM helps organizations seamlessly connect supply chain processes and quickly respond to changing demand, supply, and market conditions. With new features added every quarter, Oracle Cloud SCM helps customers create a resilient supply network and processes that outpace change.

For additional information on Oracle Cloud SCM applications, visit oracle.com/scm.