How do you avoid stock-outs in a healthcare establishment?

Shortages are anticipated with four settings: an alert threshold per reference that accounts for the supplier lead time, recording issues at the moment they happen, cycle counting rather than an annual stocktake, and an alert that fires before the reorder point, not when the shelf is already empty.

Why are fixed thresholds not enough?

Because a threshold must cover the replenishment lead time, which varies from one supplier to another. A reference delivered in two days and one delivered in three weeks cannot share the same rule.

The right threshold is average consumption during the delivery lead time, plus a safety margin. It is recalculated as consumption changes.

Why does delayed entry ruin the arrangement?

Because a theoretical stock figure that is correct at the end of the day is no use at eleven in the morning. If issues are noted in a notebook and keyed in that evening, the alert arrives a day late — often the day too late.

That is the real value of scanning from a phone: it makes entry immediate because it makes it painless. An arrangement that requires walking to another office is not used.

Annual stocktake or cycle counting?

Cycle counting means recounting a few references each week, prioritising the fastest-moving. The discrepancy is corrected while it is still small.

What about expiry dates?

Treat them as stock in their own right. An expired box is a dead loss, and it occupies the space of a usable one.

Two rules are enough: issue the batch with the nearest date first, and raise the alert early enough to use or exchange the stock. An alert the day before expiry is not an alert, it is an observation.

Where should you start?

With the twenty references that cause the most stoppages. Not with a full stocktake: too broad a project never finishes, and the benefit shows up on those twenty.

See our stock management module, or put the question straight to StockNova.