Optimizing Lead Times for Superior Customer Satisfaction Globally

Flow works with BD to shorten lead times for deliveries worldwide.

With 70,000 people worldwide, BD (Becton Dickinson and Company) is a sizable, New Jersey-based medical technology corporation. The organization's declared objective is to advance medical research, diagnosis, and treatment delivery.

Almost every nation is home to the firm, which collaborates with international groups to tackle some of the most difficult global health problems.

The BD Biosciences business unit produces and distributes products for use in clinical and research settings globally. Product lead time is critical in the life sciences sector and influences consumers' purchasing decisions. In order to minimize customer delivery lead times and maximize global inventory, BD Biosciences set out to streamline its global supply and distribution network.

For assistance in cutting lead times, BD Biosciences turned to 4Flow, a Berlin, Germany-based supplier of software, fourth-party logistics (4PL) services, and supply chain consulting. A worldwide team from 4Flow and BD Biosciences worked on the project, which covered the company's distribution network across the Americas, Europe, and Asia-Pacific.

Distributing clinical and research reagents over a global network is extremely difficult due to their 30,000+ SKUs and unpredictable, long-tail demand patterns. Leveraging economies of scale that are often utilized in other industries is prevented by batch consistency, temperature needs, and shelf-life requirements that are specific to customers and products.

First, 4Flow provided network design support to BD Biosciences. The best network configuration was assessed during this project phase while taking lead time, inventory, and cost trade-offs into account. Using 4Flow's network simulation tools, the centralized production footprint and global distribution of BD Biosciences, featuring a multi-phase distribution warehouse structure, were simulated to ascertain the ideal configuration for product flow, frequency, and inventory level.

The research team discovered that improving regional product availability at no additional cost could be achieved by doubling the frequency of global replenishments into the regional DCs through the use of various allocation scenarios and adjustments to the transportation service level.

A quick turnaround time for client order processing is another lever for reduced lead time, in addition to the immediate availability of commodities at regional DCs. 4flow and BD Biosciences came up with a number of strategies to improve operational excellence.

These levers included, for instance, enhanced cut-off periods, streamlined systematic order processing, and a shift in the modalities of conveyance. Processes, systems and the organization were impacted by these actions, which BD Biosciences put into place in less than a year. Lead times decreased by 30% to 50% as a result in the major U.S. and European markets. Lead times in international markets dropped by as much as 60%. Additionally, BD became more flexible to give priority to sporadic and urgent client needs. It was able to reduce its safety stock while increasing the availability of supply globally. Moreover, same- and next-day delivery were made possible by the enhanced efficiency. In general, the enhanced quality of service aided BD Biosciences in setting itself apart from rivals and growing its market share within the reagent industry.

"The most important aspect of working with 4flow was their comprehensive data insights, which guaranteed the accuracy of the information," explains Erin Templeton, senior program manager for business process excellence at BD Biosciences. "With the help of these insights, we were able to set reasonable goals for each stage of the project."