A Review of the Supply Chain Peculiarities for Medical Products

摘要

Supply chains for medical devices are growing in importance as device manufacturers outsource products and services. This is the case of orthopedic devices where independent companies are responsible for the marketing and distribution of devices that are needed at the operating room. For these companies it is indispensable to make realtime decisions to provide with the right product in the right place, at the right time and in the right quantity in order to receive the best outcome from the hospital, patient and doctor. With these motivations, this research makes a review of the supply chain peculiarities for medical devices. Based on existing literature, this paper discusses important factors to be considered in the medical device supply, which include descriptions of the process and guidelines/factors that must be considered. As examples, two special cases are discussed. First, the distribution of organs is depicted as a very challenging supply chain. Second, high demand products as orthopedic devices are discussed with peculiarities of the supply chains.