A case of healthcare supply chain visibility in South Africa

Statistically 8.5% of annual gross domestic (GDP) expenditure in South Africa is on healthcare but the country still experience poor healthcare outcomes. The South African public healthcare system still experience challenges such as escalated healthcare costs, and medicines stock outs. With 25%–30% of the costs emanating from the healthcare supply chain and 80% of the population dependent on the public healthcare system, undoubtedly, this represents a significant potential for more effective management and improvement of the healthcare supply chain with respect to the reduction of cost and medicines access. However, trying to create a balance between reducing healthcare supply chain costs and improving access results in healthcare supply chain complexity. The literature searched appears to suggest that supply chain visibility and demand driven supply chain management approaches can help address such complexities and challenges. Therefore it is the prime intention of this study to explore: (i) what is supply chain visibility (ii) the importance of supply chain visibility in healthcare (ii) how the Vodacom/Mezzanine ware Stock Visibility Solution (SVS) can be used as a tool to facilitate supply chain visibility (iii) how the Stock Visibility Solution can enable demand driven supply chain management.