It’s that time of year again where pharmaceutical professionals head to the South of France for an informative three days at LogiPharma 2023’s event was as interesting as ever, with a great line-up of speakers covering topics including black (and grey) swans and risk management, data and digital agility, sustainability and visibility.
I’ve put together a few highlights of what we ‘Overheard at LogiPharma 👇
Risk Management
First up we have Frank Binder, VP Global Head of Supply Chain Management at Santen who joined a panel entitled: ‘Mitigating Supply Chain Risk: How can you rethink your network and respond to disruption, uncertainty and the next ‘black swan’?’
Whilst talking about risk management, Frank shared that he believes we need to: Broaden our horizons and put more risks on our radars and assess how to mitigate them. Visibility is key to do this and we need to work with the technology available to do this.
The events of the last few years have highlighted the importance of risk management and effective mitigation planning. Creating a resilient supply chain is crucial and this comes from preparing for black swan events, even if you are not sure what they will be. For example, what would you do if the electricity in your warehouse went off. You don’t know for what reason it has but you need a plan of action if that happens. Using technology available to you will help here as you can simulate risks in your supply chain and have a quick action plan devised as soon as anything happens so your end user is never affected.
Sustainability
Tobias Riedl, Head of Supply Chain New Markets for Dr Reddy’s, joined a panel on ‘Driving Sustainability in Logistics and Distribution: How can you practically implement the right initiatives and partnerships to deliver on your logistics and distribution sustainability goals?’
On the subject of data, or sometimes lack of, Tobias said: Data is the big challenge when it comes to sustainability. Not having data is not an excuse to not improve though. A lot of the things that need improvement are pretty obvious so start there.
This is an interesting way to look at supply chain emissions. Scope 3 regulations are coming in 2024 in the form of the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive and our data shows that most companies don’t know where to start in understanding the data. Tobias’ suggestion that businesses just need to start now and do something is important. Whilst finding the solution to your Scope 3 reporting, you can already be looking at which areas are likely to be the biggest emissions drivers and start to optimise them.
Data management and digital agility
The next panel that I took some interesting insights from was ‘Driving Advanced Data-Derived Insights: How can you best source, manage and analyse 1st, 2nd and 3rd party data across your E2E supply chain to drive previously unimagined insights.’
Roland Straub, Global Head of Digital Supply Chain from Takeda Pharmaceuticals International and our very own Philip Ashton, CEO and Co-Founder at 7bridges had the following to say:
Roland: What is very important is to not have data in 10 different formats from different suppliers.
Philip: Companies need to have the ability to retrieve information in a way that is accessible. Technology is moving this ability along very quickly, making it much more realistic. This means supply chains can be run in an outcome-driven manner and businesses can drive decisions across the entire supply chain.
Data management and digital agility continue to be a challenge for pharmaceutical businesses. Supply chains are complex and lives are at stake if they do not run correctly. Plus, there are usually, as Roland said, 10s of different moving parts that don’t speak the same language when it comes to data. The result of this is an industry that is struggling to optimise and change.
This is where technology comes in again. Solutions such as 7bridges allow businesses to access data and compare it in a manner that is understandable and possible to take insights from. This will allow the supply chains to move from activity based to outcome-driven and for real change to occur.
Visibility
The final ‘Overheard at LogiPharma’ I want to share is from a panel on the final day: “Unlocking the Power of Data: Revolutionising supply chain risk mitigation in pharmaceutical logistics.”
Abdallah El Mosallamy, Snr Manager Global Supply Chain Quality at GSK, said: Changes are happening in the supply chain and data helps us look at how we can mitigate risk. This change has been supported by visibility.
Visibility can sometimes feel like a buzzword for supply chain professionals. Everyone tells you you need it but doesn’t tell you how to achieve end-to-end visibility. Again, data is the answer here, as Abdallah said.
Until you understand the data across your entire supply chain and can make it speak the same language, true visibility will never be possible. When it comes to risk mitigation in particular, using AI to first of all take control of your data and then simulate outcomes will give you a competitive advantage here.
Conclusion
The common theme is clearly data across the sessions; whether this be in terms of Scope 3 emissions and creating more sustainable supply chains, or how businesses can create end to end visibility through data. This correlates with what the respondents from the LogiPharma Playbook shared around data management and digital agility being the biggest challenges when it comes to operational resilience for them.
Interested in how 7bridges can help you harness your data? Download our latest Pharma guide here.