How the Government can improve its Supply Chain moving forwards

Daily Observations 03/04/2020 — Government Supply Chain

The U.K. Government has a laborious Procurement Process that does not allow for centralisation of the Supply Chains on common goods, which could radically drive cost savings, faster delivery times and better decision making through more comprehensive and meaningful data.

This is largely why there is such an issue with PPE and other essential goods within the NHS at present.

The processes utilised are based around outdated technology. The emphasis has been on manual Purchase Order Raising and Manual Data Analysis. These are not efficient ways to do Business.

Additionally, parts of Government do not talk to one another. The use of Crown Commercial Services has created some leverage for key goods and will, over time secure results but the reality is that individual government departments use the CCS Frameworks in isolation. They don’t join forces, they don’t have joint requirements even though they could.

Moving forwards, the NHS needs, at a data level, to be able to talk to other parts of Government, such as the MoD, who utilise similar goods say in PPE for protective clothing and laboratory equipment.

Until government has a centralise software solution and undertake procurement activities in the same fashion across all departments, Government will never fully utilise its buying power or all of the data to make impactful decisions.

Originally published at https://ikaros.uk.com on April 3, 2020.