Inventory Management for Veterinary Professionals

"Preface xv Acknowledgments xvii About the Companion Website xix 1 Introduction to Inventory Management 1 1.1 What No One Told You During Your ""Training"" as an Inventory Manager 3 1.2 Inventory Can Be Hard But It Matters. Here's Why 4 1.3 What is the Impact of Inventory Management on Our Practice? 4 1.4 When Do People Look to Reassess their Inventory System? 7 1.5 Inventory Goals 8 1.6 The Three Mindsets for Inventory Management 10 1.6.1 Mindset Exercise 11 1.7 The Role of an Inventory Manager 12 1.8 Qualities of an Inventory Manager 16 1.9 Creating an Inventory Team 18 1.10 Getting Your Team on Board 19 1.10.1 Co-creating an Inventory Improvement Plan 23 1.11 Best Practice Recap 23 2 Your Inventory Ecosystem and the Flow of Inventory Through your Practice 25 2.1 Your Inventory (and Practice) is an Ecosystem 27 2.2 Introduction to the Flow of Inventory in Your Practice 30 2.3 Communicating with Your Team 33 2.4 Inventory Manager Spotlight 34 3 Introduction to Demand Forecasting and Reorder Points, the Foundation of Our Ecosystem 35 3.1 Author's Note/Story 35 3.2 Introduction to Demand Forecasting 36 3.3 Demand Forecasting and Purchase Planning 37 3.4 Determining When an Item Needs to be Ordered 38 3.5 Utilizing Your Sales and Usage to Forecast Demand 39 3.6 Methods for Calculating Reorder Points 40 3.7 Reorder Point Exceptions 51 3.8 You've Calculated Your Order Points ... Now What? 53 3.9 Calculating Reorder Quantity – How Much to Order? 63 3.10 Calculating the Minimum and Maximum Level 66 3.11 Calculating the Economic Order Quantity 69 3.12 Putting It all Together 70 3.13 A Quick Story from the Author 73 4 Efficient Ordering and Replenishment 75 4.1 The Ordering Process 75 4.2 Replenishment Techniques 76 4.3 Creating an Order Schedule 77 4.4 Ordering Workflow 78 4.5 Strategies for Navigating Backorders 81 4.6 Utilizing Purchase Orders in Your Practice Management System 84 4.7 Special Purchasing Considerations 84 4.8 It's More than Just the Cost of an Item 89 4.9 Choosing and Evaluating Vendors 91 4.10 Creating and Using a Budget 92 5 Receiving and Restocking Your Inventory 99 5.1 Author Note 99 5.2 Receiving Inventory 100 5.3 Guidelines for Receiving and Restocking 100 5.4 Setting up Your Software to Optimize this Process 106 5.6 Invoice and Statement Processing 108 5.7 Putting It into Practice 110 6 Organizing, Storing, and Protecting Your Inventory 111 6.1 Author's Note 111 6.2 Why a Tidy Inventory and Pharmacy Matters 111 6.3 Organizing Your Pharmacy 113 6.4 Creating a Central Storage or Hospital Supplies Storage Area 114 6.5 (Re)Organizing Areas of Your Practice 115 6.6 Integrating Physical Reorder Points and Inventory Organization 117 6.7 Protecting Your Inventory Investment 124 6.8 Strategies for Safeguarding Your Inventory 128 7 Strategic Pricing for Your Inventory 131 7.1 How Your Practice's Values and Pricing Intersect 131 7.2 Introduction to Pricing Your Inventory 132 7.3 Prescription and Dispensing Fees 134 7.4 Pricing Models 136 7.5 Pricing Formula Overview 142 7.6 Pricing Concept: Flat Fee or ""Weight Bucket"" Injections 147 7.7 Profit Goals 147 7.8 Pricing with Your Practice Management System 148 7.9 Increasing Prices as Your Costs Increase 149 7.10 Putting It into Practice 150 8 Selling and Consuming Your Inventory Appropriately 155 8.1 Why Selling Your Inventory Appropriately and Accurately Matters 155 8.2 Impact of Missed Charges 155 8.3 Leveraging Your Practice Management System 156 8.4 Auditing Medical Records 159 8.5 Using Barcodes in Your Inventory 161 8.6 Inventory Dispensing Cabinets 162 8.7 Using an Online Pharmacy 164 8.8 Tips for Keeping Your Practice Management System Accurate 164 8.9 Putting It all Together 166 9 Optimizing Your Inventory 169 9.1 What Does It Mean to Optimize Your Inventory? 169 9.2 Evaluating Your Products and Items 169 9.3 Adding New Products 175 9.4 Cycle Counting Your Inventory 176 9.5 Creating a Routine with Your Cycle Counts 182 9.6 Monitoring and Interpreting Discrepancies 183 9.7 End-of-year Counts 185 9.8 Prioritizing Your Inventory and Using an ABC Analysis 187 10 Why the Wheels Come off the Bus and How to Fix It 189 10.1 What is an ""Out-of-control"" Inventory? 189 10.2 Is ""Fixing"" Your Inventory Worth It? 190 10.3 Fixing Your Inventory 191 10.4 A Surefire Way to Keep Your Important Items in Stock 195 10.5 Why the Wheels Come off the Bus 197 11 You're Brand New… Now What? How to Set Up Your Inventory 201 11.1 You're a Brand New Inventory Manager ... Now What? 201 11.2 Author's Note 203 11.3 You're a Veterinarian Starting a Brand New Practice …Now What? 204 11.4 Getting Your Inventory Started Overview 205 11.5 Example: Setting Up Your Inventory Action Plan 208 11.6 You Just Purchased an Existing Practice ... Now What? 210 12 An Introduction to Controlled Substances 213 12.1 Author's Note 213 12.2 What is a Controlled Substance? 214 12.3 Controlled Substances and the Cycle of Inventory in Your Practice 215 12.4 Forecast and Purchase Planning 216 12.5 Ordering and Replenishment 217 12.6 Receive and Organize 218 12.7 Strategic Pricing 220 12.8 Appropriate Inventory Sales and Consumption 220 12.9 Biennial Inventory Requirements 222 12.10 Auditing and Reconciling Your Controlled Substance Logs 222 12.11 Other DEA Regulations 224 12.12 What Next Steps Should You Take? 224 12.13 Author's Note 225 13 Maintaining Your Inventory 227 13.1 Author's Note 227 13.2 How to Maintain your Inventory 227 13.3 Creating Standard Operating Procedures 228 13.4 Introduction to Key Performance Indicators 233 13.5 Inventory Key Performance Indicators: Cost of Goods Sold (as a Percentage of Revenue) 237 13.6 Inventory Key Performance Indicators: Inventory Turnover 241 13.7 Inventory Key Performance Indicators: Value of Inventory On Hand 245 13.8 Inventory Key Performance Indicators: Number of Adjustments or Variances in a Time Period 248 13.9 Putting It All Together 248 Appendices 251 References 265 Index 267"