How an IMS Helps the Pharmaceutical and Health Industries Manage Inventory

As a pharmaceutical or healthcare company looking to grow, you face unique challenges in managing inventory—such as strict compliance requirements, inventory shrinkage, managing multiple product lines, and unpredictable supply chain issues.

The good news is that an inventory management system (IMS) can help you overcome these challenges and manage your inventory better.

An IMS is a software platform for managing inventory. It lets you track stock, process orders, gather inventory data, and forecast demand. Unlike manual inventory management methods that involve recording stock in Excel spreadsheets and conducting physical stocktakes, an IMS lets you track inventory in real time and automate tasks that would otherwise require lots of human input. 

For example, imagine you run a pharmacy and use an IMS to track medication stock levels in real-time. Using the software, Fishbowl can calculate reorder points so that when the medication reaches a predefined level, the system automatically generates a purchase order to restock the item.

Key features to look for in an IMS, include:

1. Real-time inventory tracking for the stock movement accuracy of medications, medical devices, and supplies.
2. Integration with valuable tools like QuickBooks for data consistency
3. Forecasting and demand planning functionality to maintain optimal inventory levels
4. Regulatory-compliant reporting capabilities you can customize to meet FDA requirements
5. Streamlined order management to minimize order discrepancies
6. Audit and traceability reporting to streamline your reorder process

Whether you’re struggling to manage multiple eCommerce channels, dealing with inventory imbalances, or looking to enhance your decision-making to boost your bottom line, an IMS can help. Here are six ways an IMS improves inventory management.

1. Automatic reordering and demand forecasting to maintain optimal inventory levels 

Fluctuations in demand can occur, so you need to be able to quickly adjust inventory levels according to demand, or risk of being over or understocked.

An IMS allows you to automate the reordering process based on minimum and maximum quantities so you always have the right amount of stock on hand. You can also use inventory forecasting tools to track pharmaceutical and healthcare demand patterns and seasonal fluctuations to help you predict your inventory needs accurately.

In addition, real-time inventory tracking provides up-to-date data on inventory levels to minimize discrepancies between recorded and actual stock and enhance decision-making. 

Decision-making is further improved by access to detailed inventory reports that allow you to analyze stock levels, sales patterns, and turnover rates.

Pro-Tip: Some IMSs are designed for small businesses and single-location operations and may need to be more scalable. If you have multiple locations or plan to expand your operation, rather invest in a system that offers multi-location inventory management to balance stock across several locations. 

2. Custom reporting to ensure FDA regulatory compliance

Managing inventory while adhering to strict regulations and standards can be challenging, as it adds another layer of complexity to inventory control. You’ll need to keep up with changing FDA regulations (and other industry standards), ensure products meet quality standards, and maintain detailed tracking and reporting.

Software, like Fishbowl, provides documentation capabilities that can help you meet regulatory requirements. These include customized reporting, which is vital as different authorities may require that you deliver content in various formats. 

Using the reporting function, you can create and schedule reports and emails, save database copies, and make backups. For example, if you’re a pharmaceutical manufacturer, you can create a batch tracking report to comply with FDA serialization or other compliance requirements for drug traceability and security.

You can even export the report in various formats, such as HTML, CSV, and PDF, or a print hard copy. This will depend on the preference of your FDA agent at the regulatory agency.

3. Robust tracking and workflow management to address pharmaceutical inventory shrinkage and waste

Inventory shrinkage refers to loss due to theft, spoilage, recording errors, and damage. Waste refers to stock used inefficiently during production or distribution, such as excess inventory, expired products, overproduction, and defective products. 

To proactively address shrinkage and waste, the software offers real-time tracking and reporting features to help identify discrepancies and losses.

You can track products by lot and serial number, making it easy to identify and manage products close to or past their expiration date. You can also set up custom alerts for medications. For instance, if you operate a hospital, you can set up an automated alert for expiring medications that get sent to managers, enabling timely disposal or usage before expiration.

On top of this, you can create reports for better waste and shrinkage management. For example, the Part Activity Report allows you to trace all inventory and identify inefficiencies that cause waste and shrinkage.

Finally, the software helps with waste disposal by letting you create custom workflows:

1. Determine the appropriate disposal methods for recalled products that adhere to environmental regulations.
2. Create specific processes that include recall or audit tasks, and assign them in custom workflows where you can manage the retrieval of waste products from the market.
3. Document, assign, and record audit and disposal workflows before reconciling waste to your books. 

Note that Fishbowl integrates with QuickBooks, allowing you to automatically connect the financial impact of waste management to your books.

4. Precision tracking, unit of measure conversion, and reporting to minimize measurement inaccuracies

Measurement inaccuracies occur for a variety of reasons. First, they can occur due to the complexity of products. Different suppliers sell products in various forms, sizes, and units of measure, leading to discrepancies in inventory records and measurements. For example, medications can be sold in different strengths and as liquids or solids. Second, they can occur due to human errors resulting from data input and counting mistakes.

To minimize these inaccuracies, use the software’s precise tracking, scanning, and reporting capabilities. For instance:

• Real-time inventory tracking provides up-to-date inventory counts for automatic and precise monitoring of pharma inventory levels, which minimizes the discrepancies between physical and recorded stock. For example, a pharmacy can accurately track medication quantities in units like tablets or milliliters for accurate dispensing.
• Lot & serial number tracking tracks specific batches or units, ensuring accurate measurement and management of inventory items.
• Barcode scanning helps ensure efficient and accurate data entry for inventory items, reducing human errors in manual counting and recording.
• Accounting integrations with platforms like QuickBooks and Xero provide greater accuracy between inventory management and financial records, reducing measurement discrepancies in financial reporting.
• Unit measurement conversion tools are built into the software, with some platforms able to store item details for more precise measurements. For instance, Fishbowl can receive items from the vendor, record them correctly, and store them in the right location with the correct part attributes that can be traced and tracked, whether it’s lot code, expiry date, etc.

5. Multi-location real-time tracking for efficient storage management

You already have complex inventory needs when dealing with perishables, materials, expiration dates, and strict regulations. This complexity only increases when you have multiple product lines and operate out of more than one location. 

In these instances, you need a solution that goes beyond basic software for managing simple operations and provides robust inventory management, warehouse, and manufacturing capabilities.

The right solution offers advanced inventory tracking, including the location and condition of items, helping you manage storage efficiently and effectively. It lets you track inventory in real-time across multiple pharmacies, hospitals, and distribution centers for up-to-date inventory data, which you can use to identify losses and optimize storage space to prevent over or under-stocking. 

You can also track inventory by lot and serial number to ensure proper storage and use of stock while setting automatic reorder points to maintain optimal stock levels. This ensures that you do not waste storage space by having too much stock, or lose customers by having too little.

6. Sales order management to improve order accuracy

Order discrepancies are common in the health and pharmaceutical industries, where differences between ordered, shipped, and received items can cause inventory imbalances. These discrepancies can occur for various reasons, including shipping errors, damaged goods, or errors in transaction recording.

An IMS tackles this issue by offering:

• Advanced sales order management features tailored to pharmaceutical distribution channels that allow you to create sales orders and keep track of their status throughout the entire sales process. You can view and manage orders at every stage, from initial entry to fulfillment.  
• eCommerce and shipping integrations that streamline order fulfillment and shipping. These plugins facilitate efficient order processing and shipping cost calculations and even help with label printing.

With features like automatic reordering, demand forecasting, custom reporting, multi-location tracking, and sales order management, an IMS is crucial for pharmaceutical and healthcare companies looking to grow. 

Not only does it help you optimize stock levels, maintain regulatory compliance, and reduce waste, but it also minimizes measurement inaccuracies, improves storage management, and improves order accuracy.

Just be sure to work with the right technology partner. Fishbowl is the most flexible and popular IMS for pharmaceutical and healthcare companies that require robust inventory management beyond that provided by basic software for simple operations. 

The software is easy to use, requires minimal resources to purchase and maintain compared to enterprise-level solutions, and has been consistently rated as the top IMS for QuickBooks over the past two decades.

Book a demo to learn how our inventory management software can help your business.