Page 50 - Case Study Annual 2015

LAA 2015 Silver

Supply Chain Management Systems /
Resolve Capacity

Warehouse-in-a-Box

In recent years, a great deal of investment has been committed to strengthening
health systems in low and middle income countries. Among these systems are the
supply chains that are essential to delivering quality health commodities to clients,

patients and the providers who serve them.

An enormous increase has taken place in the which to address the country’s lack of supply chain
volume of commodities flowing through the infrastructure, limited storage space and lack of quality
public health sector in the past decade but storage facilities.
available storage space, and the quality of
that space, has been a major constraint in managing USAID, through implementing partner Supply Chain
the vastly increased volume and types of commodities Management Systems (SCMS) proposed to the GOT
entering countries to serve HIV/AIDS, TB, malaria and an unprecedented project to install pre-fabricated
immunisation programmes. warehousing units, Warehouses in a Box, in three initial
locations in Tanzania.
Pharmaceutical warehouses and stores are largely
invisible to patients and to most providers. But they SCMS was established to enable the scale-up of HIV/
are essential to ensuring that health commodities AIDS prevention, care and treatment programmes in
are available and maintained in good quality. Poorly the developing world. SCMS procures and distributes
constructed, maintained or managed storage facilities essential medicines and health supplies, works to
put products at risk of damage, diversion or expiry, and strengthen existing supply chains in the field, and
that puts health programmes and patient outcomes in facilitates collaboration and the exchange of information
jeopardy. among key donors and other service providers. SCMS is
an international team of 16 organisations funded by the
Healthcare delivery challenges in Tanzania were US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR)
being exacerbated by a chronic lack of supply chain of which Imperial Health Sciences (another Imperial
infrastructure, limited storage space and lack of quality company) is a member.
storage facilities. Most premises were very old with clear
signs of wear and tear and rough surfaced floors that Warehouse-in-a-Box concept born
made it impossible for materials handling equipment to
move efficiently and effectively. Low warehouse heights Warehouse-in-a-Box provides for the rapid installation
limited storage capacity, with some buildings being as and commissioning of a pharmaceutical compliant
low as 3,6 m, while poor lighting within the warehouses
was a further challenge. These issues were impacting on
the Government’s ability to provide health commodities
and services to patients.

A major constraint for all levels is the lack of well-
conceived design criteria for storage facilities that cater
to the specific requirements of good pharmaceutical
storage practices, maximise usable space and enable
efficient business processes.

How to solve the problem?

Resolve Capacity suggested the innovative ‘Warehouse-
in-a-Box’ concept in response to discussions between
the Government of Tanzania (GOT) and the US Agency
for International Development (USAID) on ways in

48 the logistics news case study annual 2015