IVC – Saving a dogs life

Background

IVC Evidensia is Europe’s fastest growing veterinary group, with a mission to bring people together to make animal care better.

Challenge

• Unsustainable manual stock count carried out twice a year.
• Excessive central resources required to check & review 1000+ practice locations
• Data recorded in Excel with potential for inaccuracies.
• Lost sales revenue with staff tied up stock counting.
• Out of date central product file with no unique sku numbers.

Solution

A veterinary practice may spend hundreds of hours manually counting the stock in its pharmacy, various cupboards, vehicles, outbuildings, and operating theaters. When multiplied by the number of practices, which exceeds 1000, the potential for improvement becomes apparent. Practices typically blocked out their time for emergencies only so the stock count can be completed. Additionally, managing all the data centrally requires the employment of additional finance resources on a short-term basis.

We worked with the IVC team to review their requirements, including examining the problem in detail, selecting hardware, designing a solution, deploying the software, and providing training and support. By helping IVC select their scanning hardware, we reduced their approved capital budget by £750K.   We ensured the stock take could be carried out offline, eliminating the need for a WiFi connection that could not be guaranteed.

We developed a user interface that incorporated IVC’s customised standard operating procedures. The step-by-step guide enabled us to monitor the rollout process, and we used training videos, downloadable help guides, and detailed instructions to accommodate all learning styles. We enabled practices to link to a central product database, allowing for centralised pricing updates.

Results

Stock-taking time has reduced by over 87.5% on the initial stock count and anticipate over 90% reduction for 2nd and subsequent stock takes. All stock counting data is now contained within a single accessible database.

In summary, this project is anticipated to generate a substantial increase in annual sales revenue, estimated to be between £2.5-£3.0 million, as well as additional cost savings in financial resources. This particular supply chain project is among IVC’s most successful deployments, with an initial rollout to 900 clinics simultaneously. Furthermore, the implementation of a complete stock file across all UK practices has had a life-saving impact. In October 2022, a dog in need of medication that was out of stock was able to be saved thanks to the data collected. IVC located two locations with the product in stock and delivered it in time to prevent tragedy.