Owens & Minor offers 3PL

Edition: July 2010 - Vol 18 Number 07
Article#: 3495
Author: Repertoire

Following several years at the drawing table, Owens & Minor believes it has come up with a winning, sustainable formula for offering third-party-logistics services to distributed and direct-selling manufacturers. Called OM HealthCare Logistics, the service began shipping product in 2009.

At one time, Richmond, Va.-based Owens & Minor had planned to offer warehousing and shipping services for direct-selling manufacturers out of the distributor’s existing distribution centers. At that time, the plan was to consolidate distributed items and direct-ship items, and deliver them in one shipment to IDN customers. OM HealthCare Logistics differs in that it ships out of a dedicated, 200,000-square-foot facility in Louisville, Ky.

“We realized that to do this right, we really needed to separate [third-party logistics] from our distribution business [and] set up our own facility … in order to better meet the needs of manufacturers,” says Charlie Colpo, executive vice president and chief operating officer.

Two years ago, the company brought in Denise Odenkirk, former vice president of operations and information services for Bracco Diagnostics, to head up the third-party-logistics offering. “Denise was literally offered a clean sheet of paper to design what we felt was the ultimate in third-party-logistics healthcare companies, and to not be tied to any preconceived notions of how we should act,” says Colpo. Odenkirk is vice president of OM HealthCare Logistics.

Manufacturers’ call

“Our 3PL business salutes the unique needs of our manufacturer customers,” says Colpo. Owens & Minor will accommodate all agreements that manufacturers have with their IDN customers, including shipping product directly to the IDN, to an Owens & Minor distribution center or to another distributor. And the service will be transparent to the IDN customer; packing slips will reflect the name of the manufacturer, not that of Owens & Minor.

The OM HealthCare Logistics business unit offers a variety of services in addition to warehousing, including customer service, accounts receivable, chargeback reconciliation, cold chain management, reverse logistics, repackaging, sample management and kitting. The facility is ISO 13485- and ISO 9001-certified, and is working toward being fully compliant on a number of critical fronts, according to the company. They include state pharmacy licenses, U.S. Food and Drug Administration Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (for repacking and relabeling of pharmaceuticals), Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT), National Association of Boards of Pharmacy Verified-Accredited Wholesale Distributors, and the TSA Certified Cargo Screening Program through the Department of Homeland Security Transportation Security Administration (to be effective July 1).

The company has drawn on a number of software solutions to ensure its logistics service meets the unique needs of its customers, says Colpo. Systems vendors include RedPrairie (warehouse management systems), JDA Software (transportation management systems), and CDC Software, (provider of demand management, order management, and warehouse and transportation management systems), hosted with Dell Perot Systems.

“Our service effectively leverages newly available technology, industry expertise and our own knowledge of the healthcare industry to help manufacturers streamline operations, improve efficiency, and optimize costs,” according to Owens & Minor President and CEO Craig Smith.