Ordering & Order Errors Archives

As the sun shines brighter and the temperatures rise, Core Programs are faced with the daunting task of navigating through vacations and increase in demand fluctuations. This can make staying on top of your inventory a challenge – but OHRDP is here to help!

Here are some things to consider that may help you stay on top of your inventory to support your communities needs:

Cross Train Staff – Vacations, changing hours and staff turnover are common things that can affect availability and accessibility of supplies. If there aren’t any processes in place to continue smooth operation when the primary person who orders supplies is away, it can increase a risk of supplies disruption and good operations. If you are the key ordering person with vacation coming up, consider having another staff person shadow your tasks, or create a checklist of instructions of how things work at your Core Program.
Forecasting, Monitoring, and Adjusting – Forecasting can be tricky! Especially over the summer when there are changing demands. You’ll want to consider vacations, the increased need fluctuations in your region, the opening/closing of sites, or changing hours that can affect the volumes you need for demand. Your OHRDP Toolkit can help. Throughout the summer, monitor your inventory levels and check-in with your forecasts to make sure your levels are maintained and you can adjust when needed.
Communication – Good communication with colleagues, community partners, and service users can help them expect unexpected fluctuations in demand. This might include learning about staff vacation at a community agency, so making sure they have enough supplies and what the process is if they run out. Or, learning from service users of a new trend in drugs or supply use.

We know that summer can be busier for you. We are here to help you make inventory management easy and consistent. Reach out to Ella or Sadi if you have any ordering questions. Remember to submit all orders to orders@ohrdp.ca and look for an email confirmation to ensure it was received and processed by OHRDP.

Have a great summer!

-Ella-

In 2022, Pauline Nash with her team at core NSP, Pozitive Pathways Community Services in Windsor adopted the bin system (see the January 2023 blog about bin systems). At the recent OHRDP “Let’s Talk Shop” meeting, Pauline shared details about how the bin system is working.

Pauline:

” For some of the sites that order larger quantities of, say, bowl pipe kits – we know on average the site gives out maybe 300 a month. The idea was to have bins that would have that quantity, so two bins that would have 150 kits each. Once one bin goes empty, it’s a trigger for those sites to reorder. Because a lot of sites have other objectives, (their business is something else), it’s difficult for them to manage inventory. We thought it was a wonderful idea and it is working well at some sites – although, there are definitely one or two sites that still struggle a little bit. It’s more of a visual way for sites to help manage their inventory, rather than having to keep track of numbers.”

This image demonstrates how the bin system works at the community agencies that Pozitive Pathways Community Services supports –

We wanted to get a bit more information and followed up with Pauline with some questions:

What challenges were you trying to solve with the bin system AND how well has it worked?

“We were dealing with inconsistent inventory management both at our core site and community agency sites. We needed to ensure the quantities ordered reflected the distribution data reported by the community agencies. The system has been successful because it prevents community agencies from suddenly running out of supplies, and it takes the guess work out of their ordering.”

How did you decide the size of bins for each community agency?

“The size of bin a site receives is determined using each sites average monthly distribution data obtained from Neo360. Sizes are re-assessed every 6 months.”

Do you have any tips on adopting the bin system?

“Focus the bin system for sites that distribute large quantities of kits.
Use a coding system such as coloured labels on bins. For example, green label on bins with bowl pipe kits, blue label on bins with straight stem kits, etc. This allows staff to distinguish which kits are packed into different bins thus making the organizing and delivery processes easier.”

We appreciate Pozitive Pathways, Windsor sharing this system of distributing kits in their communities of Windsor-Essex, and Chatham-Kent. Thank you Pauline and Team!

There are so many unique inventory management systems that core NSPs are using. Sharing what is working in your region may help another program that has been tackling a particular issue. Do you have a system or process that has been working well in your region? Would you be willing to share it in a blog post? Let us know at info@ohrdp.ca.

Blog written by Pauline Nash, and Lucas Rychlo.

Pauline:

This image demonstrates how the bin system works at the community agencies that Pozitive Pathways Community Services supports –

What challenges were you trying to solve with the bin system AND how well has it worked?

How did you decide the size of bins for each community agency?

Do you have any tips on adopting the bin system?

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