Arizona Veterinary Dental Specialists is a specialty practice comprised of three locations throughout the Phoenix-metro area of Arizona. The practice is devoted exclusively to the oral health care of domestic and exotic animals.
Arizona Veterinary Dental Specialists addresses the dental needs of animals throughout Arizona, from dogs and cats to exotic zoo animals such as lions, tigers and bears. The clinic offers the latest advances in veterinary dental medicine and surgery. Services include periodontal evaluation and treatment, endodontic therapy, occlusal evaluation, orthodontics and oral surgery. This specialization and the cutting-edge nature of the procedures performed require that many different supplies and medications are on-hand at any given time.
Business Challenge:
Manual Supply Management = Higher Supply Cost
With three busy offices to manage, the staff at Arizona Veterinary Dental Specialists had limited time to dedicate to the ordering of veterinary supplies and medications. They faced the challenge of ordering the appropriate amounts of multiple types of supplies to avoid running out of key supplies versus over-ordering. With no technology tools to help manage their inventory, the rising cost of supplies and medications at all locations attracted the attention of management. They began spending valuable time supervising the daily processing of veterinary supplies and medications. As supplies were the second largest expense after labor, it became imperative to find a way to dramatically reduce these costs.
Solution:
The Cubex System
Given the challenge of managing supply and pharmacy inventory across three locations, the team at Arizona Veterinary Dental Specialists realized the need to look for a partner with supply management expertise who could offer a simple solution for automating this process. After being introduced to Cubex, Arizona Veterinary Dental Specialists determined that this was the answer to help them gain better control over rising supply costs. Cubex offered both the technology and supply management expertise to help them gain control over their inventory.
With Cubex, Arizona Veterinary Dental Specialists would be able to eliminate the manual processes associated with ordering supplies and provide management with real-time data across all three
locations. The first step involved taking a complete inventory of all veterinary supplies and pharmacy items. Once the obsolete inventory was either returned to suppliers or discarded, the remaining inventory was placed into the Cubex cabinets. In addition, controls were established that allowed only authorized users access to valuable supplies, such as medications.
Results:
Improved Clinic Efficiency and Reduction in Supply Costs
Minimum and maximum inventory amounts were established for each item to ensure that supplies were only ordered when needed and that adequate amounts would always be available. The Cubex system now manages all critical veterinary supplies and medications. When supplies reach their minimum levels, orders are batched on preset days and automatically sent via the Internet to suppliers for replenishment. The Cubex automated inventory management process has enabled a 30 percent reduction in on-hand inventory. The practice has reduced the time associated with the inventory management process by approximately 75 percent resulting in more time for staff to focus on patient care.
Cubex provides Arizona Veterinary Dental Specialists with web-based reporting that allows the supply coordinator responsible for inventory management at all three locations the ability to manage the process from one central location. The data has allowed Arizona Veterinary Dental Specialists to ensure higher accountability with staff members, reduce their inventory as a result of product consolidation and significantly decrease the staff time associated with supply management.