Consultancy Warehouse and Distribution and Inventory Management

Purpose:  Provide consultancy in assessing the warehouse and distribution and Inventory Management of health commodities in Zanzibar

Provider(s): TBD

Period of Performance: February, March, and April 2021

Place of Performance:   Virtual STTA

1. Background

The Ministry of Health Social Welfare, Gender Elderly and Children (MOHSWGEC) in Zanzibar embarked on the reform process from the beginning of 1990’s and this became fully fledged in the early 2000’s. The Geographical health infrastructure in Zanzibar has been distributed into primary, secondary and tertiary levels of health care services. The distribution allows good access to primary services to 95% of the population living within or less than 5km to the nearest public health facility.

The health supply chain in Zanzibar spans from the Central level (MOHSWGEC, Programs, CMS) to the downstream (Hospitals, PHCU+ and PHCU) over which execution of supply chain activities demands the presence of a well-trained workforce. Central Medical Stores (CMS) is responsible for procurement of commodities in collaboration with the Procurement Unit of the MOHSWGEC. The CMS is also responsible to store and distribute commodities to all public health facilities. Over time there have been efforts to improve inventory management and warehouse infrastructure at CMS, these includes the establishment of the current WIB at Unguja and building of the new warehouse in Pemba including strengthening the cold storage system. Efforts have also included implementation various logistics systems such as the of the Zanzibar Integrated Logistics System (ZILS), TB and Leprosy medicines logistics system, and the Laboratory logistics system.

Based on its role, CMS is a key player in the health supply chain in Zanzibar. CMS delivers medicines, medical supplies and laboratory reagents direct to about 167 health facilities. Orders from health facilities are made electronically to CMS using the eLMIS. CMS uses mSupply as a program to run its business operations.

Whilst a lot has been achieved to date to improve warehouse and distribution, there are still a lot to unveil and provide the relevant recommendations and improvement support to ensure that there is adequate warehousing and distribution and inventory management of health commodities in Zanzibar.

The MOHSWGEC is currently undertaking a holistic review of the health supply chain in Zanzibar in order to identify and address challenges in entire system as part of strategies to improve management of health commodities and ensuring 100% stock availability of essential medicines in all health facilities in the country. The scope of the review includes assessing and providing recommendation on the warehousing practices and infrastructure at both central (CMS) and health facilities. It also includes assessing the current health commodities distribution process and recommend the needed improvements for gaining efficiencies. In building up recommendations for warehouse and distribution improvement in addition to the assessment observations there will be a need to incorporate findings and recommendations from other modules like, human resource, procurement and financing and costing.

Objectives

The objectives of this STTA are to;

• To assess warehouse conditions, operations and practices at both CMS and health facilities
• To assess the health commodities distribution process and routes
• To assess the current warehouse storage capacity, identify gaps and determine investments needed over next five years (2025)
• To assess inventory policies at all levels of the health supply chain in Zanzibar
• To recommend ways to make warehousing and distribution of health commodities in Zanzibar efficient
• To recommend on the requirements of good warehouse management practices that need to be reflected in the electronic warehouse management and business handling system at CMS
• Recommend of measures for efficient record keeping, ordering and reporting of health commodities
• Recommend on optimum inventory control policies at all levels

2. Activities 

• Conduct virtual meeting with team members of the warehouse and distribution and inventory management modules to understand the scope of work and the laid plans of activities under modules
• Conduct desk review of reports on previous work on warehouse and distribution in Zanzibar that will have inputs to this scope
• Develop/Review tools for the assessment focusing on but not limited to the following key aspects;

A: Warehouse management and distribution

1. Utilization of current warehouse space at CMS and other warehouses where health commodities are stored in relation to current health commodities inventory policies and their pipeline.
2. Warehouse SOPs
3. Warehouse equipment
4. Distribution between CMS and Zonal warehouses
5. CMS operations (receiving, put away, order processing, dispatch, warehouses management and fleet management)
6. Fleet capacity
7. Fleet management
8. Barcode functionality at CMS.
9. Routes of distribution of health commodities
10. Storage space and condition at facility level
11. Electronic warehouse management and business handling system at CMS
12. Human Resource capacity at CMS
13. Determine future storage requirements on people, process and tool for the next five years

 B: Inventory Management

1. Inventory policies for all systems at all levels
2. Actual implementation of the inventory policies at all levels
3. Types of Logistics data collected and reported in each logistics system
4. Logistics systems in operation for various commodities Suppliers of health commodities to health facilities
5. Coordination and traceability of suppliers of health commodities to health facilities
6. Review periods (Procurement process & Facility)
7. lead time (Procurement and distribution to health facilities)
8. Tools used for ordering at all levels
9. Distribution schedules
10. Distribution of commodities for campaigns
11. Availability and use of SOPs at CMS and other levels
12. Availability of health commodities
13. Health supply chain key performance indicators used in inventory management

• Conduct a virtual training to the modular teams (Warehouse and distribution and Inventory management) and other selected staff on how to use the assessment tools
• Monitor and provide a remote support to the modular teams who will be conducting the assessment
• Receive and review the data collected by the modular teams and communicate with the team as needed
• Conduct analysis of the data gathered
• Review and or suggest warehouse performance indicators
• Write a technical report highlighting the key observations and recommendations on;

A: Warehouse and distribution

1. New warehouses sizes, location and any modifications on the existing warehouse sizes in relation to; Anticipated product packaging change from bottles ,Any anticipated increase in funding availability ((Input provided by Cost and Financing Module), Anticipated establishment of new facilities
2. Warehouse SOPs
3. Warehouse equipment demand
4. Vehicles demand
5. Fleet management
6. Optimization of distribution networks
7. Optimization of the cost of handling of health commodities at CMS (Utilities and, human resource)
8. Warehouse performance framework.

B: Inventory Management

1. Revised stock control policies and ordering or procurement approaches of health commodities from various sources throughout logistics network
2. Revised logistics data capturing and reporting tools
3. How data increased visibility at all levels can be achieved
4. The need for integration of health commodities in one logistics system
5. Present the observations and findings to the ZHSCR taskforce
6. Submit final technical report incorporating comments and feedback from the ZHSCR taskforce

4. Deliverables with timelines

• Assessment tools
• Technical report outlining activities accomplished, findings and the required recommendations

5. Proposal Submission and Timelines

• All submission have to be sent to ghsc.recruitmenttz@gmail.com. Please indicate in subject line “Warehouse and Distribution and Inventory Management Module”
• Bid submission have to be submitted by February 22, 2021 17:00 EAT.
• All cost proposals should be broken down by daily rate
• The work is expected to start once the contract is signed by the contractor.
• We expect work to commence in February 2021.
• All proposals should be priced/quoted according to days and deliverables.
• All proposals should include references and contacts of institutions for which the bidder performed a similar work.
• Examples of past work are required and should be shown when needed.
• Duration of activity is from February to April 2021