Cord blood banking, a logistics organisation?

Lighthouse Independent Media recently lost one of our designers to a much dreaded illness, leukemia. It started with a minor bout of bleeding gums in September last year but by 18 January 2009, she had left us.

In her painful and heart wrenching fight to recovery, she managed to find a donor match, but the donor "disappeared" before the operation could begin. As a last alternative, the use of cord blood was introduced in her treatment. Which brings to mind, what is cord blood?

Cord blood is the extra human blood left over following childbirth. Cord blood, from the umbilical cord and the placenta, is exceptional because of the abundant blood-forming stem cells that it contains and the advantages it has over other types of stem cells.

Medicine obtained from these stem cells can be used to repair or replace cells that are diseased or damaged. Specifically, stem cells can cure or treat red blood cell diseases, white blood cell diseases, cancers and Tissue (such as heart tissue).

So what is cord blood banking?

I spoke with Victor Tay Kah Soon, director of transport, logistics, environmental & engineering services, biomedical & chemicals at Spring Singapore last month about niche concepts in logistics when the same topic of cord blood came up.

He told me that in Singapore, there are approximately three cord blood banking groups.

After the birth of a baby, these companies help to bank the newborn's umbilical cord and part of this becomes very rich cord blood that can be stored.

"At first glance, these companies look like pharmaceutical companies and [need to be] well trained in clinical aspects to be able to transport the umbilical cord, store it and after 'x' number of years down the road, if the newborn is infected with diseases, they can retrieve the cord blood which is rich blood and be able to extract the cells when the technology becomes more advance," he said.

Upon delivery, these blood cord companies arrange for a delivery person to go down to the hospital, wait for the doctor to cut the umbilical cord, place it in an air-sealed envelope which is brought back to the cord blood company, registered into a system, banked in and never do anything more until needed. The whole process of delivery and storage is frankly that of a logistics company, he said.

Pondering on his views that a cord blood company runs on the basic principles of a logistics company, I decided to call up a local cord blood group, Cordlife to find if they share his views as well.

Jerrel: What kind of services do you provide?

Customer service officer: We are a cord blood company; it is the business of storing the baby's umbilical cord blood after delivery.

Jerrel: So what kind of a company do you consider yourself? A pharmaceutical company?

Customer service officer: I would say it's under healthcare. It not pharmaceutical because this is not a pharmaceutical product, it's more of a health service.

Jerrel: You know, it would seem like a logistics company as well as you have the core functions of one. You send a delivery man to collect the cord blood in the hospital, the delivery man returns and cold storages it in in Cordlife until a need for it arises. As such it functions as a logistics company as well you think?

Customer service officer: It's not really that case, it’s not logistical in that way, I would say.

Jerrel: So what is the process like?

Customer service officer: The doctor collects the umbilical cord blood for the parents and then it is brought back to us for protecting and storage. We liaise with the parents.

Jerrel: How much does it cost to use your services?

Customer service officer: Currently, $1,400 (US$950) for the initial payment and then $250 (US$166) per year for the storage fees.

I have gathered the views from an expert in the logistics sector and also that of a cord blood bank and it seems they share differing view. Is cord blood banking really just a niche logistics company? What do you think?

[Video] DHL introduces First Choice program in AP

India - Frank Sterpin, DHL vice president for strategic planning in Asia Pacific tells ProcurementAsia how the company's First Choice programme will improve the logistics situation in India.

The First Choice programme aims to establish a mode of continuous improvement throughout the group's operations. The programme's focus is on analysing work procedures, identifying problems in processes and systematically developing solutions. It encourages employee initiatives for improvement and incorporates it into the work process.

Watch on to find out more

Thank God for ERP!

On my first ever visit to India, blessed with good fortune; I was able to take a day trip to visit the Taj Mahal – one of the Seven Wonders of the World.

The Taj Mahal is located in Agra and since I was putting up in New Delhi, that meant a gruelling eight hour journey to-and-fro with ample time to observe the traffic conditions of roads in India, which would very much affects the logistics and supply chain of companies operating in India.

It must have been the third or fourth time I had to stop, queue and pay toll fees on the 203 km journey when I started comparing the Indian Toll-fees system to Singapore’s ERP (Electronic Road Pricing). This must be the first time I must say, with a little bit of embarrassment that I actually welcomed the “beep” of passing through an ERP gantry and be off on my journey, without the need to stop, queue and pay. The ERP for me represented a new dimension of efficiency.

As I engaged in more time consuming stopovers to pay toll, the situation turned dire. Instead of being confronted by yet another toll booth, at some stopovers, paying toll was done at a 1.5m x 1m desk in the middle of nowhere and my driver had to literary get down from the car and walk towards these desks.

In this time consuming and rather comical toll paying practice, I cannot help but notice the huge number of trucks and goods vehicles which were queuing up back to back at these “toll-desks” I came across and like my drivers, the drivers of these vehicles had to unbuckle their seat belts, leave their vehicles and crowd around to pay toll at these desks.

In fact, this ritual was proving such a deal, that street performers find it lucrative enough to bring along their monkeys to earn an extra buck (see picture on the left).

Although stopping at toll booths were time consuming, having your driver get out of the car and pay toll at a desk was all very unprofessional and a complete waste of time.

This would no doubt affect the efficiency of companies dealing with end to end supplying and I thought was a problem that could be eradicated with a bit of planning and restructuring.

I am not suggesting that roads in India go high tech and start erecting gantries, as I am sure drivers in India would soon be heard cursing and swearing every time they hear the “beep” like drivers on “the little red dot”. But surely, they could build more toll booths and employ very efficient toll collectors like the one in the (picture on the right) to speed up the whole process.

I do wish that some higher-ups in New Delhi or Agra reads this little comment I’ve made and for all you know, transporting of goods and end to end supply could be much less time consuming and all these truck drivers could spend more time resting on their beds rather than queuing and waiting into the wee hours of the night (see picture below) just to get their shipment to their destination.

Manufacturers' guide to surviving the economic slump

With the manufacturing sector already notoriously named the "sunset" industry, the recent slew of reports on job cuts and mass retrenchment may be leaving folk in the sector shaking in their shoes.

I speak with Randy Sng, industry manager for manufacturing and general business at IBM Singapore on whats in store for manufacturers in Asia, and what they can do to help ride out the economic storm.

Watch on to find out more.

Pilots forced to fly uncomfortably low on fuel

The fuel price crisis seems to have hit a new level with this TIME exclusive on how pilots have been forced to fly with minimum fuel.

Read more here: http://tinyurl.com/6r4etu

New Post: The only time we don't want flour to rise

After a quick poll of family, friends and colleagues, I have come to realise that a lot of people, or at least the people I interact with, tend to rank “lose weight” as one of the top New Year’s resolutions made each year.

Me included.

Well, it seems the bid to lead a healthier lifestyle may be easier to stick to this year, especially during the (marathon-eating) Lunar New Year season.

Prices of Chinese New Year goodies imported from Malaysia have increased, owing largely to a whopping 45% increase in the price of flour from Malaysia.

In turn, supermarket chain Sheng Siong upped the prices of its Malaysia-imported New Year goodies by 10-20%, and is offering promotional prices to offset half of the price increase.

NTUC too, have said they intend to raise the prices of their Malaysia-imported goodies by about 20%. New Year goodies from Malaysia make up about 60% of all Lunar New Year products in their stores, NTUC said.

Prices of Indonesian-imported goodies, on the other hand, are not affected by the price increase.

Not just the Lunar New Year, but prices of flour-based products will be on the rise in the coming months should the price of flour from Malaysia stay on its upward trajectory. Coupled with rising oil prices, procurement managers in liaison with flour suppliers across the causeway may begin flexing their negotiating muscles to strike a better deal and keep their margins in check… or looking elsewhere.

Leftover turkey for Lunar New Year, anyone? It’s healthy, you know.

The rise of the non-traditional competition

Over lunch with senior manager for performance improvement in PricewaterhouseCoopers Andreas Wettstein was when I first caught a glimpse of what transportation in China looked like 10 years ago.

Imagine this: you’re a supply chain manager and on a rainy weekend, you receive a call saying your shipment of sugar has arrived – in an open container.

Horrified? I sure was.

But that was 10 years ago. China has since transformed their logistics sector to one that now causes their European competition to shake in their shoes.

“The average Chinese competitor of 10 years ago and one of today is very different,” says Wettstein. “Non-traditional companies are now big competition to European companies.”

Clearly, the competitive landscape is changing. Armed with cheap labour and raw materials, local Chinese competition is slowly but surely matching their might to the big boys.

How to gain a competitive edge? Get your supply chain right, Wettstein said.

International MNCs can now ill afford to view local Chinese competition as anything but significant, he said. Asia as a collective is now both a source and a market, so “the importance of getting your supply chain right cannot be compromised.”

And not just in terms of getting the goods to the end consumer on time, but also the method in which goods and raw materials are transported will be increasingly important in the years to come, especially when end consumers are beginning to pledge their loyalty (and money) to companies with greener, more ethical supply chains.

Which means no child labour, no slavery and no raw materials subjected to the elements during transportation.

Personally I think the Chinese government is more than ready to set those wheels in motion. Once they do, local Chinese businesses, or what was previously termed non-traditional competition, will move out of the non-traditional realm and evolve into formidable players in the global business platform.