Let’s cut to the chase. The most important management issue, the one most med tech executives get wrong is…logistics.
At best, it’s an afterthought. Most often, managers assume logistics will just work itself out.
Yet, companies that focus on and work at logistics tend to have:
- Better than average gross profit margins
- Better than average sales growth
- Better than average stability
- Better than average company (and stock price) valuation
- Better than average customer satisfaction.
Who gets logistics right? There are a few, I think, among them, Stryker. Globus. Zimmer. DePuy. Alphatec.
But how can other manufacturers in the med tech space who don’t have decades of experience, or a Wall Street certified balance sheet achieve operational excellence?
Enter GlobalMed Logistix.
GlobalMed Logistix (GMLx)
Founded in 2013 out of the largest orthopedic and spine distributor in the United States, GlobalMed Logistix began as a way to package its 46 years of operational best practices and apply them to the rest of the medical device industry.
“We tell everybody, always, that we’re a growth company. We’ve been in business 46 years, and, with the single exception of 2020, we’ve driven year-over-year growth. Our foundation is a win-win culture. It’s deep into our roots. It’s with everybody we partner with. We are always trying to find a way to bring value to our customers” explained GMLx Founder and CEO Thomas Fleetwood.
“Forty-six years partnering with surgeon-customers, manufacturers, distributors, sales reps, hospitals, and ASCs [ambulatory surgery centers], we know how to drive business efficiencies. You talk about complex problems and challenges, and demanding customers, we get them what they need, when they need it,” Fleetwood elaborated.
GlobalMed Logistix, or GMLx as it has become known in the industry, has built a team of more than 150 employees and has established a warehouse and logistics system based out of Atlanta that rivals any inventory management setup in the U.S. today.
“At GMLx, we manage our customers’ inventory, including, but not limited to, how they get their products and equipment from one place to another and then back to our facility.”
“We provide all types of services including inventory management, cycle counting, quality control, replenishments, order fulfillment and much, much more,” explains GMLx President and COO Scott Vane.
“But the most complex aspect of medical device logistics is what we specialize in, reverse logistics and national loaners.”
Making Excellence Inevitable
One of GlobalMed Logistix unique capabilities, and a reason they make excellence inevitable, is their range and depth of experience over the decades. As GMLx’s Vice President of Sales Hunter Fleetwood explained to OTW. “We work with a wide variety of customers, so we see many different issues across different verticals, across different parts of the country, different parts of the world.”
“If a manufacturer runs into a challenge, typically it’s something we’ve already seen five other times and we have seven different potential solutions that could work in that particular scenario for that particular customer.”
GlobalMed Logistix offers its customers a 46-year legacy of operational excellence and top-tier systems, tailored to meet the unique needs of each client—across multiple specialties and geographies.
Best Laid Plans
“You may only get a few shots with a surgeon-customer or a facility, and if your product doesn’t get to the right place, at the right time, you may not get another opportunity,” said Vane.
You’ve invented, bench tested, animal tested, run the regulatory gauntlet, scaled up manufacturing, assembled a corps of key opinion leaders and signed your distributor contracts.
Then your logistics fail.
You’ve merged or bought a company, signed the closing documents, organized the financial, manufacturing, marketing and legal teams to put your best laid plans to work.
Then your logistics fail.
“Just about every manufacturer we talk to has no desire to be experts in logistics,” explained Hunter. “Logistics is, typically, not a medical device manufacturer’s core competency.”
“GlobalMed Logistix was built with a strong focus on the experience of the patient, the surgeon, the facility, and the sales rep. We’ve turned that into our operational mentality. What is it like to be on the receiving end of instrument trays and implants that are arriving at the hospital? If you’re the sales rep, if you’re the surgeon, if you’re the surgical staff, if you’re SPD?”
“We develop solutions that focus on the best way to support the entire surgical workflow.”
Logistics can be your biggest cost driver—or your most durable competitive advantage. Most suppliers, pushed by their boards and investors, focus on top-line growth.
“Our customers have found the most value in a GlobalMed Logistix partnership is utilizing our (46-year) playbook of operational excellence and applying that to what they’re doing to grow their business,” said Vane.
The Logistics Backbone for the Life Sciences Industry
GlobalMed Logistix has become the logistics backbone for high-performing surgeons, support staff, sales reps, distributors and OEMs [original equipment manufacturer].
As Vane described to OTW: “Throughout the history of the company, we have delivered logistical and operational excellence to support everything our customers do. We help break down logistical barriers, which opens up new markets for our customers to expand into.”
“You’re a well-funded startup manufacturer, for example. How are you going to launch across the country with a new distributor if you don’t have your logistics in a great place? We support your launch with new distributors no matter where they are. GMLx becomes a value-add to your organization as you plug these distributors into our logistics ecosystem.”
“Finally, critically, we free up capital. You don’t need to set up your own warehouse. You don’t need to be an expert in inventory or labor management. We provide white-glove operational support to help manage your field inventory, including human tissue, cold chain logistics, and more.”
GlobalMed Logistix’s customers focus on what they do best—surgeon relationships, innovative implants and instrument systems, clinical studies, distributor relations, enabling technologies—while GMLx focuses on getting everything where it needs to be to support their customers’ distributors, surgeons, and patients.
All Specialties, Last-Mile Delivery and Scalpel AI
Besides musculoskeletal products, GMLx has also become a medical device logistics leader in dental, cardio, women’s health, plastics, and ENT. GlobalMed Logistix is a registered tissue bank and stores and distributes tissue for a number of manufacturers all across the country.
In 2023, GlobalMed Logistix made a significant investment in a new warehousing and medical device logistics complex in Atlanta.
As CEO Fleetwood told OTW: “We’ve created a logistics campus now with a total of 125,000 square feet for our customers. It’s designed to raise the bar for white-glove medical device logistics services, supply chain, inventory management, customer service, and quality management.”
“We continue to be a leader in innovative solutions for the market. We’ve developed a last-mile logistics software called Tractix that manages our couriers, route optimization and the delivery of products directly into the sterile processing department at hospitals and ASCs. We’ve also partnered with a best-in-class artificial intelligence company out of London called Scalpel AI.”
“Scalpel uses advanced AI-powered computer vision technology to scan each instrument, instrument tray, implant set, you name it. It validates all the inventory in a matter of seconds.”
Instant Inventory Accuracy
In other words, instant inventory accuracy without the inventory dwell time, tribal knowledge or domain expertise, which has become so standard in the industry.
Scalpel AI was initially focused on building solutions for general instruments in sterile processing, but Fleetwood saw massive value of applying the tech to vendor trays.
Using AI-driven computer vision technology, the Scalpel vendor tray platform that GMLx is bringing to the U.S. market drives operational efficiency and inventory accuracy.
It also creates an auditable visual trail of the surgical workflow!!
Why does that matter? Two words: Reverse Logistics.
Using AI to Master Reverse Logistics
Consider this case example: there is an upcoming surgery that requires a loaner set of inventory, and you need implants and instrument trays from a GMLx warehouse. A GMLx logistics specialist completes a tray scan utilizing the Scalpel AI platform before the trays leave the facility.
The case is now Scalpel certified and it all takes just a few seconds. The team at the warehouse lets the rep and the facility know that the trays are on the way and ready for the surgery.
After surgery, the rep or courier can check Scalpel’s mobile application to validate that the trays are complete before they leave the facility. And, importantly, when the trays return to GMLx, the team there uses Scalpel to guarantee the accuracy of the inventory for their customer.
At every step of the surgical workflow, GMLx and Scalpel deliver visibility, accuracy, and speed.
Making excellence inevitable.
The Future of Medical Device Logistics
GlobalMed Logistix is investing in the future of medical device warehousing, distribution, inventory tracking, supply chain efficiencies and last mile solutions—so you don’t have to.
Historically, medical device manufacturers have had apprehension about outsourcing their logistics to a third party. But times have changed.
GlobalMed Logistix has created a solution that provides best-in-class logistics and quality services for the medical device industry. OTW had the opportunity to see GMLx’s growing campus in Atlanta, Georgia. We believe we saw the future of medical device, cold chain, and biologics distribution. For more information and to schedule your own tour (you must go) call or email: Hunter Fleetwood hunter.fleetwood@gmlx.us.com.
