Aligning Inventory with Real Needs to Improve Quality of Patient Care

Center Oscar Lambret and Electronic Kanban for Healthcare

Highlights: Move Kanban | Worklists | Kanban Maintenance

Center Oscar Lambret is a French hospital and a national reference point for cancer care. The hospital was facing challenges in managing inventories of medications and sterile medical devices.
In particular, the hospital pharmacy needed to standardize and improve replenishment processes across the various care units.

After analyzing the different options available, Centre Oscar Lambret decided to rely on KanbanBOX to address these issues.

Overview of Centre Oscar Lambret

Founded in 1955, Centre Oscar Lambret is a French oncology hospital located in Lille, in the Hauts-de-France region.

A national reference for oncology, the Centre is part of the UNICANCER group and operates as a private hospital exclusively dedicated to cancer treatment, research, and education. It employs nearly 1,000 professionals, including physicians, researchers, paramedical staff, administrative personnel, and more. In addition, it makes a significant contribution to the public hospital system.

The Centre’s ambition is to accelerate innovation in healthcare for all patients in the Hauts-de-France region, whether in terms of treatment, scientific research projects, or training future specialist physicians.

The hospital contacted KanbanBOX while searching for a new solution to standardize and improve the replenishment processes for medications and medical devices across its care units.

In this case study, we will see how electronic kanban delivered tangible benefits in a healthcare environment.

The initial situation in the Centre Oscar Lambret pharmacy

This case study focuses on the hospital pharmacy, which acts as the central warehouse for both medications and sterile medical devices. It is also where pharmacy technicians prepare medications for the various care units.

Before implementing KanbanBOX, the pharmacy struggled to meet requests. Due to the lack of inventory tracking within departments and the absence of a shared computerized system, the pharmacy had limited visibility into what was actually in stock and what needed to be replenished.

This situation led to excess inventory for some items and stockouts for others.

“In addition, the consumption of medications and medical devices could change rapidly depending on patient treatment plans, and pharmacists did not always have access to up-to-date information.”

Francesco Dall’Oca, Founding Partner KanbanBOX

Mismatches between restocked products and actual needs

The consequences of this lack of visibility and information sharing were significant:

Outdated information, with a high risk of errors in supply
Inability for pharmacists to focus on value-added activities related to their role
Organizational difficulties related to drug expiration dates: holding quantities greater than necessary increases the risk of having to discard medications—or worse, administering them incorrectly to patients. Moreover, medications and medical devices frequently change, making management with excessive inventories even more complex.

This mismatch between actual consumption and replenished products resulted in waste and delays, ultimately undermining the quality of patient care.

Searching for a solution and defining objectives

To address these critical issues, Centre Oscar Lambret began exploring potential technological solutions.

First, the hospital clearly defined the objectives the solution needed to achieve:

Increase the accuracy of replenishment activities for medications and sterile medical devices across care units
Reduce replenishment lead times
Decrease the risk of errors
Simplify the management of frequent and rapid changes in medication consumption without exponentially increasing inventory levels, especially considering expiration constraints

From selection to implementation

After a careful evaluation and selection process of technology partners, Centre Oscar Lambret decided to implement an electronic transportation kanban system using KanbanBOX.

This decision was based on several factors, including functionality (particularly the automatic calculation of optimal system sizing), ease of use, and the quality of technical support.

Over three years, Centre Oscar Lambret managed more than 2,000 items, both medical devices and medication, using transportation kanban, with an average of 100 kanban transactions per day. With the new system, replenishment activities are no longer performed on fixed days but follow a smoother flow that ensures materials are available when needed, aligning inventory levels with real demand.

Another key aspect of the new system is that, thanks to KanbanBOX, pharmacy technicians can create daily delivery lists for each department in just a few clicks. If last-minute changes occur, the lists are updated in real time.

“Over the past 5 years, healthcare product shortages have become an almost daily issue, requiring the supply of alternative products. KanbanBOX has been the solution to ensure real-time identification of these products in the wards from the very first delivery.”

PhD Frederic Feutry, Centre Oscar Lambret

The KanbanBOX features most appreciated by Centre Oscar Lambret

Worklists

Worklists are groupings of kanban cards automatically organized based on specific criteria and filters.

This feature allows pharmacy technicians not only to clearly see what needs to be replenished and when, but also to organize replenishment by department and by specific requests, introducing dedicated lists for priorities and urgent needs. This structured approach makes it possible to effectively manage special situations such as consumption peaks, special products, or stockouts.

Inventory with picking and delivery location information

Thanks to the Inventory feature in KanbanBOX, the Centre can continuously compare actual stock levels with real demand. This significantly reduces the risk of incorrect quantities, eliminates manual checks, and makes controls more reliable and systematic.

In addition, each kanban card clearly and structurally displays both the exact picking location within the pharmacy warehouse, indicating storage area and shelf, and the destination department and shelf for delivery.

This level of detail simplifies the work of pharmacists and nurses alike: pharmacists know exactly where to place medications and medical devices in each department, while nurses can immediately locate them when needed, without wasted time or uncertainty.

Real-time access to information, even in emergency situations

As Centre Oscar Lambret knows well, KanbanBOX is a web-based platform. This means that the information and data recorded in the system are not tied to a physical workstation but can be accessed at any time, both from a computer and via mobile apps.

This aspect is particularly relevant in hospital settings, where the pharmacy may be closed but emergencies do not stop. In such situations, pharmacists can be contacted remotely and, regardless of where they are, can access real-time information on inventory levels and consumption.

The shared visibility provided by KanbanBOX enables rapid and effective support for on-site colleagues, facilitating timely decisions based on always up-to-date data.

The value of a flexible solution in highly dynamic environments

One of the aspects most appreciated by Centre Oscar Lambret is the flexibility of KanbanBOX, its ability to quickly adapt to change, which is essential in dynamic and constantly evolving environments such as hospitals.

In healthcare, medications and medical devices frequently change, and the management system must be able to immediately reflect these updates.

“With KanbanBOX, the hospital can update information such as suppliers, components, or medication dosages in real time, ensuring pharmacists always have reliable, aligned visibility.”

Francesco Dall’Oca, Founding Partner KanbanBOX

Results in pharmacy management and patient satisfaction

With the adoption of KanbanBOX, Centre Oscar Lambret achieved its objectives in inventory management, finally aligning stock levels with real needs.

In particular, real-time access to updated warehouse information, including product locations, simplified the work of pharmacists and nurses, making daily activities smoother and more efficient.

This operational improvement, enabled by process digitalization, also had a direct impact on the quality of patient care. More precise and responsive inventory management helps ensure continuity and timeliness of treatment, contributing to a patient satisfaction rate of 97% at Centre Oscar Lambret.

Future developments

The next step in the digitalization journey of medication and medical device replenishment will be the integration of KanbanBOX with the Centre’s ERP system.

Currently, inventory levels between the two systems are updated through a manual process in which an operator exports inventory data from KanbanBOX and imports it into the ERP. While this task takes only a few seconds, it is still a non-value-added activity that can be automated.

Thanks to the integration between KanbanBOX and the hospital’s ERP, this operation will be performed automatically, keeping inventory and master data fully aligned between the two systems without any manual intervention. This will further enhance data reliability, making material management even smoother and more consistent across the entire process.