Baxter Business Operations– Middle East & Africa

The main purpose of this report is to identify the issues in the supply chain of Baxter. The paper identifies two issues on a broader aspect. Those two issues are incapability to keep products fresh in temperature variation and costlier Iraq shipment. In the Middle East countries, the temperature is generally on a very higher side. On the other hand, Baxter’s products are very sensitive and are vulnerable to such variation in temperature. Hence, the paper identifies this as an issue and tries to provide possible solutions to counter this. In sea shipment, small orders are partially loaded in containers. However, a container can be used for loading more than what Baxter normally does. It also causes to happen unnecessary expenses being made to the logistic cost. The paper also provides suggestions on how to effectively maintain the Iraq shipment.

Running head: BAXTER
Baxter Business Operations– Middle East & Africa
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author note:

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Executive summary
The main purpose of this report is to identify the issues in the supply chain of Baxter. The paper
identifies two issues on a broader aspect. Those two issues are incapability to keep products fresh
in temperature variation and costlier Iraq shipment. In the Middle East countries, the temperature
is generally on a very higher side. On the other hand, Baxter’s products are very sensitive and are
vulnerable to such variation in temperature. Hence, the paper identifies this as an issue and tries
to provide possible solutions to counter this. In sea shipment, small orders are partially loaded in
containers. However, a container can be used for loading more than what Baxter normally does.
It also causes to happen unnecessary expenses being made to the logistic cost. The paper also
provides suggestions on how to effectively maintain the Iraq shipment.

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
1. Key Operations Management issues faced by Baxter to serve the GCC market.........................3
2. Recommending the best supply chain design/model...................................................................7
3. The measures to take with all the stakeholders to ensure that the SC is supporting the business
growth not the opposite.................................................................................................................13
4. Resolving the issue with regards to the Iraq Shipment..............................................................17
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................21
References......................................................................................................................................23

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Introduction
The supply chain can be considered to be the heart of a company’s operations. The fact
though varies from SMEs to MNCs. Despite this, only a very few firms are actually able to
utilize its benefits. Firms that struggle they are affected by their capabilities to make the best
decisions. The management in such companies fails to establish access to real-time data. It is
because they have limited access to legacy technologies, which is required to create end-to-end
transparency (1). There is a need to get rid of the traditional business model that is being largely
followed across the global supply chain operations. The traditional model of supply chain
operations can be replaced with an alternative. The recommended alternative is about supporting
a digital foundation in the operations field. The digital foundation can be formed with latest and
emerging technologies like automation, artificial intelligence, predictive analytics, and robotics.
By using this digital formation in place, firms belonging to different industries can capture,
integrate, analyse, and interpret high-quality data in real-time (2).
The main purpose of this report is to identify the supply chain operations issues of Baxter
and providing adequate solutions to counter those issues. Baxter’s products are essential building
blocks of healthcare sectors at the global level. The products and services of this company are
available to a number of countries across the globe. These products of Baxter contribute
substantially to the global stock of medications, and treatments. Hence, it is important for Baxter
to be able to supply adequate products, and services to global countries when it is needed.
However, it has constantly been facing a range of issues in its supply chain especially in the
Middle-East and the African regions. Hence, this report first identifies the issues and then tries to
propose a few way outs of it.
1. Key Operations Management issues faced by Baxter to serve the GCC market

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As noted by (3), supply chain management practices can influence the rate of customer
satisfaction for a firm. As per this article, there should exist a deeper relationship between the
employers and suppliers. Indeed, employers must be capable of working collaboratively and
having good control over the transaction between them and the suppliers. If this can happen the
rate of customer satisfaction for the concerned company will definitely go high.
The evolution of the supply chain is also very interesting. The Supply Chain
Management (SCM) term was first coined by logistics consultants in 1980s. Since then the
supply chain has kept on gaining popularity with passing days. The popularity of SCM did not
remain confined just to the practice but also extended to the scholars. Those scholars researched
and wrote a variety of journals on distribution, manufacturing, marketing, transportation,
customer management, and integration. According to (4), the introduction of the supply chain
produced a paradigm shift within and around the management literature. Individual businesses
no longer competed as autonomous entities but rather as the member of supply networks. In a
network of interconnected firms, success was not just dependent on individual operations but on
capabilities to manage the interconnected entities.
The fact mentioned in the above paragraph suggests that the success of a supply chain
depends a lot on firms’ capabilities to manage their business relationships with others in the
interconnected network. It suggests that communication between interconnected entities is also
very important. Effective communication between these entities will ensure that demands and
supplies are effectively communicated to each party. Considering these few facts, a number of
supply chain issues can be traced in Baxter’s issues. These are (5):

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1. Baxter is facing a considerable variance in the forecast between orders being
communicated to the manufacturing sites, and the orders received from the firms. It is
affecting its forecast capability on a larger note.
2. Larger orders are prepared and manufactured in different manufacturing branches. These
branches are sometimes based in different countries or even the continents. Moreover,
sometimes similar orders are manufactured from different products at the different
manufacturing branches. It shows clear communication and inventory management gaps
in supply chain operations.
3. Small orders are kept in queues until it reaches the minimum order quantity. The process
is cost-effective from operations’ perspective; which is a good thing. However, it is not
that pleasant an experience for the Baxter because it generally fails to deliver orders on
time.
4. The company does not offer a feasible container option for small orders. The container is
used to carry such products are generally made of higher containers. Hence, the container
handling cost does not get an equally good return.
5. The products of the Baxter Company are temperature sensitive. It needs to be kept
between (+15 to 25°C). The temperature is one of the few constraints in Gulf
Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. The temperature can seriously impact the quality
of the products.
6. Sudden orders create a lot of problem for the company. The delivery lead time is equal to
120 days from the date of order received. Despite this Baxter receives urgent orders to be
delivered in unexpectedly less time. They are receiving urgent orders on a regular basis.

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Understandably, they are unable to deliver products on time. It creates a huge customer
dissatisfaction, which is creating unpleasant circumstances in the company.
The issues being noted as above in bullet points indicate a huge lot of problematic areas in the
supply chain management process of Baxter. These are (6):
Baxter does not have a good management system for inventories. Inventories if not
managed properly may result in short-of-stocks, and overstocking. Short-of-stocks will affect the
ability to deliver orders on-time. On the other hand, overstocking will add unnecessary pressure
on the cost of warehouse management. Either of these situations is not healthy signs for
companies as such as Baxter. The company holds a good market reputation in and across the
globe. However, this may get spoiled if such issues continue to persist. Ineffective inventory
management will also result in a conflict between the manual entries of stocks, and the software
generated inventories entries. Such circumstances are never as good as a manual adjustment in
sales will then become tough to be detected.
On a broader aspect, the demand forecast lacks the superiority it should have considering
the reputation the Baxter carries. The company does not have a good forecast capability. They
have been into operations for so many years but still not aware of the purchase behavior of some
clients. It is due to this some orders are left in queues before it gets filled out. Once it happens
they are not able to manage it appropriately. It appears as if Baxter lacks the tools, techniques,
and training needed to accurately identify the market behaviour. Their incapability to understand
the market demands has resulted in too many issues. A lot of hospitals and other clients have
complaints against Baxter for not meeting their expectations. They have found Baxter as
inefficient in supplying the orders on an urgent basis. Baxter according to these clients misses on
critical situations. Nonetheless, this is not a reliable job from the one of Baxter’s stature.

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Communication is also a major issue in various operating branches of Baxter. The issue
is so big that they are not able to detect whether similar products are being manufactured in
different branches. Additionally, the demand forecast is also not communicated appropriately at
its different operations branches. Consequently, a number of branches of Baxter are reported to
have struggled to meet the demand factor. They have faced problems in controlling the stocks.
Ineffective stock management is an open door to either over-stocking or out-of-stock issue. Both
of the situations can affect the efficiency of manufacturing, and supply operations. Co-
Ordination is missing largely in and along various branches of Baxter.
The use of advanced technologies is another area of concern for Baxter. The era of the
fourth industrial revolution has arrived and with it, a whole lot of latest technologies have also
emerged. Some of the most talked about technologies are Artificial Intelligence (AI), Internet of
Things (IoT), Advanced Analytics, Conversational Systems, Intelligent Things, Blockchain,
Robotic Process Automation, and Immersive Technologies. These technologies will very soon
become part of the global supply chain operations. For example, Blockchain can help to avoid
communication failures in supply chain operations. It captures the point-to-point journey through
digital records. Digital records are created from unique attributes being covered in barcodes.
These barcodes can be inscribed by laser.
2. Recommending the best supply chain design/model
There is a need to work on the supply chain model, which is being followed by Baxter for
its operations in the Middle-East, and African countries. The existing model has already created
a lot of issues for the company. Baxter is being criticised for its capability to fulfill the market
demands on an urgent basis. Additionally, they have also been out-of-stock on quite many

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occasions. With regard to a range of supply chain management process issues, the following
recommendations should be implemented to design a new supply chain model (7):
Since Baxter has failed to efficiently manage the inventories, the company should
consider automating the inventory management. Automated inventory management will be
much more efficient than the traditional inventory management systems. This would not just
enhance the efficiency level of the inventory system but would also cut down the operational
costs of inventories. The cost can be depreciated by as much as 25%. An automated system will
more effectively communicate the market demands with the different operational branches of
Baxter. The level of efficiency will be in terms of quality leads, and the speed of delivery at
Baxter’s various branches. Baxter has suffered from bad leads in the past. This has caused
overstocking, and short-of-stock issues to the company. The speed of delivery of market forecast
will help in making quick deliveries to the clients. Along with quality leads, and improved
communication, there are many other benefits of automated inventory management. These
include but not limited to like operations productivity, sales and profits’ enhancement, business
integration, automation of tasks performed manually, and customer satisfaction.
To automate the inventory management, Baxter will need to identify right partners
providing the automated inventory optimising solution. It really works wonder. It can import the
demand data of customers, and classify it out in various domains like distribution, one-off spikes,
and a forecast. The technology creates a forecast using the appropriate algorithm for each of the
specific distribution patterns. Such an automated system then automatically calculates the
optimal stock on hand, the buffer stock, the presentation stock for a retailer, and plans for any
promotions or events. The system can also take into the consideration of economic order
quantities. It means the system can also go beyond the usual order limits. For example, if a

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certain channel no. is allotted with 200 units on a regular basis, and now there is an economic
order quantity of more than 200 pieces, the system will automatically calculate the differences
(8). It is user-free as it helps to plan both in the existing pattern and different than the usual
patterns. The work that had initially required a team of so many supply chain professionals, and
their constant research works and plans, can now be handled with just a few clicks of a dedicated
button.
Communication has also remained a major issue for Baxter. It is being mentioned in this
report and is also clearly mentioned in the case study on Baxter that there exists a less
transparent communication network between its different branches based in the range of
countries, and regions. It has troubled the company in major ways. There is no clear indication of
what a lot of products are being manufactured in which branch of the Company. Due to this
ineffective communication between the different branches, the cost of operations is also out of
control on most occasions. Consequently, similar products are being made in more than one
branches of Baxter. However, this is waste of time as during the same time period more products
of different nature could have been manufactured in branches being used to prepare similar
products. In addition to this, the communication does not happen through a network, which is
necessary to speed up the communication process. Indeed, Baxter follows a traditional model of
communication, which is both times consuming and also less efficient.
Facts, as stated in the above paragraph, indicate that Baxter should deploy a system to
resolve this issue. Fortunately, the company is existing in the era of the fourth industrial
revolution. Additionally, the company operates at the global platform and bears the ability to
access a major makeover in the system. It is, therefore, more suggestive, and impactful as well to
identify and apply the latest and emerging technologies that are feasible to the system.

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Considering all these factors stated in this paragraph, this can be said that the communication
inefficiency of Baxter can be resolved with the Internet of Technology (IoT) (9). An IoT will
provide Baxter the much-needed network through which communication can be established
between the branches. An IoT will help to improve communication in many ways. This is indeed
a platform using which range of the latest technologies can be applied to facilitate
communication in different ways. Over an IoT platform, technologies such as customer
relationship management (CRM) can be deployed to establish easy access to large-scale data.
These set of data can be accessed by remotely accessing to the computer system enabled with
CRM and spread over the IoT platform across the different country and region-wide branches of
Baxter. It means IoT and CRM together will help Baxter to access large-scale data in real-time.
Real-Time access with maximum accuracy will require an application of a feasible data-analytic.
Data-analytic helps to utilise required data in real-time. The benefits of using a network of IoT
and CRM will produce the following benefits to Baxter (10):
The synergy of IoT and CRM is possible and this will create an environment of
preventive and predictive functionalities for customers. In context to Baxter, clients and
customers will get a notification about a problem prior to it happens. Hence, they will have
enough information about the stock availability of medications. Consequently, in urgent
situations, there won’t be any communication gap. Indeed, clients and customers will have a pre-
mind set up for where to avail the medications. They won't require to rely anymore on Baxter in
a case when they are short of stocks. Moreover, Baxter will also be able to communicate the
issue that has affected the stocks. With all these, there would be negative or probably no negative
feedback from customers and clients regarding the communication gap.

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The three components of IoT will have a major impact on the performance of the
company. Those three components are (11):
1. Sensors
2. Wireless Internet Connectivity
3. Data Processing Capability of the system over the IoT platform
The synergy between IoT and CRM can be explained by taking a suitable business scenario.
For an example, the synergy between CRM and IoT can be implemented to the hearing aid
company. The hearing aid industry is also being fueled with innovative features to enhance its
user-level experience. They are trying to use or introduce a range of innovative features like
longer battery life, noise reduction, Bluetooth compatibility, etc. In addition, hearing aid
manufacturers are also trying to integrate smartphones with hearing aids to provide enhanced
features to customers and to control its operations. Some scenarios will make it clear about how
IoT is helping the hearing aid manufacturers.
Scenario 1: A customers' hearing aid is malfunctioning. A customer might or should
never know the exact reason for this failure. However, if the hearing aid manufacturer uses or
has deployed an IoT platform, they will get to know the exact reason for this problem. The
problem might be due to an ample number of reasons such as due to the battery is
malfunctioning. A service representative from the company's side will notify the customer of the
problem. In addition, they would also communicate the strategy to adapt to get rid of the issue.
Moreover, customers will get a notification prior to the product has met with a problem. This is
good from both customers and the company’s perspective. There would be no harassment to the
customer from the service failure as the customer already knows that a battery related issue is

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getting developed in the hearing aid. Additionally, the company would also be able to save their
reputation from being damaged by a range of service-related complaints.
Scenario 2: A customers' hearing aid device is under the warranty period and the product
has developed a problem, which the customer might not be aware of. In this situation, the
customer care representative of the hearing aid manufacturer will get to know the problem quite
prior to it actually affects the device. Hence, IoT benefits in knowing the issue in advance.
Moreover, a customer care executive will notify the customer of the problem, which is being got
developed in his or her device. The customer will, therefore, be able to get it repaired from the
service center. It does not only saves money for the customer but also help them connect deeply
with their service provider. They will have increased trust in their manufacturer. Hence, it helps
the business to earn and retain the much-needed reputation.
Scenario 3: A customer might not be aware of or not using one of the services of their
hearing aid device. In this scenario, IoT analytics will raise a notification, which will be evident
to customer care executives of the device manufacturing company. Hence, one of the executives
will make a call to the customer and ask his or her permission for a session with or training on
how to use that particular feature in his or her device. A proactive service in this way is not just
good for a positive impact on the hearing aid manufacturer but also is really helpful for
customers.
In all these scenarios, one question arises like how do companies get to know about the
problem in advance. It is due to the inbuilt sensor in the hearing device. The sensor creates an
alert notification, which later on gets spread over the IoT network. Notification can be of varied
types such as issues related to the battery or the instrument. CRM being an open source is able to
render this notification in various ways. These are (12):

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 A company such as Baxter can design CRM according to their needs and requirements.
Additionally, Baxter can also use some more features to integrate these with the alert
message. Moreover, the alert in integration with added messages will reach to the
customer care representatives.
 Baxter can also render the information in a different way. Baxter can automate the entire
process of notification going to the company’s end and then facilitating a call to the
concerned customer. A computational system integrated with CRM can be programmed
to automatically place a support call for a particular problem. Consequently, the customer
care representative will get to know about the problem and accordingly will call to the
particular customer. In this way, Baxter can speed up its customer support process, which
will positively impact its service standard.
3. The measures to take with all the stakeholders to ensure that the SC is supporting the
business growth not the opposite
The main problem why the supply chain does not flourish despite a fact that few firms
had wanted to improve their supply chain operations in recent time. It is due to a weaker
integration between decision-makers and the stakeholders of the supply chain. The integration
that has constantly affected the quality of supply operations can be improved by deploying a
value mapping framework. The proposed value mapping framework can help to ensure that the
stakeholders of the supply chain have contributive attitudes and efforts to supply chain. The
proposed value mapping framework can encourage the contribution of stakeholders and benefit
the supply chain in five different ways. These are (13):
First, the proposed value framework is a good guide to encourage a deeper alignment
between strategic decisions, and the overall business vision and vision of the firm. The

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framework provides a more effective and disciplined methodology for the IT project
implementation. It is even better than the previously used empirical and subjective approach to
implementing the IT projects. In addition, this framework encourages not to use the ad-hoc
categories but rather to use a well-defined and structured perspective of the supply chain of the
SCOR model. This also includes the change management strategy as proposed and well-defined
from the Matrix of Change model. Moreover, the proposed value mapping framework is a well-
defined guide for Baxter to promote and facilitate integration between IT project teams and the
stakeholders of the supply chain.
Second, the proposed framework helps to identify the impact of uncertainty that could
have a major impact on the project implementation. Uncertainties need to be known in order to
avoid the unexpected resistance to the project implementation. The framework helps to
accomplish this by enabling an enhanced axiomatic approach. It does so to include valuable
works being done by stakeholders. The framework helps to identify the uncertainty in project
implementation by assigning a specific axiom or a rule to promote a probability selection.
Third, the suggested framework helps to minimise the political bias, which is very
common in the decision-making process. A supply chain is generally affected by stakeholders
and their selection criteria for a decision. The political biases in the decision-making do
encourage to ignore even a potential decision. Instead, this framework will help to avoid the
political biases, and encourage selecting the most feasible and suitable decision. Moreover, IT
managers will have an opportunity to compare the diverse views of different stakeholders of the
supply chain. In this way, this framework can be used to encourage the stakeholders for
contributing their efforts to the supply chain.

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Fourth, the framework provides a practical way to encourage the involvement of
stakeholders of supply chain operations. It helps to assess the different stakeholders for their
decisions. Once, they are assessed, the framework gives way to re-evaluate the association of
stakeholders in project implementation. Nevertheless, the project provides a practical way to
reduce or control the negativity of a project handling in the supply chain. It rather promotes the
positivity by selecting stakeholders those whose views and decision are worth selecting.
Fifth, the framework is also very beneficial from a perspective that it reduces the needs
for training. It is because the framework encourages the involvement of every user in all phases
of the IT project implementation. It means those are involved with it, they will have adequate
information about the new system. They will know each bit of this new technology, which will
reduce their level of anxiety for the change. Moreover, the proposed framework in some ways
helps to reduce the level of resistance for a change and enhance its compatibility with the people
and the system. It also indicates how beautifully the framework includes or involves each of the
stakeholders of the supply chain. Nonetheless, it is very important that effective coordination and
collaboration between decision-makers, technological teams, and the stakeholders of the supply
chain exists. Until and unless there is a transparent relationship of communication between these
groups of organisations, there won’t be a notable improvement in the supply chain operation.
In context to Baxter, this can be said that the company must seriously focus on
improving its supply chain, which has been affecting its market reputation. This cannot happen
until there is some serious plan to repair the problems. A serious plan can be as such mentioned
in the above paragraph. Baxter can opt to apply the value mapping framework to encourage a
change in the supply chain system. The value mapping framework will treat the political biases if
so it is present in the decision-making process. Moreover, the IT or project teams at Baxter will

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have the opportunity to analyse the diverse views and decisions of stakeholders of the supply
chain. Consequently, the best decision will be selected to be applied in the system. Hence, the
business will become much more transparent than before. The project teams, stakeholders, and
decision-makers will act collaboratively to promote and establish a robust supply chain. The
supply chain will become much more dynamic than ever before. In addition to this, Baxter
should also consider the following steps to enhance its stakeholders' involvement in the supply
chain management process (14):
Profiling the stakeholders: It is close to impossible to satisfy each of the stakeholders. It is more
advisable to profile stakeholders based on their skills, expertise, and more other suitable
criterions. Preferably, stakeholders can be classified into categories as such bronze, silver, and
gold. As the category suggests, stakeholders into the bronze category will be given the least
priority as compared to the others. They will also have very little involvement in the decision-
making process. However, it does not mean that their feedback and suggestions will not be
considered. With regard to the priority level, stakeholders in the silver category will be given a
higher priority than those in the bronze category. Stakeholders in the gold category will be given
the maximum priority (15). They will be asked to participate in the decision-making process.
Hence, by profiling the stakeholders, Baxter can actually utilise its stakeholders in an appropriate
manner. Moreover, stakeholders’ involvement in the decision-making process will also happen.
Promoting knowledge management: Stakeholders must be encouraged to understand the
procurement, and marketing processes. In addition, they should also be trained on how to
effectively deal with suppliers. Even though stakeholders are not the expertise of varieties of
operations, still they could make an impact with their additional input to understand the diverse
organizational processes (16). This won’t just manage the flow of knowledge within the

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organization such as Baxter but would also enhance the level of motivation to contribute to the
operations in stakeholders. The change so far being talked about in this section of this report can
be achieved by discussing with stakeholders their value of involvement.
Focusing on quick wins: It is important to focus on quick wins to avoid unnecessary failures and
attrition of stakeholders. Some companies are very hard on their stakeholders. They want major
successes in significantly less time. It is the attitude that causes these companies to lose their
stakeholders in little or no time. Instead, stakeholders need to be given time sufficient time to
perform. They need to be encouraged for small wins instead of major wins in a fair amount of
time. Therefore, the focus should be on to achieve long-term success.
Communicating with stakeholders: It is important to be involved in effective communication
with stakeholders to be able to understand their contribution to the process and the challenges
they are facing. The channels of communication can use a varied range of technologies such as
face-to-face communication with Skype. Such communication should happen on a regular basis.
Video calling is indeed a handful way to communicate in cases when there is a need to
communicate with stakeholders those who are part of different regional branches of the company
(17). This is both time and cost-saving as it reduces the number of meetings needed to be held in
different regions. The meetings can rather be organised online through skype or any other
suitable mode of face-to-face communication.
4. Resolving the issue with regards to the Iraq Shipment
As stated in the case study, Baxter has suffered from the shipment issue. It has constantly
faced issues in managing its Iraq shipment. The main areas of problems are as follows:

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 Small orders lack the quantity needed to fill the container. The issue is more prominent
with sea shipments. As a result of this, the shipment ends up meeting a high freight cost
(18). In addition, container handling is also not very safe.
 The other issue is related to quality damage to the products. Temperatures are normally
on a very higher side in the Middle-East countries. On the other hand, Baxter’s products
are very sensitive and are vulnerable to an exposure to a temperature between (+15 to
25°C). They have the challenge to keep this temperature throughout the shipment
journey. The problem gets increased when products are shipped through the air as there is
no cold storage facility is available in some selective GCC airports (19).
The cited problems are very severe and require a real makeover of the existing shipment
strategy. The issue with small orders is mainly due to Baxter’s strategy to deal with such orders.
The company does not believe in processing small orders until it reaches their quota of products
for such orders. They wait till the moment the orders become adequately available to them. It
eventually put pressure on the manufacturing teams as they are left with a very short span of time
than it should be to prepare the orders. It also shows that Baxter lacks in demand forecast
capability. It is evident from the work pressure on the manufacturing team. If they had an
effective forecast capability, the team at Baxter could have communicated the orders quite prior
to their deadline (20). In the entire process of shipment, a lot of issues become evident. These are
incapable demand forecast, ineffective communication between the manufacturing and forecast
teams, and lack of an appropriate shipment strategy. Hence, if these three issues are treated, the
problem with small orders will get resolved for Baxter.
Improving the demand-forecast capability:

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This could be done in many ways. However, the key to having an effective demand
forecast capability is to work collaboratively with suppliers. This might not be an easy task to
commence but still can be done by adopting a few useful strategies. The procurement team will
need to step down to the ground level to understand exactly how suppliers commence their side
of operations. Once they are done with it they will be able to understand ways to cope up with
the procurement process. The collaborative work between suppliers and the procurement team
can be facilitated through a number of ways such as by voice and video calls, through emails,
and the latest technologies (21). However, the suitability of the mode of communication is an
essential requirement. It means the strategy to communicate will vary with different countries. In
some companies, the exchange of emails will only be sufficient whereas, in many others,
physical visits will be required as well. In short, Baxter needs to encourage and train its
procurement team on how to collaboratively work with suppliers. They can also go for fresh
recruitment to attract and find professionals who are well versed in dealing with suppliers. The
existing professionals as stated must be trained on ways to deal with these people. Once the
procurement team is able to work closely with suppliers, they will be able to analyse the market
demands and make forecast accordingly.
Improving communication:
Communication can be facilitated in numerous ways such as by calls, emails, physical
visits, and using emerging technologies. However, the procurement team needs to be encouraged
and trained in ways to establish communication with suppliers. There is a need to create the
necessity to communicate with suppliers. Once, it has started, the next step would be to train the
teams on how to establish the communication. Moreover, they will also be trained on areas to
focus on while working collaboratively with suppliers.

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Products’ quality damage from higher temperatures can be prevented by applying
strategic thoughts. The issue, which Baxter has come crossed is not very surprising considering
that supply chain in the Middle-east countries is vulnerable to higher temperatures. With most
products being vulnerable to temperature variation, the logistics operation at Baxter has been
experiencing strict regulatory checks to ensure that transport and storage of such goods are held
to maximum integrity. “Cold Chain” is perhaps the solution to this issue (22). However, attaining
a robust cold chain is not an easy task to commence. It is actually full of challenges and
complexities. Every single player in the supply chain network will be needed to contribute with
their expertise of logistics operation to make it happen.
The feat can be achieved when all key stakeholders such as carriers, shippers, providers,
vendors etc. are aware of the importance of the following mentioned factors. These are (23).
Working with specialists of temperature controller: It is important to work with specialists of
who are certified and experienced in working with cold chain. This specialist can be from an
external vendor or an internal resource. Keeping these experts in the cold chain won’t just
provide relief from temperature variation but would also help to be ahead of the competitors. In
addition, a rigorous cold chain requires a very deep and strong relationship between shipper and
carrier (24).
Identifying the appropriate freight services: Shipping can be commenced in several ways such
as by Air Shipping, Over the Road, Ocean Shipping, and Rail Shipping (25). It is important to
balance the pros and cons of each shipment. In air shipping, it is difficult to maintain the
temperature. Higher cost in Air Shipping can be offset by delivering it faster to market. Ocean
Shipping can be used for a cost-effective shipment. It is suitable for long distances. Rail
Shipping is also efficient for long distances. However, it is less suitable for inflexible timelines.

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Over the Road can be used for flexible locations. This will also encourage using advanced
technologies.
Setting balances and checks when loading and unloading: Prior to loading and unloading of
the shipment it is important to ensure a few things. It is important to confirm product temperature
before loading the products. It is also necessary to inspect the condition of equipment before
loading the products. Another area of checkup will include checking for proper container air
flow. This will be required both during and after the loading (26).
Giving priority to clear expectations: There is a need to set priorities for various important
tasks like acceptable temperature ranges, contingency plans, proper seals, continuous
temperature vs. cycle settings, the process of rejections and returns, and equipment expectations
(27).
Balancing cost and technology: It is very important to maintain a balance between cost and
technology. There is an ample number of new and emerging technologies that can be used to
improve the performance of the cold chain. However, all technologies may not necessarily be
feasible with the firm. Baxter needs to have a good understanding of its capability and the areas
of improvement. Once it is identified the next step will be to use cost-effective technology to
raise its operations standard in logistics (28).
Standardising operating procedures: In a cold chain, standard operating procedures (SOPs)
are very important for eliminating gaps and mitigating risks (29). It is also essential to ensure a
few activities like proper packaging techniques, handling equipment problems, and the process
for deliveries or late pickups.

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Achieving a long-term success in temperature controlled process: Collaboration with useful
and relative partners is key to overcoming a range of risks and sustaining the logistics operation.
It is, therefore, important to establish a process of operations, which is understandable to all
parties involved in the cold chain (30).
Conclusion
To conclude, this can be said that Baxter is going through some common yet very
challenging phases. The issues that it currently faces are repairable to some extent. The first issue
is related to the shipment of small orders. Unnecessary spending on small orders has been a part
of this company. Now, by following the alternative ways, this can be repaired. In addition,
effective communication and coordination between suppliers and the procurement team needs to
be established. The problem to keep medications and other products can be attained by following
and establishing a robust cold chain. All precautions and strategies regarding an effective cold
chain operation should, therefore, be maintained to yield the maximum benefits of implementing
a cold chain strategy.

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