Pick and Pack: a just-in-time forms order and delivery system.

Since the University of Alabama Hospital at Birmingham (UAB) had an in-plant print shop, the idea of purchasing forms from an outside supplier on a JIT order and delivery system didn't occur to them. But after establishing a successful medical/surgical JIT system at University of Alabama Hospital at Birmingham (UAB), the Director of Support Services and the Director of Purchasing looked at and developed a program to have a JIT forms inventory system by using their own print shop in conjunction with an outside supplier. The system, called Pick and Pack, basically works like this: An outside supplier buys flat-bed forms printed by the UAB Print Shop for resale back to UAB, and also produces their own custom, continuous forms to sell to UAB. The supplier warehouses, then picks and packs per individual UAB patient care unit order and delivers the forms to the UAB Material Management loading dock. Requisitioning is on-line for each patient care unit, Materiel Management and the supplier. Success was achieved in a step-by-step manner, reducing a time-consuming, labor-intensive receiving process to a one-person process. Inventory of forms is estimated to have been reduced by $90,000 and approximately 2,160 cubic feet of space freed for other uses.