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From left are Amy Lopez, director of sourcing and contracting; Sandy Myint, executive director of value analysis; Philip Profeta, associate vice president and chief supply chain officer; Susan Montes, executive director of purchasing; Elsa Liaiwapau, director of accounts payable; and Jose Corredor, interim director of materials management.
CORAL GABLES, Fla. (July 24, 2015)—From the 5,000 beach balls that drop on graduates during commencement, to the new valves UHealth cardiologists implant in faulty hearts, to the tape athletic trainers wrap around injured ankles, the University of Miami buys a lot of stuff—nearly $1 billion worth every year. That’s a lot of goods and services to order, receive, and deliver, which is the job of Supply Chain Services, a newly reorganized entity many UM employees may not be familiar with.
But not for long. As Philip Profeta, who joined the University as associate vice president and chief supply chain officer a year ago, notes, the Supply Chain Services team has been working “quietly but furiously” to consolidate and modernize the University’s procurement structure, systems, processes, and policies—with the goals of decreasing spending and expanding services.
With nearly $10 million in savings already realized, team members are meeting the first goal and are now ready to enlist their customers—faculty and staff—in meeting the second goal. They want to know how they can more actively help UM employees better and more efficiently serve students and patients.
The savings Supply Chain Services has realized to date come largely from its ability to flex new muscle acquired by consolidating separate but redundant functions. Today, what were three separate supply chains and three separate procurement or purchasing offices—one for academics and research, another for the specialty hospitals, and the third for University of Miami Hospital—are operating under one roof, at Gables One Tower, and as a single organization with nearly $1 billion in purchasing power.
That has enabled the Supply Chain Services team to negotiate better contracts and demand better services from vendors and service providers than three completely independent and separate organizations, which is what Profeta found when he arrived at UM from the Baylor-Scott & White Health Services in Temple, Texas.
“I knew we had three separate procurement organizations, but it surprised me to learn that the business world looked at us as three different businesses,” he said. “As a result, we had different contracts and different pricing and we weren’t getting the best deal or the best service. That has ended. We have standardized our business relations and we are taking a hard line: As an organization, UM is nationally recognized and in the business world we expect to be treated like other organizations at the national level.
But at the University level, the Supply Chain Services team is committed to delivering individualized services for customers with specific needs.
“For some, it may be a matter of making it easier to acquire what is needed to run their operations,’’ said Susan Montes, executive director of purchasing. “Some of our researchers have very unique items to buy and they have to buy it on the fly. That’s what we’re here to help them with.”
For others, such as nurses and technicians who spend time ordering and stocking supplies, it may mean giving Supply Chain Services a more active role in replenishing their department’s supplies. “We have physicians, nurses, and technologists who are busy dealing with technologies and products when their time could be better spent with patients,” Profeta said.
In addition to Profeta and Montes, other section leaders on the Supply Chain Services team are Sandy Myint, executive director of value analysis; Amy Lopez, director of sourcing and contracting; Elsa Liaiwapau, director of accounts payable; and Jose Corredor, interim director of materials management.
For more information, contact Supply Chain Services at 305-284-5751.
