Cardinal Health partners with FourKites to build cognitive supply chain

FourKites, a supply chain visibility platform company, and pharma distribution giant Cardinal Health have formed a global partnership to improve tracking of medical equipment, pharmaceutical products, first aid supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) that is en route to hospitals and pharmacies, among other care facilities.

FourKites will be the main data hub for Cardinal Health’s cognitive supply chain network, which combines real-time supply chain visibility, machine learning and artificial intelligence capabilities to help ease the flow of inventory throughout the supply chain. Cardinal Health’s supply chain will give customers full visibility to network in-transit shipments via Cardinal Health’s ordering platforms. This will help the industry predict demand; better manage and protect products in transit; and track and account for products as they are delivered. This workflow will result in a leaner, more optimized healthcare supply chain, and better outcomes for consumers, the companies say.

FourKites’ work with the pharma distributor dates back to beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, with a pilot program designed to provide Cardinal Health with middle-mile visibility into PPE shipments, as demand for its products surged. At that point, FourKites and Cardinal Health built a new courier tracking solution to address the requirements for healthcare products that needed specific temperature controls and “white glove treatment” during transport.