• Editors' Summary
• Credits

1. A New Look at Logistics
2. Clients Come First
3. People and Performance
4. The Role of Information
• Collecting Data
• Recording and Reporting Data
• Linking with Other Information Systems
5. Forecasting and Procurement
6. Distribution
7. Toward Contraceptive Security

• Figures
• Tables
• Side-bars
• Bibliography

• Programs face funding crisis
• Benefits of better logistics
• Improving staff performance
• Tips on building policy support
• Checklist: Assessing the supply chain
• How to make accurate forecasts
• Push or pull distribution
• The commercial sector can help

• POPLINE
• Media/Materials Clearinghouse
• Other issues
• To order copies
• CCP Home Page

This issue of Population Reports was prepared in collaboration with the DELIVER Project of John Snow, Inc.

Published by the Population Information Program, Center for Communication Programs, The Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, 111 Market Place, Suite 310, Baltimore, Maryland 21202, USA

The Role of Information

In a family planning logistics system, contraceptives flow through the supply pipeline in response to information about client preferences, contraceptive use, and stock levels. A strong logistics management information system (LMIS) allows programs to manage and monitor the flow of contraceptive supplies, account for products in the supply chain, reduce supply imbalances, and improve cost-effectiveness. Data from the LMIS also are useful for evaluating programs and supply chain operations.

Information is valuable to logistics management, however, only if it is accurate, timely, and tailored to the specific audiences that will use it, including policy-makers, program managers, and logistics system staff. Donors are another important audience. Donors are more likely to support family planning programs that can provide reliable statistics on contraceptive supplies and their use and can account for the products that the donors have provided (see Profile, right).

When programs first establish an LMIS, managers tend to use it only to schedule and manage the flow of supplies and to deal with supply problems. Then, as programs gain experience with the LMIS, managers use it to anticipate and prevent problems. In Kenya’s family planning program, for example, the long-standing LMIS includes an automated system that collects data when supplies are delivered to district stores. Managers use this information to calculate the quantities needed to maintain a six-month supply, to schedule deliveries so as to prevent understocks, to reserve the appropriate-sized transport, and to plan an efficient travel route (150).

The LMIS is a central part of any logistics system. A strong LMIS provides data to:

• Improve client service by accurately forecasting contraceptive demand, procuring the products and quantities in demand, and monitoring to maintain adequate stocks;
• Lower costs by reducing loss, damage, and waste of supplies;
• Improve policy decisions and program management through better reporting and analysis;
• Identify when immediate supervisory action is required —for example, in the event of stockouts or losses;
• Ensure accountability for the use of supplies purchased with public funds or provided by donors.

Only a few kinds of data are essential for managing the supply system, but they must be available for every product, at every level, all of the time. The five essential types of data for logistics are: stock on hand, consumption by clients, losses and adjustments, dates of orders and receipts, and amounts on order (25, 47, 48).

These data comprise the core of an LMIS. Together, they provide the information required for the key logistics functions—forecasting, procurement, and distribution. The first three—stock on hand, consumption by clients, and losses/adjustments—are recorded on local stock records and aggregated or reported to higher levels periodically. The others—dates of orders/receipts and amounts on order—are integral parts of individual transaction records. These are not routinely reported to higher levels but are valuable for special analysis, such as calculating how long it will take for contraceptive orders to arrive.

Stock on hand. Supply chain managers must know exactly what products and how much of each item are in stock and where the stock is located. Data about stock on hand provide this information. At the service delivery level, data on stock on hand guide decisions such as when to place a new order (48).

A well-designed LMIS converts data on quantities of each product (stock on hand) into data on how long supplies will last (months of stock on hand). To do so, managers compare available supplies with average rates of use. This calculation simplifies decisions about when to order supplies. Knowing that there are 1,254 condoms in stock does not tell logistics managers when to reorder, but knowing that this amount equals a three-month supply of condoms in stock does.

Contraceptive consumption. A top priority for every LMIS is to collect and report accurate information about clients’ consumption, or use, of contraceptives and other supplies (2, 103, 106). In LMIS terminology, this information is termed “dispensed-to-client” data. Program managers use the data to determine how many supplies to order and to project needs.

If data on clients’ contraceptive use are not available, a program can use data on the quantity of supplies issued by various levels of the supply chain closest to the client—for example, the number of contraceptives that subregional stores issue to service providers. Such data, however, are only a second-best alternative to dispensed-to-client data since they are not always accurate—that is, the number of contraceptives issued may not be the number given to clients.

FPLM/JSI In Bolivia a health worker conducts an exit interview with a family planning client, while her children look on. Program staff rely on data on the methods that clients use to help determine supply needs. A top priority for logistics management information systems is to collect and report good information on contraceptives distributed to clients.

Losses and adjustments. Even the best logistics systems experience some supply losses due to expiration, theft, damage, or mishandling. Losses and any other adjustments in supplies—such as transferring supplies from overstocked to understocked locations—must be recorded and reported separately from data on consumption. The separate records allow managers both to deal with the causes of losses and adjustments and to develop more accurate forecasts of client demand.

Dates of orders/receipts and amounts on order. Dated transaction records, usually called “issue vouchers” or “requisition and issue vouchers,” govern the flow of supplies from one point in the supply chain to the next. To prevent contraceptives from being lost during shipment, both the facility sending a shipment and the facility receiving it must track the amount requested and the dates that the supplies were ordered and received. The interval between ordering and receiving products is known as “lead time”.

When managers know how long it will take contraceptives to arrive, they can set maximum and minimum inventory levels and can calculate when to reorder. Managers who wait too long to reorder risk stockouts. Those who order too soon waste money on transportation and other supply functions and have more supplies on hand than they need, risking losses due to product expiration.