Cardinal Health partners with FourKites to build cognitive supply chain

FourKites will serve as innovation partner and central data hub for all Cardinal Health shipments

FourKites and Cardinal Health announced today a global partnership to enhance tracking of medical equipment, pharmaceutical products, first aid supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) in transit to hospitals, pharmacies and other care facilities worldwide. FourKites’ superior tracking and analytics capabilities will help Cardinal Health optimize supply chain operations and enable a fast, reliable and frictionless experience for the 29,000 pharmacies and nearly 90 percent of American hospitals that depend upon Cardinal Health for critical supplies.

“Delivery of healthcare products directly impacts patients, and ensuring these products reach their destinations on time and in full has never been more critical. This type of transparency helps build trust in the connection between the Cardinal Health supply chain and our customers,” said Sean Halligan, SVP of Pharmaceutical Operations at Cardinal Health. “By partnering with FourKites, we will have end-to-end visibility to see products in transit and make any necessary adjustments to provide a frictionless experience to our customers everywhere and help them better serve their patients.”

FourKites will serve as the central data hub for Cardinal Health’s next-generation cognitive supply chain network, which combines real-time supply chain visibility, machine learning and artificial intelligence capabilities to facilitate the unencumbered flow of inventory throughout the supply chain. Cardinal Health’s cognitive supply chain will give customers full visibility to network in-transit shipments via Cardinal Health’s ordering platforms. In addition, 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.

FourKites distinguished itself in a competitive bid based on its leading network of Global 1000 companies and third-party logistics firms; superior multimodal, end-to-end capabilities; track record for customer-driven innovation; and unmatched ability to bring together all of Cardinal Health’s key stakeholders — internal groups, distributors, customers and medical manufacturers — to collaborate on supply chain optimization. Together with FourKites, Cardinal Health’s Procurement, Transportation, Warehousing and Store Management teams can collaborate more seamlessly with partners and customers to provide a world-class customer experience.

“Distributing medical products comes with many complexities — security, temperature control, trade challenges, multiple geographies and transportation modes, transit times, and carrier capacity — that have to be precisely managed and tightly coordinated across a large network of stakeholders,” said FourKites CEO and Founder Mathew Elenjickal. “We are honored to be selected by Cardinal Health to provide real-time visibility into these critical shipments and to help the company execute on its broader vision for a cognitive supply chain.”

FourKites’ work with Cardinal Health began during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic with a pilot program designed to provide the company with middle-mile visibility into PPE shipments as demand for its products surged. During this initial engagement, FourKites and Cardinal Health built a new courier tracking solution to specifically address the unique requirements for healthcare products that need precise temperature controls and “white glove treatment” during transport. FourKites and Cardinal Health will continue to collaborate on innovative new capabilities for the healthcare market.