Artivion Streamlines Inventory Management with Scandit Express

Artivion, Inc. is a medical device company focused on aortic disease, manufacturing and distributing, tissue allografts and mechanical heart valves, as well as stents, to surgeons and medical professionals worldwide. With three manufacturing sites, plus sales and distribution offices in nine countries, Artivion's products are sold globally wherever it has regulatory approvals.

Stephen Prichard, Manager of Application Development at Artivion, explains the company’s mission: "Our focus is on partnering with surgeons to restore the health of patients by delivering innovative technologies of unsurpassed quality."

With a global presence serving hundreds of hospitals, Artivion needed a more efficient and user-friendly scanning solution to help its sales reps manage consignment inventory accurately. Artivion partnered with Scandit, integrating the no-code Scandit Express app with its existing employee mobile app to enhance data collection and inventory management processes with advanced smart data capture technology.

"We’ve future-proofed our mobile app by leveraging Scandit Express for scanning product barcodes. Our built-in vendor solution was only set up for linear barcodes and not for 2D barcodes like GS1 Data Matrix or QR. As a company we are moving to 2D barcodes. We downloaded the Scandit Express app and it was ready to test within five minutes, with no coding required. We’ve tested it with 2D and it just works. The good news is as the business makes a change, Scandit Express is ready."

Tim Currie, Senior Manager, Information Technology - Artivion

The challenge

Artivion’s team of sales reps are responsible for performing consignment inventory counts at hundreds of hospitals across Europe and North America. The reps use a B2E (business to employee) app to record these inventories, but Artivion recognized the need to optimize it to make it easier for the reps to capture the information.

Tim Currie, Senior Manager of Information Technology at Artivion, explains: “We have ~70 reps in the US and ~70 reps in EMEA, all with different levels of technical confidence. Their job is to sell our products, not to be IT experts. Our challenge was to streamline the app.”

Artivion faced several challenges with their existing system:

Inaccurate scanning performance

Accuracy is key for a business like Artivion, where patient health is dependent on medical settings having access to the right products at the right time. However, the existing scanning solution wasn’t able to deliver the necessary levels of performance, and was prone to errors.

“Before Scandit Express, when scanning barcodes, the rep would have to pass the red line shown on their device through the middle of the barcode one item at a time”, Currie explains.

Scanning inefficiency

The built-in scanning feature of Artivion’s app required scanning each barcode individually, which was time-consuming for the sales reps.

Currie says: “Our reps had to tap the [Scan] button and pass the red line through each barcode one box at a time. In some cases there may be 25, 40, or 50 items in a location. That was a pretty repetitive task.”

Low adoption rates

The existing solution wasn't user-friendly, leading to resistance from sales representatives.

“The North America sales team regularly utilized the application, whereas the EMEA sales team encountered difficulties with the app in its current form.”, explains Tonya Hoch, IT Project Manager at Artivion.

“The app’s complexity presented a considerable challenge, requiring measures to simplify and streamline its design to improve user adoption.”

Currie adds: “For a while, we only had the [B2E inventory management] app in North America; we didn't have anything in EMEA – they were totally paper based.”

Diverse barcode types

Artivion needed a solution that could handle both linear and 2D barcodes as they transition to new labeling standards – something the incumbent scanning solution could not deliver.

“As a company we are moving into a 2D barcode world due to the real estate on the boxes, and the fact that 2D barcodes pass our in-house grader more easily. The built-in vendor solution was only set up for linear barcodes and not for 2D barcodes like GS1 Data Matrix or QR”, says Currie.

Offline capabilities

Artivion’s sales reps often work in areas with poor (or no) connectivity within hospitals, Currie explains.

“When our reps go into hospitals, there's a high probability that they're going to lose connectivity. Maybe the inventory is in the basement below ground or there's an MRI machine, or there's just thick walls or metal roof”, he says.

This issue necessitates an offline-capable scanning solution that isn’t reliant on a network connection.

The solution

Artivion implemented Scandit's no-code smart data capture solution, Scandit Express, to address these challenges.

The key features of the solution included:

• Multi-scan capability: Allowing sales reps to capture multiple barcodes in a single scan, thanks to MatrixScan Count.
• Improved accuracy: Enhanced barcode reading capabilities in various environments and orientations.
• Offline functionality: Enabling reps to perform inventory counts even without constant internet connectivity.
• Future-proofing: Supporting both 1D and 2D barcodes for evolving labeling requirements.

The ease of implementation as being a key factor in the decision to choose Scandit Express:

"I downloaded it during a meeting, and within 5 minutes or so was able to scan barcodes in the warehouse."

Tim Currie, Senior Manager, Information Technology - Artivion

The process of integrating Scandit Express with Artivion’s existing app was also swift, with Tonya Hoch noting: "We began evaluating Scandit in March of 2023, completing the assessment and implementation within the same month. Subsequently, we conducted user testing, training, and a gradual rollout with the sales team from July to the end of September, culminating in an EMEA launch in October.”

This efficient integration is particularly important in businesses that deliver vital healthcare solutions, as Artivion does.

Stephen Prichard adds: “Another perk of our experience and a reason we were able to integrate Scandit so quickly is the Scandit account rep that worked with us. She was very flexible and helped with the testing and rollout - she basically accommodated our every request.”

The results

The implementation of Scandit Express into Artivion’s workflows has led to meaningful improvements in the company’s inventory management process.

Increased scanning efficiency

The batch scanning feature offered by MatrixScan Count has greatly reduced the time required for inventory counts.

Tim Currie explains that, with the existing solution, Artivion’s sales reps were just “getting by”, but that with Scandit, “we've enjoyed some efficiency and speed”.

He continues: “Scandit Express is really cool because we open up the scanning engine one time and we can literally grab all 50 barcodes in one scanning operation.”

Stephen Prichard adds: “The ability to batch scan from Scandit (MatrixScan Count) was huge. I did a demo of the solution before we launched with Scandit and I had boxes set up vertically, some horizontal, some were kind of at an angle, and you could still just take your phone and almost swipe it across and it just picked everything up.”

Another key highlight for Artivion is the ability to scan barcodes in sub-optimal environments. “Scandit Express just seems to be able to handle any environmental situation, for example if it's low light, it's even got its own little flashlight. We do talk about that in the [employee] training; if there's a low light situation you can turn on the flashlight within Scandit Express if need be”, says Currie.

Improved adoption and usage

Artivion’s sales representatives have embraced the new solution, particularly appreciating the improved scanning capabilities brought by the Scandit Express integration. Tim Currie reports: "Every bit of feedback I've had on the scanning process has been very positive."

Within a year of implementation, Artivion saw substantial uptake across their global operations. Stephen Prichard shares statistics that illustrate the upturn in usage by Artivion’s sales reps: "In EMEA, we've had 62 reps use the solution and complete 710 counts in the past year. And in North America, we've had 61 users do this and they've completed 1564 actual cycle counts."

Attentive support

Alongside the improvements to scanning capability and performance, Artivion has also benefited from Scandit’s enterprise-grade support, which helps to keep its app functioning for its users.

Stephen Prichard recalls: “We were testing on Android devices… and there was a glitch. We reported that to support and I think it was the next day or within a couple of days there was already an update in the app store that addressed the issue.”

Ready for the future

Having integrated Scandit Express, Tim Currie says that Artivion has “future-proofed the app” used by its sales reps, as the company is now able to scan different barcode symbologies.

“We have tested Scandit Express already using 2D barcodes and it just works like magic. It works really, really well. So the good news is that as the business makes a change, Scandit Express is already ready for that change."

Tim Currie, Senior Manager, Information Technology - Artivion

This enables Artivion to focus on its mission of helping to restore the lives of patients fighting aortic diseases, by manufacturing and distributing life-changing technologies.