With that in mind, here is some practical advice to help make the selection process successful. Before proceeding any further, it's important to define distribution center . A distribution center is any facility a company uses to facilitate the flow of its raw materials and finished goods. A center can range in size from a small corner of a public warehouse to a larger facility operated by the manufacturer or its contract logistics provider, and it can provide a myriad of services from basic shipping and receiving to custom packaging and special service parts orders. The discussion in this article will be restricted to outbound distribution centers, which usually deal with finished goods.
Distribution centers are important in any industry.
However, they are especially vital in the medical device and diagnostic industry because health and equipment needs tend to be especially volatile. Unlike industries such as grocery or automotive, many medical device and diagnostic equipment manufacturers don't have the luxury of serving a mass market. Orders are often smaller, more individualized, and more last-minute in nature than in other business sectors. Moreover, professionals working in the medical device industry can't as readily predict exactly where or when their materials will be needed. One logistics professional summed it up well when he said the word emergency is more likely to be applied to a medical device than to a toaster or box of cereal.