Taking The Supply Chain Pulse

Mike Schiller, AHRMM and the Future of the Healthcare Supply Chain

• St. Onge Company • Season 1 • Episode 7

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Great conversation with Mike Schiller, the Executive Director of AHRMM as he narrates his  three-decade journey through the twists and turns of healthcare supply chain. From the bustling floors of a pharmaceutical distribution center to the cutting-edge developments at Lurie Children’s Hospital, Mike's story is a testament to the power of agility and transformational excellence in a sector that's as unpredictable as it is vital. His insights are a beacon for professionals seeking to navigate the complexities of constructing resilient supply networks that serve not only their organizations but also the greater good of the healthcare community.

This episode isn't just a look at the winding roads of one man's career; it's a rallying cry for the future of supply chain management. We uncover the untapped potential of young, tech-forward professionals through our spotlight on the Young Professionals Advisory Council, while also recognizing the strategic acumen military veterans bring to the table as they transition to civilian roles. As we pivot to discuss our annual conference, set against the vibrant backdrop of Columbus, we promise a unique blend of professional enrichment and personal enjoyment. The upcoming event is poised to be a crucible for the next generation of leaders—innovators ready to steer the helm of the industry toward uncharted territories.

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Fred Crans:

Hello again everybody. This is Crans from from St Onge, here with another episode of Taking the Supply Chain Pulse. Today, our guest is Mike Schiller, executive Director of ARAM, the Association of Healthcare Resources and Materials Management. Thanks for being here today, mike. We're happy to have you as a guest, and what we'd like to do today is learn a little bit about you and have you tell us a lot about ARM.

Mike Schiller:

Yeah, my pleasure to be here, Fred, Thanks for the opportunity to join you this morning and glad to get into it here. Let me start.

Fred Crans:

I'm going to ask you the question that I asked a few minutes ago, before we came online, and that is how do you think the Cubs are going to ask you the question that I asked a few minutes ago, before we came online, and that is how do you think the Cubs are going to do this year?

Mike Schiller:

Well, I've got a lot of hope for the Cubs this year, but you know what? I think that's just part of our DNA as Cub fans we are eternally optimistic about our club.

Fred Crans:

Yep, you should be. Cubs have a rich tradition, so it's uh, and the north side team is the, the team of the city, really, I think, as compared to the socks. But anyway, um, tell us a little bit about yourself, where your career started and how you ended up where you are today sure, yeah, be happy to.

Mike Schiller:

So I've been in the field here in the career field the supply chain for 37 years. Fred, I started out at a pharmaceutical distribution center in Mount Prospect, illinois, called Letterly Laboratories and I worked there for about nine years, started in the warehouse, moved into the office and managing the inventory there at that distribution center. From there I moved to Baxter and their interwoven division. This was back when Amsco came up with their reusable surgical gowns and towels and so Baxter created a similar division and I went in and I ran the field inventory and the whole premise of the business right is you're making money on these reusable products because they're coming back to you and we were losing a significant amount of product in the field. So it was really identifying just the processes in the hospitals and turning the program around so that we were getting the inventory back.

Mike Schiller:

After Baxter I went and worked at Lurie Children's Well Children's Memorial Hospital back then. I was there 17 years. I started in the OR, ran the OR and surgical services inventory. Spd reported to me. I moved on to the IT department, implemented Lawson, became the system administrator for Lawson and then moved into the supply chain and leading the supply chain for the organization.

Mike Schiller:

Last three years of my career I stepped out of operations and I joined the new hospital team, the new hospital project team, and we built the new beautiful Lurie Children's Hospital there on the Northwestern campus, right next to Women's Apprentice. It was a project of a lifetime, fred, I'll tell you it was one of those projects that you look back, you just hang your hat on. They had put together just a great team, three years project came in on time under budget and just a phenomenal facility. If you haven't seen it, I encourage you to take a look at it. It's just gorgeous. From there I went and worked for a company called Open Markets for about a year and then after that I joined ARM and I've been here at the AHA in ARM for 10 years and just recently I'm honored to have been selected and named the Executive Director of ARM and I'm really excited at the opportunity that this presents.

Fred Crans:

That must be a. That's a great title, and I know that you probably have hundreds of people on your staff working at ARM. Is that correct?

Mike Schiller:

Hundreds minus about a hundred, we've got six people now. We've got a couple of open positions left to fill. I'm working on those right now. But I'll tell you what I'm so proud of our team here. I'm blessed to have the folks here on the team that I have. They are just great ideas that they're bringing forward I have. I'm blessed to have the folks here on the team that I have. They are just great ideas that they're bringing forward, the passion that they have for ARM, for our profession and the supply chain professionals that we serve. I couldn't ask to be working alongside better colleagues than the ones I have.

Fred Crans:

That's great. I actually knew the answer to that question when I said that we're small but mighty. Fred, there you go. So what is the role or the mission and vision of ARM?

Mike Schiller:

That's a great question. So we've got our mission vision statements on the ARM website. But you know, Fred, since taking on this role of executive director, I'm flying a new banner, if you will, over the headquarters here of ARM and it's transformational excellence which is in my mind. Operational excellence is I'm doing the same things I've done before, I'm just doing them better. Transformational excellence, to me, speaks to the need to change. We have to do things differently and, let's face it, over the last four years, coming out of the pandemic supply chain, supply chain leaders, we are working very differently than we have in the past and the skill sets that we have to have today are very different than the skill sets that we really needed five years ago. So to that end, you know, I drafted a couple of principal statements and I worked with a lot of colleagues who helped give me some feedback on these. I worked with the team here to give some input into it and really it just it comes down to ARM's dedication to supporting healthcare supply chain professionals as they build and sustain agile and intelligent supply networks that support not only their organization, Fred, but supports the communities in the healthcare field at large. And you know, you notice I used supply networks as opposed to a supply chain.

Mike Schiller:

Supply chain to me conveys a linear type of supply chain. A network speaks to a network, right. It's expansive. There's multiple nodes in this network, multiple connections in the expansive. There's multiple nodes in this network, multiple connections in the network.

Mike Schiller:

And then the other principle statement is really about our commitment to be at the forefront of teaching and knowledge creation that prepares and equips supply chain professionals, and that's really, I think, the focus of our Reimagining Arm initiative here is really developing and producing and delivering content that is going to help move the supply chain field forward again under this banner of transformational excellence. And, last but not least, the conference we have coming up here in columbus, ohio, the I, the, the image or the icon or the logo that we selected was the bridge, and I just love that logo because it really speaks to I mean, what does a bridge do? A bridge connects and it's building off of last year's supply chain week theme of the power partnership and and making those connections that only supply chain professionals can make. We're uniquely positioned right, All the internal relationships that we have as well as the external relationships that we manage, and we can bring connections together that others may not see, and these connections and these relationships can produce benefits that otherwise would not have been realized.

Fred Crans:

Very good, the one idea of the network. I have had Ed Hiscock from Trinity on this podcast before and I asked him the question is the healthcare supply chain a real supply chain? And he said no, it's a web, and I think a web is very similar to a network. I think that you're both right about that. It's interesting that you would say that. So if I'm a new person that just came out of college and decided for some unknown reason, I wanted to get involved in healthcare, which is not a career where you're going to become overwhelmingly wealthy, why would I want to join Aram?

Mike Schiller:

Well, let me just take a half step back and joining and moving into the healthcare supply chain people who are doing that. You're right, you're probably not going to be on the Forbes you know most wealthiest list anytime soon, but they're doing it because there's a passion there. Right, you're a part of something bigger than just yourself. Right, you're part of that patient care. You're bringing the supplies to the hands that give care. I think Vance Moore is the one who coined that statement. I don't know that I'm stating it accurately, but so it's much bigger than yourself, and I think that's what really appeals to those of us who are in the supply chain field. But why ARM? Arm is the association for supply chain professionals. We've got the content and I'll be honest, I'll be transparent. Right, we haven't done a lot the last couple of years. It's been a challenging time for us, as it has for many other organizations coming out of COVID, getting back on our feet and kind of getting our stride back right. But we've got a full staff well, almost full staff. We've got a new education team in place that has an instructional design background and we're starting to develop a lot of content. We're starting to create a content calendar. We're looking at adding additional e-learning curriculum. We're looking at, you know, additional webinars and other content.

Mike Schiller:

We just wrapped up our very, very successful Spring Summit, which was a three-day forum with two sessions each day, addressing some of the key challenges that supply chain professionals are facing Workforce, revenue management, financial management, cost management in this very challenging financial environment that we're working and living within. And then, last but not least, technology. And what does AI look like? Right, that's what we hear. Ai, you're hearing it everywhere. And how does that apply to the supply chain and our supply chain operations? So why ARM? Because we're right there.

Mike Schiller:

Our goal, as I mentioned in those principal statements, is to come alongside you and help you on your learning journey, help you on your career journey, give you the tools that you need to be the best supply chain professional that you can be, to help guide and be a part of steering the organization where it needs to go in this post-pandemic environment again a very different environment that what we're accustomed to, to working in. Let's face it inflation. We haven't seen inflation like this, fred, since you and I were were just some a couple of young pups out there, right, so this is very new to some people in their roles. This is the first time they've seen inflationary pressures like this.

Fred Crans:

Interesting. So use your imagination here, Mike. Imagine that I'm a young guy, just 23 years old, just came out of college. That's where you have to use your imagination. And I have joined ARAM. Why should I become an active participant?

Mike Schiller:

Well, again, I think it's number one part of being a part of something that's bigger than just yourself. Everybody has an expertise base that they operate from, bringing that skill, those talents, those abilities to arm in the various committees that we have to offer, providing guidance as we look to develop content that is meaningful for the supply chain community. We could sit here and guess and have ideas.

Mike Schiller:

Yes, I've been a supply chain professional 37 years.

Mike Schiller:

I have the opportunity to travel quite a bit and network with a lot of different stakeholders and business verticals, and I come up with ideas on what our education should be, but the best way is to get it from the voice of our members right, and so, to that end, part of the reimagining arm initiative were one-on-one conversations with supply chain leaders, a voice of the member survey that we had sent out, and bringing all of this feedback to the consulting group that then presented a roadmap for us.

Mike Schiller:

And so this roadmap has identified a number of key strategies that we're working on and I'm working very closely with our advisory board on, and so you know again why be a part of it. It's a part of being a part of something bigger than yourself, but it's also coming into ARM when we're reimagining what ARM should be for today's supply chain professional, and giving us the opportunity to hear from you so that, as we develop the content and the information and the education and the different opportunities that you need to advance in your career to be the best that you can be, hearing that from you allows us to better fine tune the content that we are developing to meet those needs.

Fred Crans:

Well, last year when I attended the annual conference, I attended a couple of sessions with a young professionals group I think Rachel Anderson is the leader of that group and I thought that, wow, I wish I'd have had something like that when I was a young guy that just went into supply chain, where you have all these really talented, gifted young folks that have a forum to talk and to exchange ideas and experiences with each other. Could you tell us a little bit about that group?

Mike Schiller:

Yeah, we're really excited. This group has really taken off and I mean, let's face it, you know, tenured I like to call us tenured professionals instead of old guys tenured professionals like ourselves. Right Next five, ten years, a lot of us will be retiring and exiting the field, so it's really important that we foster and come alongside these young professionals. I think there's something that we can learn. They bring a very different skill set. They're much more connected and tech savvy. They've grown up with technology and so there's things that we can learn from them and obviously, and so there's things that we can learn from them and obviously I think there's things that they can learn from us.

Mike Schiller:

So there's the opportunity there with our YPAC, our Young Professionals Advisory Council, and the programming and the content that they're developing that meets those needs of the young professionals, and I'm really excited to share that. We have added a special appointee role to our board, so the YPAC past chair. When they complete that past chair role the following year they're going to be a part of the National Advisory Board for Arms. So this year we have approved the special appointee role and Ryan Burke will be filling that. It's important right to have that strong connection between the YPAC and then a representative from the YPAC to sit on the national board, and it just speaks to our commitment to young professionals and again developing the content that these young professionals need in today's supply chain world.

Fred Crans:

Well, as you know, I'm a member of the Bellwether League and Ryan Burke and Rachel Anderson are both future famers, so I think that if they are representative of the future leaders, we've got a lot of good stuff going for us.

Fred Crans:

Good stuff going for us. And when I attended that session last year, it was interesting because there were a lot of young folks in there talking from their perspective about their career, about employment, about whatever, and there were a lot of seasoned people, or tenured people as you will call them I call them old guys like me that were smart enough to go to that meeting, that session as well, and I would have to say that I learned at least as much from that meeting as any of those young folks did. It is a really good forum to try to learn how other people think and how other people see the world, because at any given time in any organization, you are probably dealing with at least four generations and maybe five, and every one of those generations looks at the world and their immediate environment differently. So that was I really want to uh compliment you and commend you folks for for those sessions. They were really great, thank you for that.

Mike Schiller:

Yeah, actually, for that was probably one of our highest attended sessions.

Mike Schiller:

I was, I sat in on that session and I think I think we had over 150 people in that one session. So I think it speaks to exactly what you're talking about, right, it met, met a need, there was a lot of interest and a lot of representation from, to your point, those four or five generations which, if you just put yourself in our shoes this is why it's so important, going back to my voice of the member survey, or voice of the member information how do we develop content for four or five generations out there, right? So so we need to understand what each of these generations are looking for and then try and develop content that meets those needs, and not only the content, fred, but the modalities that everybody likes to digest or interact or interface with that educational content. So, not a challenge that we're not up for and something that we're definitely striving for and continuing to to to hopefully meet the needs of those generations in the places where they reside, in those social media and other realms where they reside, work and operate.

Fred Crans:

And there's another thing that you did in the last couple of years, and that is you have gotten input and presentations from the military. And the reason I find that to be so meaningful is that I will say this and I can say it with absolute certainty over 50 years of being in the supply chain Many of us old time supply chain leaders didn't know a damn thing about supply chain. Many of us old-time supply chain leaders didn't know a damn thing about supply chain. We knew nothing about logistics and transportation because we outsourced those functions to our distributors. We knew a little bit more about purchasing and contracting, but most of our commodity items were outsourced to our GPOs. The military really understands logistics, really understands transportation. They have their stuff together. And a couple of years ago I met Alfred K Flowers Jr, the general from the Air Force, in one of his presentations and I've never been so impressed in my life as how much those guys know and how much we have to learn, and I appreciate you bringing those guys around. Are you going to continue doing that?

Mike Schiller:

absolutely, that is one of our growth strategies here is really a deeper engagement with the military than we already have and, I'll be honest with you, it really starts with the military representative.

Mike Schiller:

On our advisory board we've had some outstanding representatives over the last couple of years that that have really helped us in reaching out to that community, to those professionals in the military and recognizing to your point the skill sets that they possess.

Mike Schiller:

They're just amazing and so providing that track for those individuals. But more importantly, or equally importantly I would say, is the Skill Bridge program now that the military has, and that's a program that helps retiring military professionals segue into the private sector and provides the opportunity for them to move into jobs in the healthcare and logistics settings Because, again, they've got such tremendous expertise. So this is a phenomenal program and this is a program that ARM and AHA have got behind, and we're putting together a website and a resource page to help share that information. But I'm thrilled with the relationship that we have and the direction it's going and we're looking to add a couple of additional sessions to the military track this year to again to build that out and to provide some content to more of the upper levels of the military right, not just the operational professionals, but some of the higher level leaders in the military. So we're excited to be able to do that.

Fred Crans:

Yeah, I really thought it was great. I'm impressed with very few people, but I was really impressed with Alfred K Flowers. He was just a really nice person. But when you look at the background of a senior military person, you'll see that one of our shortcomings in healthcare is we don't have career paths identified for us, and I started to research Mr Flowers and every step along the way in the military they put you in different environments for periods of time so that you learn something. Then you move to another area where you learn something, and by the time you make it to the senior levels, you have experienced pretty much everything you're going to need to know to do a hell of a job. We often learn by happenstance and that's something that we could learn from them is to create career paths and our operations for our people so that they can become excellent at what they do too. So what have you guys been doing to grow new membership.

Mike Schiller:

Well, we are again coming out of the Reimagining Arm initiative. We've got a number of priorities in that area Membership and education, the military track, the young professionals these are all key strategy points for this year. We want to expand in creating and developing some strategies and collaboration at the college and university level. Developing a stronger alignment with our chapters as well is another key strategy. So all of these ultimately benefit the members that we have and the content we're able to procure and deliver, but also helps us to reach out to these communities and to grow our membership.

Mike Schiller:

And to that end, emily Milkes is our newest membership specialist. She just joined the team I want to say three weeks ago and Emily brings a really strong membership professional background to this position. She's got six years of experience managing another healthcare surgical association that had a little over 6,000 members. So she brings that wealth of experience here to arm and we're really excited to have her as a part of this team. And she's just jumped in and starting to take control of some of our committees and leading those committees. And again, the work that comes from these committee members helps to inform our strategies and membership growth. Well, that's great. I'm sorry, go ahead, fred.

Fred Crans:

No, you go ahead.

Mike Schiller:

Yeah, I was going to say one of the big things we're looking at is understanding the financial environment that we are all operating within. One of our key strategies is to go to where our members are. We're going to have the annual conference. As I mentioned, it's in Columbus this year, september 22nd to the 25th. I want to say yeah, the 22nd is Sunday to the 25th Wednesday, but I think it's equally important that we go to where our members are, and so that's another strategy, right, and being able to do that hopefully exposes us to individuals who are not yet our members, but they can see the content that we have and the value that we bring to today's supply chain professional. So a multi-pronged approach to go to where our members are, since some of them can't come to where we are at our annual conference.

Fred Crans:

I would say probably most of them can't come to your annual conference. I'd like to get back to the conference as we start to wind up the interview here, but before I do that, tell us what your opinion is of the new crop of supply chain leaders. What do they look like? How optimistic are you for our future?

Mike Schiller:

Well, I'm very optimistic.

Mike Schiller:

You know you mentioned Rachel and Ryan, Fred right, we grew up without technology and then needed to learn how to incorporate that into our lives, our professional lives, our personal lives and this group has grown up with it. Right, it's just a part of who they are and I think that alone will help them to bring a different perspective, a different approach to how we address the supply chain. Supply chain network that we're in, because, again, it is a network, and the tools that are coming out and becoming available in this space, I think they have a lot of potential. But you can't just throw technology on top of an operational process. You need to understand that operational process and I think that these young professionals, as they come in and learn the nuances of the operational processes and then bring that expertise and skill that they have through their education and the technology experience that they have, I think that's just a solid one, two, three punch that will really bring a lot of benefits and move the supply chain forward in ways that we haven't seen yeah, well, that's great.

Fred Crans:

I work with rachel and ryan on a regular basis and they blow me away at their work ethic, at their focus and at just about every aspect of what it takes to be successful.

Fred Crans:

So let's talk about the annual conference. I have been going to RM conferences year after year after year and among my biggest beefs about the RM conferences have always been that they're held in big venues in cities that are sometimes difficult and costly to get to but have great tourist attractions. So everybody wants to go there because that may be the only trip they get out of town all year, and I know that when you guys picked Columbus this year, I'm sure you've probably gotten a mixed amount of feedback, but I think it was an absolutely brilliant choice for you to pick Columbus. It's a market and the size of a market that many of the members more of the members work in than work in the large, gigantic markets. It's a great place for people to experience what life is like in America and it's in the middle of the country, so you can get there relatively easily. So tell us about this year's event and who you've got speaking and what has been the response to picking Columbus.

Mike Schiller:

You're right, the response has been mixed, but I like Columbus for the very reasons that you mentioned, fred. You know, back in I think it was 2015,. We held our conference in Indianapolis and received a similar response, a mixed response. Right, indianapolis. But I'll tell you once the conference ended, the feedback was this was great, easy to get to, easy to get around, nice, clean city. You know all of the benefits, et cetera. People loved it and if you think of Columbus and you think of its location to some of the major population areas there in the Northeast, it's not too big a stretch that we can be pulling from all of those major population areas there in the northeast. It's not too big a stretch that we can be pulling from all of those major population centers.

Mike Schiller:

I think you know, in the years past, a lot of the, a lot of the contract negotiations and site locations. Those are all determined a few years in advance. And you know we had a couple of conferences on the coast. We had Anaheim in 22. We had Orlando in 23. And again in this current post-pandemic environment that we operate within the West Coast Conference, to your point, you know nice vacation destination after the conference, but we lost a lot of the East Coast right. Same thing with Orlando. We lost a lot of the mountain states west right. Same thing with Orlando. We lost a lot of the mountain states west.

Mike Schiller:

And so the strategy here is let's kind of move in and then create kind of a square within the central portion of the US east, west, north and south and try and identify some of those markets that make sense that you know again, provide easy access into and out of access or proximity to some of these larger population areas, but also provide that nice experience that our members are looking for once the conference ends or prior to the conference, come out and spend a couple of days and see the sights, sounds and events that each of these cities has to offer.

Mike Schiller:

So that's been our strategy and we're really excited that the opportunity Columbus presents. In fact, the other day there was an article that came out in Forbes that just talked about Columbus being a fast-growing city and just the benefits that Columbus provides that were highlighted in this article. So a timely piece that we can definitely use to share why you should come to Columbus. In addition to the content and the networking that the ARM conference is going to offer, here's some of the other amenities that you can enjoy while you're in Columbus.

Fred Crans:

Yeah, it's a great place. I was asked by the Central Ohio ARM group to do an advertisement for Columbus, and for me that's pretty hard because, number one, I live in Cleveland and we think that Cleveland is the best place in the world, and number two, I graduated from the University of Miami and we got screwed by Ohio State in 2002 by a terrible call at the end of the national championship game. But I did it, and I did it because I think Columbus deserves to be recognized and I always thought that if you took the Mississippi River and went 100 miles on either side of it, that would be the most convenient thing for most people in the country to attend meetings. That's just my opinion, so my hat's off to you. So my final question is what did I miss? What didn't I ask you about that? You'd like to go on a soapbox for for a minute or two?

Mike Schiller:

You know I think we covered everything in really good detail. I would just say that you know, one of the things we're looking to do with these new locations that we're selecting for the conferences is to really engage with the chapter or chapters in that area, and so, to that effect, the Ohio chapter is, we're working very closely with them and there's some pretty cool things that we're going to have up and coming. I don't want to tip my hat, we're going to have some announcements coming out here on some of the ideas that are coming out of our discussions with the Ohio chapter, but definitely some unique opportunities that this presents and definitely a model that we're looking forward to expanding upon as we identify those other cities for conference years 25, 26 and beyond. So I really again and it's part of the strategy of how do we align more closely and integrate more closely with our chapters. We've got 29 chapters. They're a great asset to arm and so how do we work more closely with them? And this is just an example of how we're going to do that.

Fred Crans:

Well, great job and, mike, it has been a real pleasure having you on the podcast and we hope to perhaps have you on again some other time. If there are any folks out there that you think that we should be talking to send me an email, let me know and I'll be happy to contact them, because we want to get the word out to all those people that don't get to travel, that don't get to hear, the folks that are the leaders in the supply chain industry. We're sort of trying to expand their horizons through this podcast. So we appreciate it. Thank you very much and everybody else. We'll see you next time when we take the pulse of the supply chain. Take care.

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