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Solution Story · Logistics & Asset Management

Every device, accounted for — every hour of every day

Medical equipment can't just be "in transit somewhere." Hospitals need their devices back, regulators need the paper trail, and a loaner has to keep the ward running in the meantime. We built the logistics backbone that made all three true at once.

The problem

Four questions nobody could answer quickly

Equipment constantly moved between hospitals, repair laboratories, and external vendors. Before the platform, answering the everyday questions meant phone calls, spreadsheets, and hope.

"Where is the device right now — and who has custody?"
"Has the customer approved the repair, or is it waiting on us?"
"It went to the manufacturer for warranty — when does it come back?"
"Which loaner is covering them, and when do we get it back?"

Each unanswered question was a delay, a support call, or — worst case — an expensive device lost between organizations. Movement itself had to become a managed business process.

What we built

A return order for the movement, a work order for the repair

The key modeling decision: physical movement got its own first-class business object — linked to, but distinct from, the technical repair. The repair can pause; custody never does.

Hospital device needs repair Repair lab receive · inspect · repair Vendor warranty / specialist work Repair lab final QC · ship back vendor leg only when required — visibility never breaks repaired device returns · every leg tracked with carrier labels & tracking numbers LOANER TRACK — runs in parallel equivalent device reserved → shipped to hospital → in use during repair → returned → inspected → back in inventory hospital keeps operating
One return order tracks the device's journey; a parallel loaner assignment keeps the customer running. Both link to the same work order.

Shipping woven into the workflow

Labels generated, tracking numbers captured, and delivery status attached to the operational record automatically — for every leg: outbound, vendor, return, and loaner shipments alike.

Vendors inside the chain

When equipment left for a manufacturer, custody didn't go dark. Vendors updated progress through their portal, and every handoff stayed on the same audit trail.

Customers watching in real time

Hospitals tracked their device — and their loaner — through the portal. "Where is it?" phone calls became a self-service lookup.

The loaner fleet

Expensive assets, zero guesswork

Loaner devices were a limited, costly fleet spread across multiple laboratories. Before the platform: whiteboards and spreadsheets. After: a fully managed lifecycle where a device can never be double-booked or quietly lost.

01 · Available

In inventory

Visible across all labs with full history.

02 · Reserved

Matched to a repair

Compatibility checked; locked to one work order.

03 · With customer

Keeping them running

Assignment, shipment, and expected return tracked.

04 · Returned

Inspected & ready

Checked, maintained, and back in the pool.

Utilization became measurable

Which devices sit idle, which are always out, where the fleet is short — inventory decisions moved from instinct to data, lab by lab.

Downtime became a service promise

Hospitals didn't wait for repairs — they operated on loaners. Business continuity turned into a differentiator the client could sell on.

Results

Traceability at industrial volume

300k+
equipment return orders processed
100%
of movements with chain of custody
6
shipment scenarios, one tracking model
0
devices "lost somewhere in transit"
The movement of equipment is itself a business process — treat it as administrative overhead, and visibility fragments everywhere it matters.
Why logistics lived inside the platform, not beside it