MSF Supply Tour

MSF Supply is a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) founded in 1989. Being one of MSF’s supply centers, our end goal is to deliver medical devices, logistical items and drugs for all international purchases to MSF field missions.

It also manages the packaging, the quality as well as the storage of all these items.

The Replenishment department is in constant contact with suppliers, the Warehouse, the Product and Operations departments.

The objective of the department is to ensure the availability of stocks for the field.
This means keeping a part of the items in stock (regular stock, emergency stock or kits) and managing the custom-made items.
A balance has to be found between stock levels (warehouse capacity, stock value, product shelf life...) and field service level.

The Procurement department is made up of buyers in charge of managing relationships with suppliers (selection, negotiation, monitoring of service quality, assessment).

Their objective is to find the product that will meet the needs of the field, according to the quality criteria of MSF movement, at the best price and with the best lead time.
They develop purchasing strategies by product category such as vaccines, medicines, medical protective equipment, biomedical machines, well-drilling equipment, mosquito nets, and many others.
In order to do their job, they work in triads with the Replenishment team and the Product Specialists.
And more generally with all the actors of the Supply Chain.

This video shows all the steps of the processing of a parcel in our warehouse from the reception to the shipment.

The Freight & Customs Department organizes transport of goods from MSF Supply to the missions but also from suppliers to our warehouse.

Our goal is to ship the goods within the missions’ deadlines at the best price, with the best itinerary.
We work closely with the Operations and Warehouse departments, the missions and our freight forwarders.
The team is also responsible for creating and preparing the documents required for transporting the goods, and for the import process at destination.
Part of the team is dedicated to the customs process to support exports and other departments.

The very last step is loading on a plane or boat, which is what was done for the Haiti emergency.