Pharmaceuticals Where They’re Needed, When They’re Needed: A Conversation with Jason Winkleblech, VP of Business Development at RightNow Inventory

Jason Winkleblech is the vice president of business development for RightNow Inventory (RNI).

Prior to joining FFF Enterprises and RNI in July 2000, Winkleblech spent more than 20 years with Mitsubishi Chemical, where he enjoyed progressive success growing sales, optimizing operations, managing supply chains and leading manufacturing facilities in the U.S. and Mexico serving major original equipment manufacturer and aftermarket imaging consumables markets. During his tenure, he collaboratively developed new products and business solutions for Xerox, Kodak, Lexmark, HP and many others.

Winkleblech holds a Bachelor of Science degree in business administration from Eastern University and is a Six Sigma Greenbelt. A Pennsylvania native, Winkleblech currently resides in the San Diego, Calif., area and enjoys year-round golf, hiking and all the benefits of the beautiful Southern California region.

BSTQ: The supply chain for pharmaceuticals is reliant on a lot of external factors. When important chemical components are produced in other countries, geopolitical issues can cause huge disruptions. How can pharmacies mitigate these disruptions that feel beyond their direct control?

Winkleblech: While health systems cannot control global manufacturing or geopolitical events, they can improve their resilience to disruptions. The key is shifting from a reactive procurement model to a proactive inventory strategy.

Forward-deployed (consignment) inventory places critical medications on-site before they are needed, allowing hospitals to maintain immediate access without tying up working capital. Rather than relying on just-in-time replenishment, pharmacies maintain a clinically appropriate reserve of high-risk, high-value medications while only paying for products after patient use.

Technology also plays an important role. Continuous inventory monitoring provides real-time visibility into stock levels, usage patterns and expiration dates, allowing replenishment to occur automatically before shortages develop.

Ultimately, the objective is not to eliminate supply disruptions — which is impossible — but to reduce their impact on patient care.

BSTQ: Cold-chain logistics still experience failures. Is there anything pharmacies can do to prepare for or prevent them?

Winkleblech: Hospitals can reduce risk by implementing real-time temperature monitoring throughout on-site storage, using automated alerts that immediately notify staff if products move outside acceptable temperature ranges. This allows corrective action before product integrity is compromised.

Inventory practices are equally important. Automated inventory tracking helps ensure products are used in a first expiry, first out system, minimizing unnecessary handling and reducing the likelihood temperature-sensitive medications remain in storage beyond their optimal use period.

Maintaining an appropriately sized reserve of critical cold-chain medications also provides operational flexibility should a shipment be delayed or a refrigeration failure occur. Combined with a distribution partner like FFF Enterprises capable of rapid emergency replenishment, these safeguards help minimize the risk of treatment delays while preserving product quality.

BSTQ: Demand forecasting is sometimes inaccurate, leading to too much or not enough of a product at a given time. How can pharmacies stock more accurately?

Winkleblech: Demand forecasting remains one of the greatest challenges for pharmacy supply chain managers, with changing patient volumes, evolving clinical protocols and seasonal fluctuations, making inventory planning increasingly complex. Rather than relying solely on historical purchasing data, pharmacies should use actual utilization data to drive inventory decisions.

Technology-enabled inventory management systems continuously monitor inventory movement and consumption trends, allowing reserve levels to be adjusted based on real-world utilization rather than static periodic automatic replenishment (PAR) levels. This creates a more dynamic inventory model that adapts as demand changes.

Consignment further improves inventory management by eliminating the need to choose between carrying excess inventory that may expire and risking product stockouts. They can maintain clinically appropriate reserve levels without increasing inventory carrying costs, while automated replenishment helps keep inventory aligned with actual patient demand.

The combination of real-time visibility, automated replenishment and utilization-based inventory optimization enables pharmacies to reduce waste from overstocking or expiration loss while improving product availability when patients need it most.

BSTQ: What innovations has FFF developed for forward-deployed inventory (consignment) management to address supply chain challenges? How is RightNow Anywhere differentiated from other consignment systems? Why is this valuable to pharmacy operations?

Winkleblech: RightNow Anywhere modernizes traditional consignment by replacing dedicated inventory cabinets with Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) technology that continuously monitors inventory within the pharmacy’s existing refrigerators, controlled room temperature (CRT) shelving, automated dispensing cabinets (ADCs) and other storage locations. Rather than requiring hospitals to redesign their workflows around specialized hardware, RightNow Anywhere adapts to how pharmacists already work.

BLE-enabled sensors provide continuous visibility into inventory levels, product movement and storage conditions, while intelligent software automates replenishment based on actual utilization.

For pharmacy operations, this means hospitals can maintain clinically appropriate inventory levels with the financial benefits of consignment — paying only after product use — while extending inventory visibility beyond the central pharmacy into decentralized care areas. The result is greater flexibility, improved inventory accuracy and increased resilience during supply chain disruptions.

BSTQ: Parent company FFF Enterprises’ motto is “Helping Healthcare Care.” As a subsidiary of FFF, how does RightNow Inventory align with that goal?

Winkleblech: “Helping Healthcare Care” animates everything we do! Through the RNI forward-deployed inventory model, we can place critical and often high-cost medications directly at the point of care before they are needed, while RNI manages activities behind the scenes — inventory monitoring, replenishment, expiration management, temperature monitoring and other operational functions. That helps reduce waste and inventory carrying costs, but perhaps more importantly, it gives pharmacy staff time back to focus on the most important thing: patient care.

BSTQ: What solutions does RightNow Inventory offer that you’re most passionate about right now?

Winkleblech: For me, it’s RightNow Anywhere because it removes many of the physical constraints of traditional consignment and allows us to design forward-deployed inventory around how healthcare providers actually work.

Historically, consignment inventory was often associated with a dedicated cabinet or refrigerator. RightNow Anywhere changes that. Using BLE technology, we can manage inventory in a customer’s existing storage environment — a refrigerator, shelf, cabinet, ADC or other locations — without forcing pharmacy to completely change its workflow.

What I’m particularly excited about is where that can take us. It allows us to think beyond the central pharmacy or main storage areas and bring consigned inventory closer to the actual point of care — potentially the operating room, emergency department or other areas where immediate product availability matters. It also creates opportunities to provide better visibility across larger, more distributed health systems.