A new approach to demand management provides customers with greater transparency and increased visibility
Demand management is used to ensure fair access to critical products for NHS customers when normal supply is disrupted, and national demand exceeds available supply.
Since its introduction in response to COVID-19 in 2020, the current demand management system has not significantly changed, and customer feedback is that improvements would be beneficial.
Improvement requests included:
- Greater transparency – sharing how thresholds are calculated.
- Increased visibility – sharing the specific threshold level being applied.
- Greater predictability – moving to a weekly threshold.
- Increased flexibility – providing insight that will allow local management of thresholds set at Department of Health (DoH) level.
We have worked closely with NHS England (NHSE) and Integrated Care System (ICS) representatives from the Resilience Steering Group, covering procurement, supply chain and clinical specialties, to co-design a new approach to demand management that is fit for purpose and future proof.
A new algorithm for threshold management
Part of the changes include the development of a new algorithm for threshold management to reduce the impact on customers and NHS Supply Chain resources.
The new algorithm will facilitate fair allocation of NHS Supply Chain stock between different types of customers and has been developed to include two key components:
- Identification of National Product Codes (NPCs) for Threshold Setting – the algorithm has been set to assess the inventory levels for stocked NPCs against forecasted average demand. NPCs reaching a critical level of stock holding are recommended for threshold setting. The algorithm includes the functionality for manual amendment of NPCs recommended for threshold setting.
- Weekly Threshold Calculation – the new approach will set weekly, not daily, thresholds at DoH levels by assessing national stock levels and demand profiles of each DoH code by NPC. The algorithm identifies the extent to which demand will deplete available stock depending on the supply constraints or increases in demand, and apportions maximum available stock to all DoH codes. For specialist NPCs which are managed over a set period, the algorithm sets thresholds that allow gradual stock depletion using logarithmic scales. Functionality to amend thresholds was built into the algorithm to allow flexibility and escalation resolution.
Demand Management Customer Insights Dashboard
As part of our ongoing commitment to drive efficiencies in the way we manage supply disruptions, from 27 April 2026, a new Customer Insights Dashboard will be available online that provides full details of demand management activities.
Over the past year, NHS Supply Chain has built and developed the bespoke dashboard – a powerful tool which will provide significantly more information than customers currently receive.
The new Customer Insights Dashboard will be populated with the latest demand, ordering thresholds, and stock visualisations, which will significantly enhance the information, transparency and quality of service offered to customers.
The system will be wholly owned by NHS Supply Chain but governed by principles agreed with NHS England and Resilience Steering Group members.
Watch our video to find out more about how to use the new tool.
What will the new dashboard show me?
Each Monday morning the dashboard will show a weekly amount that the trust can order (next working day in cases of Bank Holidays)
The dashboard will show all relevant information needed to best manage any disruption to normal supply. This includes a view of all products on demand management, weekly threshold, links to Important Customer Notices (ICNs), order transactions – for both amended order lines and fully fulfilled order lines – and a clear view of suspended lines.
Products that are categorised under PROTECT managed status, will be demand managed through one of the following three interventions:
- Demand-Driven Intervention – provides a view of weekly thresholds at DoH level for NPCs under protect managed status that have been identified to have a supply constraint with an undefined end point.
- Time-Driven Intervention – provides a view of weekly thresholds at DoH level for NPCs under protect managed status that have been identified to have a supply constraint with a defined end point.
- Exceptional Requirement Intervention – provides a view of weekly thresholds at DoH or Req Point levels for NPCs under protect managed status where a special intervention was applied on an exception basis due to the circumstances related to a local or national incident.
The Suspended NPCs page provides a list of stocked NPCs that have been suspended by NHS Supply Chain, so they are currently not available for ordering. Any related ICNs are also provided.
The Orders Previous Day page provides a view of all orders placed on the previous working day for protected products and products under special and manual intervention. The table also provides insight into the level of fulfilment of the placed orders.
The whole system will ensure fair allocation of stock for customers accommodating different order patterns and will give us the ability to engage and share information across the NHS in response to supply shortages, allowing continued access to critical stocks, until normal supply can be restored whilst informing customers on how and why thresholds are being set.
Tom Brailsford, Head of Resilience, NHS Supply Chain
Help and support
Please contact Customer Services:
- For help and advice with the dashboard.
- If you wish to request a review of your threshold on a product subject to demand management.
Frequently asked questions
The current demand management reports are emailed daily to affected customers and only contain information on the prior day’s demand interventions. Customers will continue to receive these reports by email when the new dashboard is live.
The new dashboard will provide metrics generated by the algorithm, including weekly thresholds by NPC, Req Point and DoH code, giving full demand management information to all customers, that can be easily tailored to requirements and accessed at any time, so can be used as a procurement and ordering tool for (short-term) future planning.
The dashboard is updated daily. The data in the dashboard will refresh by 9am each working day. Please allow a 30-minute window for refreshed data to feed through to the dashboard. If the data has not refreshed by 9.30am, please report the issue to the Customer Services team.
The dashboard will not update on Bank Holidays. On the Bank Holiday week, weekly thresholds will begin from the first working day of the week. The allocation of stock that would be available on a Bank Holiday would be distributed across the preceding week in line with daily average demand.
Weekly thresholds will be set on Monday for products under demand-driven intervention and time-driven intervention. These thresholds will be maintained throughout the week unless any unforeseen circumstances occur where the threshold will require-baselining.
Any re-baselining of thresholds will appear in the dashboard following the morning data refresh. Threshold for products under exceptional-requirement intervention will be set daily at either DoH or Requisition Point (Req Point) levels. These will be updated daily in line with morning data refresh of the dashboard.
Customers will only be able to see data for the DoH codes they manage. Customers will not be able to see other customer’s dashboards.
Alternative products can be found on the ICN for the product which is being demand managed or suspended. Links to relevant product ICNs can be found in the dashboard.
Any customer who looks after multiple DoH codes can request multiple access by contacting the Customer Services team.
Please follow the standard escalation procedure by contacting the Customer Services team.
When thresholds for demand managed products are reduced and customers order alternatives that are also being managed down but have no 13 week spend data, customers should submit a demand capture form to the Customer Services team so appropriate thresholds can be set.
Demand capture forms will identify the history of a product customers are switching from to what they’re switching to, giving them a demand profile. After 13 weeks of producing actual demand, it will overwrite the other options.
Demand capture forms are available from the Customer Services team.
Time-driven interventions are applied to products that face a known supplier constraint with a defined start and end date. The purpose is to manage stock depletion in a more gradual and predictable way over a set time-period.
The ‘Start Date’ and ‘End Date’ columns in the Time-Driven Intervention tables found in the dashboard show the start and end date for the intervention applied to each product. Once an intervention is launched, the end date cannot be extended. However, an intervention can be reset if new information comes to light that affects the duration of the intervention or requires an adjustment to the set thresholds. If an intervention if reset, the start and end date displayed in the table will change for the affected product.
When a customer is required to switch products, order new products, or anticipates changes in demand for a particular product, customers are asked to complete a demand capture form, available from the Customer Services team.
In cases of product switching, customers are encouraged to indicate which product they are switching from to allow NHS Supply Chain to infer their future demand for the new product based on historic demand for the old product.
In cases of new products being purchased or anticipated changes in demand, please complete the demand capture form to indicate the affected product and the new demand.
In all cases, please indicate the date that you intend the change to take place as this will dictate when the submitted information is used by the new system. Completed demand capture forms should be shared with the Customer Services team ten days prior to the first order. Failure to submit this form ten days in advance could result in the customer receiving a low threshold that doesn’t allow for the requested volume of the new product to be fulfilled.
Orders for a product can be placed from one or multiple Req Points for each DoH code. Although the dashboard will provide a view of recommended distribution of each DoH code’s daily allocation between the Req Points based on historic demand, these will not be enforced. Therefore, the order distribution between the Req Points within each DoH code should be managed internally.
Customers will need to request access to the dashboard via the Customer Services team, providing your full name, email address, named trust and Department of Health (DoH) code(s). Once access is approved, customers will receive a link to the dashboard. Any customers which have been involved with the initial deployment of the dashboard, will automatically receive a link.
A glossary explaining the definitions of key words used in the dashboard can be found in the ‘Glossary’ section via the homepage on the dashboard.
Yes. Data can be exported from the dashboard in Excel, CSV and PDF formats. Guidance on how to do this can be found in the User Guide.
Please submit any ideas to the Customer Services team, clearly outlining the need for the suggested development.