Let’s face it value analysis is not as easy as it looks. If you were to tell me that you could establish a Six Sigma Teams without training black, yellow and green belts and then expect these teams to achieve Six Sigma outcomes you would be just kidding yourself.  Your team members would need extensive training in Six Sigma to accomplish superior results. Value analysis is a discipline very much like Six Sigma or Lean Management. To be proficient at value analysis you need to have extensive, continuous and up-to-date training for peak performance!

That’s why this client not only began their VA program with extensive training for all their team leaders and team members, but they also realize that this education is never ending and that in order to continually improve their VA program they must refresh their VA training each and every year.

For example, this client told me that they contracted with a trainer last year who focused on evidenced based management. This year they hired our firm for advanced value analysis training as well.  This is not a one-time event for this client, but an ongoing stratagem to continue to hire the best value analysis trainers and on an annual basis give their VA teams new and even better strategies, tactics and techniques that they can employ to boost their VA team’s performance.  

It was also important to note that this client had their Chief Operating Officer attend this training session and then spoke to the group during a break. He reaffirmed how important all of their VA work is to their hospital, especially since their reimbursement is not going to go up any time soon even though higher technology expenses are still pushing their costs up each and every year.  I can’t tell you how significant it is to have an executive management sponsor, like this COO, fully engaged and very active in hospital’s VA program!  From my perspective, it will certainly make these team leaders’ and team members’ job easier and their teams much more successful.

One of the reasons this client’s VA program has been so successful over the last few years is that they keep the momentum going with VA training each and every year so that their VA teams never lose focus of how important they are to the financial success of their healthcare organization.

It’s easy for any hospital, system or IDN to put a VA team(s) together and say “Go Save Money”. It’s usually followed by capturing some low hanging ripe fruit that’s ready to be harvested. Nevertheless, we have found that the true test of a VA program’s sustainability, profitability and productivity is for them to achieve measurable and meaningful savings after their low hanging fruit has been picked clean! 

An annual VA refresher course on the most up to date techniques in value analysis would be a good starting point for you too to keep your VA team(s) focused and motivate each and every year.  
Last but not least, it doesn’t take a lot of time, effort or money to do so.

What I learned at this meeting was how much you can learn from your peers, if you just take time to talk to them. For instance, I facilitated a discussion between the association’s members on ideas for joint ventures between their hospitals or systems in areas that their GPOs don’t cover or have a weak offering.  When one of the participants asked if it would be a good idea to joint venture with industries in her region too on energy, maintenance supplies, snow removal, etc., I thought this was a brilliant idea that no one had thought of until she raised the subject. 

That’s what learning from your peers with pride is all about! It’s about taking the time to go to your association’s meetings and conferences (regional and national), so that you can talk to your peers about what they are doing, thinking and planning to improve their supply chain management.

There is no better way to invest your time that I can think of to keep you on top of your supply chain game.  It’s like having a business support group that is always ready to answer your questions, discuss your problems and give you new ideas to make your job easier and more fun. 

]]> http://savingsbeyondprice.com/savingsblog/how-to-create-manage-and-maintain-high-performance-value-analysis-teams/feed/ 0 http://savingsbeyondprice.com/savingsblog/how-to-select-the-best-va-team-leaders/ http://savingsbeyondprice.com/savingsblog/how-to-select-the-best-va-team-leaders/#comments Tue, 03 Mar 2009 18:12:15 +0000 Robert Yokl http://savingsbeyondprice.com/savingsblog/?p=108 Indentifying the best value analysis team leader candidates can be like playing a game of roulette if you don’t have a list of proven characteristics that are known to be a good predictor of success. To help you in your selection here are four characteristics you should look for in your Value Analysis leaders:

1.                Team leadership experience

Your candidates should have managed at least one team previously, before even being considered as a VA team leader. This is not the time for on-the-job training if you are looking for a high-level of performance for your value analysis teams.

2.                Problem-Solving Skills

This is an essential skill that your team leaders must possess, since this will be a big part of their job as a VA team leader.  This important skill will help their project managers when they hit the wall on their projects and think that no solution can be found to move their projects forward.

3.                Proven Track Record

Just because a candidate has led a team before, doesn’t mean that they have done it successfully. Look for candidates with a proven track record of results (quantitative and qualitative) before assuming that they have the leadership abilities necessary to lead one of your VA teams.

4.                Excellent Communications Skills

One of the most important leadership skills a VA leader can have is to be an excellent communicator, since this is 80% of what a VA leader does.  A VA leader must provide frequent, consistent and timely verbal and written communications to their team members that are clear, motivating, and goal oriented. If a leader doesn’t have this skill they will be ineffective in leading their VA team in the right direction.

These are just a few of the characteristics we have found that VA team leaders must exhibit if they are to be effective, successful and competent in leading their VA teams.  Don’t forget to use them the next time you make the important selection of a VA team leader. This will ensure your ability to get a good fit – not a mismatch!

Are your value analysis studies taking too long?  You probably have heard the old  song “Endless Summer”. This song reminds me of the song played at many value analysis team meetings across the country. You may have heard this tune at your own value analysis meetings as well: Endless VA Studies! 

In my 27+ years as a coach and facilitator of value analysis teams I have observed that the one challenge value analysis professionals experience is getting their VA studies accomplished quickly and efficiently. This quickness and efficiency will have a positive impact on your hospital’s bottom line.

To assist you with this challenge, here are five of my best practices I teach teams that have helped speed up any and all VA studies:

Plan Your Studies – There is an old adage in the business world “A Business with No Plan is a Plan for No Business.”  I think this sentiment applies to value analysis in the sense that a value analysis study with no plan is a plan for no savings or quality improvements.  Therefore to improve your outcomes you must set goals for your VA study along with a detailed action plan. Remember: A VA study plan is always written and then discussed with your team leaders to improve it. Most importantly, you need to update your team members as to your progress against your plan frequently for feedback.  Your plan does not need to be elaborate but it should be easy to understand, thorough and constantly updated as well.  In doing so, you won’t need to tax your brain trying to remember the little details or forget important action steps.

Get it Done in 60-90 Days (2 to 3 Months!) – This is one of the most important aspects of any value analysis study. Setting a due date for studies so you don’t suffer the endless study syndrome.   Let’s face it, your project managers will not like making a time commitment at first, but it is a commitment that will be worth its weight in gold once you make it a best practice.  We have found that 60-90 days is a reasonable timeline for just about every type of study in your healthcare organization, especially if you follow the advice of step-1 above.

Stop “Winging It” – In this day and age would anyone be the project leader on a LEAN Management or Six Sigma Team without having been trained as a Green Belt (or a Black Belt) in the disciplines that are deemed best practices?   Well of course we wouldn’t. Yet we take for granted the fact that value analysis is a process and system that is very similar to LEAN and Six Sigma and does require extensive training and a thorough understanding of the best practices of value analysis in order to be highly effective at meeting your savings and quality goals.  Training is the key to your success; don’t ignore the incredible advantage it will give you.  I guarantee you it will make your value analysis studies faster, better and more timely with advanced VA training.

Track Your Project Managers Study Process – This goes hand in hand with having an action plan, but it is very important that you track every aspect of your value analysis studies especially if you are a VA Coordinator or a VA Team Leader.  You MUST know the status of each and every VA study if you are to avoid the endless study syndrome.  At every team meeting you should have your VA Project Managers submit a progress report which would require them to update the team on what was accomplished from your last meeting.  You may get some push back on this idea. But really how hard is it to fill out a Word template to say that this is my progress since last meeting and I did A,B,C and D, as well as, to report that I will be doing E, F and G by next meeting. It’s a simple one page task all team members can do! 

Don’t Let One Person Do All the Leg Work – This is one of the biggest mistakes Value Analysis Coordinators, Managers or Directors make who do all the leg work on all their hospital’s VA studies. If you allow this to happen your VA Team isn’t really a team but instead is a steering committees whose members are asked to makes decisions or give input on a hospital’s value analysis projects without getting their hands dirty. This isn’t a productive way to do business! 

Let’s face it, the number of VA studies that can be accomplished by one VA Coordinator, Manager or Director pales in comparison to the number of studies that can be completed by a value analysis team with 10-12 members who all take on one VA study each.  An outstanding VA Coordinator, Manager or Director could probably work on 4-6 studies at a time but if you can double or even triple your savings yield through real teamwork your VA study productivity will explode.

Savings Beyond Price -Weekly eNewsletter – January 21, 2009

Robert T. Yokl

President & Chief Value Strategist

 

Excellence is an Art Won by Training

Aristotle is quoted as saying that “Excellence is an art won by training and habituation”. Training is the sure path to improvement, reducing the resistance to change and changing people’s behaviors. It is the only way that I know of to “unfreeze” existing thinking, replace it with new habits, and then “refreeze” these new ideas, behaviors and practices that have been learned to create a whole new way of doing things.

We see this truism play out every time we train a new value analysis team(s) for our clients. Prior to this training, our client’s department heads and managers are skeptical, risk adverse, lack trust, and are indifferent to new ideas about how to save money – beyond price. But then we win them over by teaching them that there is indeed a better way to save money, by having them practice the new skills we have just taught them and then by repeating the process until they achieve the desired results. 

After 22 years of training value analysis teams in the art of excellence, I can tell you that I have found NO better way to change people’s minds and hearts than training and as Aristotle calls it “habituation” or practice makes training perfect.

This is just one example of how excellence is an art won by training, but it should be your best practice in everything that you are trying to accomplish. When you are installing a new MMIS system your staff needs training. Before you take your annual physical inventories your staff needs training.  When you hire a new buyer they need training. Nothing new, different or experimental should happen in your supply chain operations without training.  It’s your key to quality, financial fitness and operational excellence! 

So now that you know the secret to changing people’s behavior and changing the “status quo” in your healthcare organization, I would encourage you to take one small first step in this direction: develop a training program for ALL of your new hires in order to build, not hope for, excellence into your supply chain operations. Once you have accomplished this small footstep, then move on to even bigger training challenges over the next few years. You will be absolutely amazed at the results of doing so.

Your Partner In Savings Beyond Price™,

Robert T Yokl

Chief Value Strategist

Strategic Value Analysis® In Healthcare

Bobpres@strategicva.com

1-800-220-4274

P.S. If you are interested in viewing a clip from our training video to see how we do our training, as well as pick up a few tips on what your training should look like please be our guest.

P.P.S. Don’t forget to check out my new blog “Getting to the Next Level of Savings!” now that your GPO savings are slowly disappearing.  

 

 

New Software Opens up a Whole New World of Supply Chain Savings Previously Thought Impossible

Utilizer™ Dashboard version 3.2 just released! Finally, there is a user friendly software that will enable healthcare organizations to quickly identify their supply utilization misalignments from the 30,000 foot level, right down to the ground level. This simple, effective and affordable Utilizer™ Dashboard will open up a whole new world of supply chain savings most think is impossible.

Skippack, Pa (SVAH) November 14, 2008 – Healthcare managers won’t be at all surprised to hear that the healthcare industry is rife with utilization misspends and misalignments. The root of the problem, according to expert research, is that despite their best efforts, healthcare managers have yet to uncover where their true utilization savings are buried. 

Robert T. Yokl, President of Strategic Value Analysis® in Healthcare (SVAH) and a         recognized supply chain management expert, recalls talking recently to a healthcare supply chain manager, who told Yokl that he, employing a spend manager, an analytics manager and clinical manager tools, was unable to locate their organization’s utilization misalignments. The job was not impossible, though, as SVAH’s was able to find nearly $4.2 million dollars in utilization misalignments for this organization.

“This very skilled and highly qualified supply chain manager was unable to pinpoint his savings opportunities, but this failure was in no way related to the managers’ skills or                 qualifications,” Yokl says. “He simply did not have the right tool to accurately find the savings that consistently remain buried in his supply chain data.”

 Yokl’s solution is simple:  Use the right tools for the job.  Over the last eight years, SVAH has conducted hundreds of utilization benchmarking studies for hospitals, systems and IDNs by employing a proprietary utilization dashboard, which has identified close to a half a billion dollars in utilization misalignments for SVAH clients. Yokl says his company’s Utilizer™ Dashboard is the precision tool that hospitals and healthcare institutions really need. “The bottom line is that healthcare organizations can’t do it alone; it’s an impossible task to ask supply chain managers to find thousands, and even millions in supply chain savings using old-school strategies, tools and techniques.”  

With this said, SVAH has just recently upgraded its Utilizer™ Dashboard to version 3.2 which now includes an easy to use contract management module that takes the hassle out of managing and controlling the hundreds (maybe even thousands) of contracts healthcare organizations must manage, archive and bid/negotiate almost on a daily basis.

The Utilizer™ Dashboard is available as a subscription service on a fixed monthly fee basis.  It identifies all potential utilization savings, and subscribers also receive unlimited phone and e-mail coaching to assist them in translating, strategizing and implementing the savings uncovered with their Utilizer™ Dashboard.  Yokl says one of the best features of the dashboard is that “SVAH does all of the heavy lifting and our clients get all of the savings.”

About The Company: Strategic Value Analysis ® in Healthcare, (SVAH) Skippack, Pennsylvania, is a software, training and consulting firm specializing in supply utilization management. SVAH’s mission is to give clients greater control over their supply chain by providing them with better information, better focus, and better systems so that they can make better decisions on their second biggest expenditure.

On the contrary, we have found over the last 12 years that if you want different results than you have been achieving on your value analysis projects then you need to embrace a disconnected value team model to obtain new, better and more lasting results. Here are six reasons why this new, different and client tested model works every time:

1.                Unbiased Analysis

All value team members have built-in biases about the project, services and technologies they use. Therefore, to insure an objective, data-driven and arms-length view of the issues it is critical that a project manager be assigned who doesn’t bring any baggage with them that will negatively affect their projects efforts. 

2.                Eliminates Preconceived Solutions

We call this rush to judgment: a project manager deciding prematurely what the solution should be for their value analysis study. Having a project manager for outside the home of the project, service or technology under investigation virtually eliminates the problem.

3.                Reduces Turf Protection

If you own (i.e. use, recommend or are an advocate of) the product, service or technology under investigation and are assigned a project on your turf, you will have a natural tendency to protect your turf from any change whatsoever. However, if you have NO ownership you are free from organizational and cultural pressure to give an independent solution to the case at hand.

4.                Stretches Project Managers

You have heard the expression that a person “phoned in their report” with little or no effort on their part since they didn’t take the project seriously or thought they knew ALL the answers and the right solution to the problem. This doesn’t happen when a project manager “knows nothing” about a project and is then forced, by their ignorance, to thoroughly investigate the subject at hand. The big benefit is that you won’t have predefined solutions to your value analysis studies before they even get started and the quality of your VA studies will improve exponentially.

5.                Increases Team Knowledge

You will quickly notice that when you employ the “Know-Nothing” principles to your value team model it will straight away promote a cross-pollination of new and better ideas and knowledge heretofore missing from your value methodology. It will also surface new relevant facts and a candor that will lead to much better outcomes.   

6.                Keep Ideas Fresh

Most fresh ideas come from without, not within an organization, department or unit.  Once you understand and incorporate this paradigm shift into your value analysis methodology you will be quickly rewarded with more original ideas and genuine breakthroughs in your service quality and total cost reductions than ever before.

Change management is ALL about setting the stage for change, not forcing change to happen.  The “Know-Nothing” concept is one technique that we have employed for 12 years with our client’s value teams that made change happen naturally, organically and logically. I firmly believe that you too can make use of this concept to make a big leap forward in your value teams’ performance.

I just read an article that states that “teach, teach, teach” is Costco’s corporate philosophy too. Judith Logan, a Costco Assistant GMM, says in this article that it is Costco’s goal “to have buyers who are better educated in their products than their suppliers who sell them, to see through the marketing speak and offer the best value possible.” Costco even has Costco University to train their 130,000 employees in all aspects of their jobs, from food safety to buying Bordeaux wine. This speaks volumes about Costco’s never ending commitment to educating anyone and everyone who touches their members in any way.

That’s not all! At Costco’s “laundry college” their employees “work with laundry manufacturers to understand the science behind what makes a better laundry detergent.  They spend time in the labs and touring the production facility” to make them experts in their respective disciplines.

Costco even has stringent certification and licensing programs for their gas station, hearing center, optical store, pharmacy, photo center and tire center employees. Costco invests this money in training because they want their employees to be held to the highest standards of professional competencies. “This translates to better service and value for their members” says Tammy Clark, Director of Training for their Hearing Centers.

What’s this all mean to you?  If you aren’t creating a “a culture of wisdom”, as Costco calls it, with your internal and external supply chain community in every aspect of your supply chain management then you aren’t building the future of your supply chain on a sound foundation. Only through never ending training and education at all levels of your supply chain can you sustain, maintain and hold everyone that touches your products, services and technologies to the highest standards possible.

* Our next Certified Value Analysis Leadership™ Course will be held on November 4-6, 2008. Book now to save $200 before September 4^th!

I can’t think of any another profession (yes, value analysis is a legitimate and growing occupation in healthcare) that doesn’t require any training or educational requirements in order to be a value analysis leader or practitioner. Even bus drivers must have training, education and a special license to drive a bus.

Yet, value analysis leaders and practitioners make million dollar decisions, year-in and year-out, for their healthcare organization without any training. Is their something wrong with this picture?  I would think so!

If you aren’t aware of it, value analysis is an acknowledged and respected discipline with a 60-year history that has a defined six-step process (called The Value Methodology*) that needs to be religiously employed by VA leaders and practitioners in order to save money and improve quality. If you aren’t applying this value methodology in your value studies then you aren’t practicing value analysis – you are doing something else instead.   

To be truly called a value analysis professional (i.e. conforming to the standards of skill, competence, or character normally expected of a properly qualified and experienced person in a recognized disciple) you will need to upgrade, improve, and advance your skill sets to the next level of proficiency in this growing art and science.  This can only be accomplished with formal classroom training and education in this discipline.  

Isn’t it time you search out specialized value analysis training for yourself, value team leaders and your value team(s) so that you can become qualified and experienced in order to drive your value analysis bus?

_________________

* If you are ready to upgrade, improve and advance your value analysis skill sets and learn the value methodology, may I suggest that you consider registering for our Certified Value Analysis Leadership™ Training Program to be held on November 4-6, 2008.

What I have found from my interaction with these coordinators, managers and directors, at our three-day CVAL program, is that these individuals spend most of their time evaluating new and renewal GPO contracts! That’s not value analysis at all, that’s contract management in its purest sense.

After these very intense three days of training I’m happy to report that most of the attendees at our CVAL program finally realize that they aren’t practicing value analysis and have decided that going beyond price is where they want to go in the future with their value analysis programs.

As I mentioned last week at the North Carolina Materials Management Association annual conference, hospitals should have an annual audit of their pricing, then fill in the gaps of their contract portfolio where needed. It doesn’t make sense for these individuals to spin their wheels and waste their time trying to eke out a few more percentages savings with their GPO contracts, when there is about 26% savings on just about any commodity these individuals would investigate using the techniques of value analysis.

I went on to tell the NCMMA members that they should petition their GPOs to have more 3, 5 and 10 year contracts, with annual renewals, so their members could stop the madness of trying to keep up with their new and renewal GPO contracts that are e-mailed to them daily.

Bottom Line!  Value analysis coordinators, managers and directors need to get back to basics by actually practicing the tenets of value analysis and then move away from being contract managers. Contract management isn’t your job (it’s your purchasing department’s job) and it’s not what you were hired for.

It’s your job to study the functions of the products, services and technologies your hospital is buying, and then search for lower cost alternatives to meet those functions. That’s what’s missing from your value analysis program and is holding back huge savings for your hospital.   

P.S. If you would like more powerful savings ideas like this one I would recommend that you sign-up for our “no cost” weekly Savings Beyond Price™ e-Newsletter at www.Strategicva.com. You will also get a copy of my e-book “Your Target Blueprint for Supply Chain Management Success”, as a bonus.

• Added Many More Value Analysis, Utilization and Supply Savings Case Studies
• More Focused Training on Utilization Management and Benchmarking for Value Analysis Professionals
• Focus the Training to Be More Hands on with Real Time Actionable Results
• Share with you the Latest Strategies, Tools and Methods to Save More in Less Time with Less Effort
• Further Enhanced our Value Analysis Leader Web Software (included in the workshop)
  • New Utilization Benchmarking Section
  • More Savings Ideas to the Savings Idea and Best Practice Database
  • More Members Only Webinars