A Lean Way of Thinking!
Doing less with more is a mantra in healthcare organizations today. Everyone is scrambling to get their routine, but important work done, while trying to find time for those special projects that seem to be coming up more frequently than ever before.
Supply chain professionals are caught up in this whirlwind of activity too and are having a hard time coming up for air. Instead of worrying about it, which is a waste of your imagination, I would suggest supply chain professionals embrace “a lean way of thinking” so that you can find time for those things that are really important to get done.
When I was a material manager for four hospitals and one system, over my long career, I never ever had enough staff, sufficient money in my budget or the technology to get everything done that needed to be done. But I did have “a lean way of thinking” that I call how thinking vs. what if thinking that led me to design new ways of doing things that reduced my workload 10-fold.
For example, I designed a “Debit Memo” that attached to my vendor’s invoice that authorized my payable’s department to deduct or adjust a vendor’s invoice’ for price discrepancy, missed discounts, freight charges, etc. that didn’t agree with my purchasing order. This tactic saved me and my hospital’s payable’s department hundreds of hours a year of haggling with vendors or waiting for their credits. Yes, sometimes we had to credit the vendor back for some of these debits, but this was a rare occasion because my PO was law. Case Closed!
The point here is that this is just one of my scores of how thinking ideas that enabled me to dig out of the holes I always inherited when I took on a new job as a material manager. By the time I left a hospital or system I had their operations humming with my “lean way of thinking”.
You can do the same thing at your healthcare organization by thinking about how you can improve your supply chain operations without spending any money or adding any staff. It’s a fun game you can win!
Finally, once you get the knack of how thinking you will be stunned at how many new and better innovations you can bring about in your supply chain. I’ve done it hundreds of times and I know you can do it too.
Don’t Take Everything I Write or Say as Gospel
By Robert T. Yokl, Chief Value Strategist
I received an e-mail last week from a operating room director who had a real problem with an article I wrote for HPN magazine in April, 2008 titled “Zero Waste Must be Your Goal: Supply chain managers can make a huge impact by eliminating waste in 8 areas”. She thought my recommendations to reduce waste to zero wouldn’t work in her operating room.
Specifically this writer had a big problem with my suggesting that all hospitals should embrace the philosophy of just-in-time inventories, since she felt she needed to carry many critical items that didn’t move for years. She believed that a hospital OR wasn’t like an automobile factory that had much more control over their environment.
What I told this OR director, by return e-mail, was that she was right that all my suggestions wouldn’t work in her operating room, but that when I write an article I must write it with a broad and diverse audience in mind. So I need, therefore, to be somewhat generic vs. specific with many of my ideas.
But I did tell her that I thought that many of my ideas would work, such as, cutting down on her waiting time for information, supplies signatures or people, not overproducing linen packs, instrument packs, kits and trays, cut down on transportation time of her materials and patients and reducing extra motion in all areas of her operations.
So I wouldn’t take everything I write or say as gospel, however I would look for those gems that will make your job more productive, efficient and a whole lot easier. I consider it my job to find new ways to help you do even things better than good.
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.
Value Analysis 2.0: No One Size Fits all Hospitals
By Robert T. Yokl, Chief Value Strategist
I just read an article in HPN magazine recommending one singular approach to what I call Value Analysis 2.0 (beyond price and standardization) that the author suggested would fit all size hospitals. I beg to differ with the author on this point, but let me tell you first what I liked about the article.
I was happy to see the author agrees with me that big price and standardization savings are now dead, and that hospitals now need to focus on savings beyond price (i.e. utilization) to keep their savings machine humming. I also agree that a fresh approach to value analysis in now called for if healthcare organizations want to move to the next level of savings performance. And that any and all supplies and purchase services should be included in the scope of value analysis teams’ charters so that no supply related cost is exempt from value justification.
I couldn’t agree more with the author that without a total and unwavering commitment from the c-suite no real change can or will happen beyond what you are doing now. And that material management should be the data guru’s for your value analysis teams, thus pointing the way to new savings opportunities, so your value teams aren’t burdened with this complex, time consuming and arduous task.
Where I differ with the author are on two points. First, that all hospitals should be establishing product-line value analysis teams and secondly that value team members shouldn’t need to do any of the teamwork because they are too busy.
On the first point, it’s my strong opinion, that small hospitals, which represent 80% of all hospitals in the country, don’t need elaborate product-line value analysis teams because they don’t buy enough products, services and technologies to warrant the time investment to do so. Second, no one should ever be too busy to save money or not ready to roll up their sleeves to find it. Just listening to presentations from material management, then making decisions as a committee isn’t value analysis at all. This is Value Analysis 1.0, which we are trying to move beyond.
In the final analysis, I thought the author did a great job of explaining what she saw as the future of value analysis in healthcare. Nevertheless, I think we all need to remember that “one size” of anything doesn’t fit all situations. We need to customize what we are trying to accomplished based on the size, culture and complexity of our healthcare organization. Then we will get the exact fit for our healthcare organization.
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.
