Improving Procurement Lead Times at Hill Air Force Base
In today’s tough economic times organizations need to seriously look at ways to improve their service level, even in the government. With decreasing military budgets and workforce reductions all government agencies need to streamline activities as much as possible to ensure that the taxpayers’ dollars are being spent wisely and the warfighter is being supported.
The National Health Service (NHS) of East Midlands, England has established an excellent website, which benchmarks their twelve steps to process improvement on their Improvement Network (NHS - East Midlands, 2012). The website offers many tools and techniques as well as improvement tools that can be used during the process improvement steps.
Although many organizations struggle with process improvements, careful analysis suggests that government agencies can reap the benefits of process improvements just as much as other public and private sectors, especially if they follow an organized approach such as the one identified on the NHS improvement network.
Step 1 - Choose a Specific Service to Improve
The government procurement process can be a daunting task. Whether the acquisition is competitive or non-competitive, procurement lead times can vary greatly depending on the type of procurement. With news stories of impropriety transpiring among the government on a daily basis more oversight is being required during the procurement process which is adding unnecessary time to the procurement lead times. With the increased oversight requirements it has become more difficult to get the necessary products to the warfighter during their time of need, which greatly affects the ability for government procurement offi...
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...though some may argue that making improvements within an organization can be difficult. As long as organizations follow the first four steps in process improvement they should be able to operate more effectively and efficiently. In order for organizations to improve their service levels they need to examine both their internal and external processes and determine the steps required to make necessary improvements. It is essential for organizations to reduce operating costs and improve their service level, even in the government.
Works Cited
Jacobs, F. R., & Chase, R. B. (2010). Operations and supply chain management. (13 ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill/Irwin.
MindTools.com. (2012). essential skills for excellent career. Retrieved from http://www.mindtools.com/
NHS - East Midlands. (2012). The improvement network. Retrieved from http://www.tin.nhs.uk/
I chose this article because I have been involved in process improvement projects that were quite successful. However, upon examination of the same company several years later the process improvement projects had faded away, and bad habits had returned.
The NHS change model has been selected for this quality improvement. The NHS change model consists of eight dimensions, which are described as a useful tool to enhance change. This model has been identified as being effective in health care organisations, encouraging the use of teamwork to implement systematic improvements.
The eight stage process gives leaders a plan on how to tackle and implement change the first time, while empowering employees to buy into the organizations end state. Many times leaders make changes and are puzzled why they don’t work. This is not the end all be all, but when implementing change you have to remember to that it’s a process that takes time and determination. You have to stick to the plan to see it through and that takes patience, planning and good decision making skills. Applying these steps will help your organization thrive and stay competitive in the 21st
To implement change in a heath care setting, a PDSA concept will be used. Langley developed the PDSA cycle to describe the importance’s that the change and the developing of these crucial changes which will hopefully help lead to the improvements (Langley et al., 2009) (see appendix 2) for details. The National Health Service use PDSA and will implement the necessary steps to improve the services for the public (NHS Institute, 2006).
Ewalt, D. M. & Hayes, M., (2002, Sep 30). Supply-chain management: Pinpoint control InformationWeek. Manhasset, 16-19
The future of healthcare is ever changing, and with that comes change management, which brings individuals on board with that change. According to Vora (2013), the change management model includes first, determine the need for change. Second, prepare and plan for the change. Third, implement the change. Finally, sustain the change (Carroll, 2015). As a leader, I feel that it is my obligation to not only continue with my education, but to aid others in furthering their education and
Contracting private military companies and private security contractors are not without their issues. Management of these companies and contractors are a crucial issue for the government. One of the most significant challenges in d...
Extra resources are now available for other purposes that could help improve the effectiveness of a hospital or doctor’s office. As government regulation constantly changes, healthcare ...
These enhancement strategies are typically designed to improve organizational processes and make healthcare more efficient (Ginter et al., 2013). In addition, enhancement strategies may also “direct towards innovative management processes, speeding up the delivery of products of services”(Ginter et al., 2013). One such enhancement strategy is to maintain a health patient-provider relationship through professionalism. Professionalism is defined as “the ability to align personal and organizational conduct with ethical and professional standards that include a responsibility to the patient and community, and a commitment to lifelong learning and improvement” (Garman, Evans, Krause, & Anfossi, 2006). Given that there is a constant change in the working environment, especially due to rising consumerism and competition, it is important for the healthcare leaders to maintain an awareness of current practices (Garman et al., 2006). Also, maintain healthy relations with their fellow colleagues and participate in professional associations such as the American Health Care Association (AMCA) to stay proactive in their organizations (Garman et al., 2006). Additionally, both the delivering and receiving of constructive feedback is another hallmark of professionalism (Garman et al., 2006). This is a great strategy that could help our organization in educating their leaders, which can further bring
Understanding quality measurement is essential in improving quality. Teams need to be able to understand whether the changes being made are actually leading to improved care and improved outcomes. For data to have an impact on an improvement initiative, providers and staff must understand it, trust it, and use it. Health care organization must understand the measurement of quality provided by the Institute of Medicine (patient outcomes, patient satisfaction, compliance, efficiency, safe, timely, patient centered, and equitable. An organization cannot improve its performance if it does not know how it is performing. Measuring quality improvements is essential as it reflects the quality of care given by the providers and that by comparing performance
The movement towards accountable care organizations and patient centered results has given a further impetus to the growing importance of continuous quality improvement in health care. Due to recent changes made to health care by the Affordable Care Act drivers such as payment model changes, consumer/patient preferences, and resource shortages have created further pressure to provide safe, reliable, high-quality, and cost-efficient care (McGrath & Blike, 2015). In fact many health care organizations are seeking internal and external performance improvement techniques/strategies to improve organizational sustainability. Building a solid foundation will require administration and leadership to facilitate a culture of change that
Much can be learned from the experience of others; and, for that reason, I elected to review the implementation practices of three healthcare organizations. In 2006, Jefferson University Physicians (JUP) began the adoption of the Physician Quality Reporting System (PQRS), a pay-for-performance (P4P) initiative offered by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) (Berman et al., 2013). Since this project was one of the early attempts at integrating HIT, their analysis of the process provides an excellent example of traditional project management techniques. Similarly, the Minnesota Hospital Association (MHA) took part in a pilot project in 2007 to evaluate the benefits of creating a hybrid database of clinical and administrative data (Pine et al., 2012). However, this project involved an in-depth analysis of interoperability and, thereby, describes various IT management approaches. Lastly, the electronic health record (EHR) implementation process of Glide Health Services (GHS), a nurse-managed health center (NMHC), was selected to depict the value of including change management practices (Dennehy et al., 2011).
The purpose of this report is to carry out a process audit and process improvement activity about the business of ‘Organic Direct’. Process improvement and process audits are essential requirements for attaining improved efficiencies in organisations. This report will be analytical and critical in approach by drawing out secondary information from established theories and linking them to the current situation in the chosen case study industry. The report is structured into three segments with the first segment focusing areas of inefficiencies in a business process; the second focusing on analysing the chosen area of process inefficiency; and the third focusing on relevant change management issues of interests in implementing recommendations. To do this effectively, the use of process diagrams; stakeholder tables as well as academic journals will be undertaken. The last segment of this report will be focused on the conclusion section where all the different parts of the report will be summarised and presented.
Coyle, J., Langley, C., Gibson, B., Novack, R. and Bardi, E. (2008).Supply Chain Management: A Logistics Perspective. 8th ed. Cengage Learning, p.366.
The world is constantly changing in many different ways. Whether it is technological or cultural change is present and inevitable. Organizations are not exempt from change. As a matter of fact, organizations have to change with the world and society in order to be successful. Organizations have to constantly incorporate change in order to have a competitive advantage and satisfy their customers. Organizations use change in order to learn and grow. However, change is not something that can happen in an organization overnight. It has to be thought through and planned. The General Model of Planned Change focuses on what processes are used by the organization to implement change. In the General Model of Planned Change, four steps are used in order to complete the process of change. Entering and Contracting, Diagnosing, Planning and Implementing, and Evaluating and Institutionalizing are the four steps used in order to complete the process of change in an organization. The diagnostic process is one of the most important activities in OD(Cummings, 2009, p. 30).