Process Improvement
Rapid cycle improvement gives immediate relief to bottom
line woes - the trick is to know which improvements to implement. You
must prioritize key processes according to their impact on patients.
Improving processes is a tremendous opportunity for an
organization to improve overall organizational performance and the quality
of patient services. An active and effective process improvement program
can pull your organization ahead of the competition and increase market
share and cash flow. If your competition has an active process
improvement program, then it is critical that you improve your processes
to insure your organization's competitive position. Otherwise, while
your competition reduces costs, improves services and product features,
and has extra cash on hand to fund new patient care and community
services, you will be left behind.
Everything in an organization gets done with processes -
sequences of operations that take inputs such as medical supplies, labor,
and information, and then turn them into outputs or services - either for
external customers or downstream processes. These processes may be fully
recognized and managed - or not. Unmanaged processes produce random
results and high numbers of defects, since measurements are not in place,
starting and ending points are not clearly stated, and no single executive
is responsible for managing each process except the CEO. Most
processes cut across organizational lines, leaving the question of who is
responsible for which process vague and left to chance or individual
whim.
The first step to implement a process improvement
program is to define your processes. Many people do this in an ad hoc
manner, since they do not have a methodical approach. A methodical
approach exists based on the Shaw patented method - Customer-Inspired
Process Deployment®. The methodology starts with how an
external customer experiences your organization and creates the structure
of your organization as an assemblage of processes. This approach will
most likely look quite different than your traditional organization chart.
In fact, the organization chart really has little to do with how work gets
done, in most cases.
Once individual processes are defined, they can be
prioritized and managed. Again, Shaw Resources provides a method that
selects high priority processes for improvement and shows you how to
establish process performance measurements and implement process
improvements to maximize quality, efficiency and cost effectiveness.
Interested? Want to get started right away and start
experiencing improved cash flow, reduced costs and improved products and
services? Contact Shaw Resources for additional information.
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