The essay helps in understanding about the different issues that are relating to the operations, logistics along with supply chain management that are faced by the supply chain and operations manager of a hospital. The hospital that has been taken in this particular report is London Bridge Hospital that is situated in United Kingdom.
The main aim of the essay is to identify the operational functions of the respective hospital. The different service system of delivery has to be properly used as this will help in analyzing the different issues that are faced by the entire management of the hospital. The main purpose of the essay is to analyze the management of the quality of the services provided by the hospital along with the management of the people in supply chains and operations.
The structure of the essay includes proper critical discussion on the issues in the supply chain management of the hospital with the help of different theories along with the relevant operations as well. The discussion will cover relevant examples on supply chain management with the help of the theories on supply chain management. Proper conclusion and recommendations has to be provided in the essay as this will help in understanding the areas which needs proper improvement in the future.
Critical review of relevant Operation, Logistics and Supply Chain Management theories
According to Seuring (2013), the global healthcare management industry is one of the largest as well as fastest developing industries that comprises of different sectors such as medical supplies and equipments along with pharmaceuticals as well as other sectors related to medicine. The health care supply chain of the respective hospital named The London Bridge Hospital includes flow of different types of product along with proper participation of different stakeholders (London Bridge Hospital, 2017). The main purpose of the supply chain of the respective hospital includes delivery of different products in a timely method as this helped them in meeting the requirements of the stakeholders (Beske and Seuring 2014). The supply chain of the respective hospital can be divided into three groups that are as follows:
In order to add to the complexity of the entire system in the respective hospital, there is huge involvement as well as participation of the different insurance companies, regulatory agencies as well as government institutions (Pagell and Shevchenko 2014). The product flow in the respective hospital starts with the manufacturer and this ends with the final customers at the provider of healthcare. The product in the hospital can be directly delivered to the customers by the manufacturer directly or there can be different channels between the distributor and the health care provider in the respective hospital (Williams et al. 2013).
The supply chain of the health care is inefficient and highly fragmented in nature and this can cause huge issues in the health services provided by the hospital. The major problem with the health care system of the hospital is that each stage of the supply chain management operates independently and this is leading to different uneven incentives as well as goals that are conflicting in nature (Slack 2015). The different kinds of goals that are conflicting in nature along with different barriers have delayed adoption as well as implementation of the practices related to SCM (Heizer 2016).
Monczka et al. (2015) commented that there is an approach that helps in meeting the different challenges of the cost of the healthcare practices and reduction for the proper implementation of the principles of SCM. Meixell and Luoma (2015) helped in highlighting the value of taking practical position in order to meet the different challenges of transferring the different technologies across the entire sectors in industry. Govindan et al. (2014) commented that the systems of e procurement can help in reducing the cost of purchasing through proper consolidation of the networks of suppliers as well creating proper partnerships with suppliers (Christopher 2016).
The current state of the supply chain management that is generally associated with the products of pharmaceutical is critical in nature in ensuring elevated standard of care for different patients as well as providing supplies of medication of pharmacies that are adequate in nature as well (Croson et al. 2013). There are different issues of the supply chain management in the respective hospital that has to be properly taken care of that are as follows:
Proper management of quality is one of the main concerns in the respective hospital as this has to be properly ascertained as this will help in improving the quality as well as safety in the hospital. Proper alignment of the processes of hospital with external pressure is required as this will help in maintaining quality of the agenda as well (Wisner, Tan and Leong 2014). Proper implementation of the systems that are related to the hospital has to be properly in order to maintain proper quality in the hospital.
Managing people in operation and supply chains is other issue that has to be properly ascertained as it has been observed that in the respective hospital there is no balance between community centers as well as treatment that is high tech in nature. It has been seen that the cost control affects the level as well as quality of services that are provided to the patients in the hospital (Katok and Pavlov 2013).
Operation management plays a vital role in the respective hospital and this helps in understanding the oversight of the different facility operations of the hospital and this will help in providing reliable and adequate treatment to the patients in the hospital as well (Brandenburg et al. 2014). The proper supply chain management process has to be followed by the respective hospital as this will help in understanding the ensuring the availability of the product, proper minimization of the space of storage, maximizing the care space of patients, reducing the handling of materials time as well as cost for the staffs in the hospital and minimization of the non liquid assets.
There are different new strategies that have to be adopted in order to optimize the supply chain of the respective hospital. Proper and virtualization of the supply chain is essential in nature as coordination is essential in nature as this will help in controlling the costs as well as improving the service of the respective hospital as well (Ellram and Cooper 2014). The centralization is fundamental in nature as it helps in integration of the operations from different perspectives of the market rather than the system of the health care in the hospital. Proper availability of the product is essential as this will help the hospital in providing proper services to the customers (Schaltegger and Burritt 2014).
A proper consolidated service center is essential in nature as this helps n bringing proper view as the innovative approach in solving the critical problems that are relating to the staffs, budget shortages as well as time (Brindley 2017). The CSC helps in providing proper networking opportunities for the different participants.
It is the duty of the respective hospital to have much more control on the selection of the product as well as distribution. The proper consolidation of the supply services helps in resulting in improved visibility of the supply chain of the hospital by improving the pricing of the product through aggregation of the volume as well as standardization as well (Stadtler 2015). There are other benefits as well that includes elimination of the mark up costs of distribution as well as lowering prices of product along with inbound cost of freight.
It is the duty of the respective hospital to track the goods in the supply chain as this is one of the major opportunities in improving the customer base and this will help in improvement in the tracking of high value assets, reduction in the shrinkage as well as errors in shipping in the supply chain, visibility in the inventory, accuracy as well as efficiency at each and every stage and proper improvement in the planning for scheduling that will be effective in nature.
Analytic discussion with relevant and similar example(s) and applying appropriate solutions of Operations Management
There are different operation management issues that are faced by employees as the different hospitals face the same kind of challenges in the workplace such as shortage in the usage of resources along with proper compromising in the satisfaction of the customers as well. Proper operations management is the design, improvement of the systems as well as processes that will help the respective hospital in delivering the products and services of the hospitals (Turker and Altuntas 2014).
The operations management in the healthcare organization has been increasing that is in the year 1987, the level and cost of the healthcare is around 11% of the economy of US and there has been a drastic increase in the year 2004 to a level of 15%. The operation management has played a huge role in the controlling of the cost as well as improving the quality of the services that are provided by the hospital.
The hierarchy of the knowledge is shown as follows:
From the theory of Fedrick Taylor, it can be analyzed that the four principles has to be followed by the hospital in order to analyze the four principles that includes training, proper cooperation, standard work and planning.
The operations management is required in the hospital as this will help them in increasing the overall effectiveness of the different processes that are required in the operation of the hospital. The respective hospital needs to adopt system wide operations management in the different processes as this will help in improving the quality as well as efficiency of care as well. The hospital has to be properly empowered in order to receive total control on the selection of product as well as distribution of the different processes in the entire hospital.
The real time tracking of different goods and services has to be implemented by this hospital through the entire supply chain as this will help in providing opportunities for improving the customer care. The different applications of the real time tracking of goods and services include:
Proper management of asset and tracking as this will help in understanding the requirements of different equipments such as medical and ultrasound equipments.
The tracking of patients is done through boundary checking as well as identification of the real time location of nurses and doctors
The real time applications include process centric operations as well that includes ICU, operating room along with process of sterilization.
Lastly, the point of care has to be analyzed as this will help in understanding the different requirements of the administration department along with other issues in the management of the hospital as well.
Examples of Operations management in hospital
In London Bridge Hospital, there was a case of resource exhaustion and there were no alternatives or back up available in the respective hospital. The resource that was necessary at that point of time was the oxygen gas and there were issues in the premises of hospital. The mishap happened as the patient could not be saved. The supply chain management and operations management is necessary in nature in the hospital as this will help in managing the different difficult situations in the hospital.
Another example was related to the advancement in technology related issue in the respective hospital. There was no such technological advancement in the hospital and there were issues relating to performing different tests of the patients. The operation management was weak in the hospital and this has affected the reputation of the hospital as well.
Importance of operations management in hospital
Proper focus has to be provided on the process of the patient as this will help in providing proper brief as well as the patient flow has to be visualized
Proper capacity planning is required in the hospital as this will include matching the demand and resources
Proper synchronizing the flow of the patient is required as this will help in standardization of the routing of work
Proper elimination is required in the necessary steps as this will help in standardization of the work
Proper elimination of the different tasks that will not provide any value to the system and this can be a burden on the system as well
The operation manager of the hospital has to make proper decisions regarding different policies that are required in the hospital in order to make and prepare proper budgeting as well as marketing. It is the duty of the operations manager in the hospital to understand the queries of the patients, work well with the physicians of the different departments as well. It is the entire responsibility of the operation manager in making the functions work smoothly and successfully in the entire organization.
When the operations management is not followed properly in the organization, this can have huge impact on the performance of the hospital as well as other backlogs as well that can hinder the performance of the hospital. The barriers in the hospital have due to usage of real time applications such as:
Technical issues wherein RFID may interfere with the hospital management and this can cause issues in the management as well. The usage of RFID is not reliable in nature
There can be issues related to cost as the costs include both software and hardware costs along with training costs that can cause issues in the RFID infrastructure as well as maintenance of the different materials in the hospital
There are other barriers as well such as there is lack of support from organization, issues relating to trust and security concerns as well.
These are the different kinds of barriers in the hospital that is faced by the hospital has to be properly solved with the proper utilization of the supply chain management and operations management as this will help in improving the supply utilization management in the hospital along with improving the standardization of the different expectations of the customers along with products.
It is required to properly adopt the operations management in the respective hospital as this will help in increasing the effectiveness of the organization and maximizing the efficiency in the organization as well. The proper implementation of the operation management is essential in nature as this will help the entire hospital staffs and other physicians in solving the issues of the patients and solve the queries within a stipulated frame of time as well.
Proper strategic planning is required in nature as this will help in solving the different difficulties that are faced by the hospital. With the proper implementation of advancement in technology, it is essential for the hospital to monitor the supply chain management and this will help in improving the standards of the work that is performed by them as well.
Conclusion
Therefore, it can inferred that proper supply chain management is required in the hospital as this will help in improving the technological usage of the different appliances in the entire hospital. The supply utilization management is essential in nature as this will help in increasing the efficiency in the hospital with proper implementation of strategic management. It is also summarized that proper strategic supply chain management is essential as this will help in developing different technologies as this will help in monitoring the performance of the supply chain management and with other addition of values as well. Lastly, it can be concluded that the proper usage of RFID can help in improving the issues that are faced in the hospital in implementing strategy that is successful and popular in nature.
References
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Brandenburg, M., Govindan, K., Sarkis, J. and Seuring, S., 2014. Quantitative models for sustainable supply chain management: Developments and directions. European Journal of Operational Research, 233(2), pp.299-312.
Brindley, C. ed., 2017. Supply chain risk. Taylor & Francis.
Christopher, M., 2016. Logistics & supply chain management. Pearson UK.
Croson, R., Schultz, K., Siemsen, E. and Yeo, M.L., 2013. Behavioral operations: the state of the field. Journal of Operations Management, 31(1), pp.1-5.
Ellram, L.M. and Cooper, M.C., 2014. Supply chain management: It’s all about the journey, not the destination. Journal of Supply Chain Management, 50(1), pp.8-20.
Govindan, K., Kaliyan, M., Kannan, D. and Haq, A.N., 2014. Barriers analysis for green supply chain management implementation in Indian industries using analytic hierarchy process. International Journal of Production Economics, 147, pp.555-568.
Heizer, J., 2016. Operations Management, 11/e. Pearson Education India.
Katok, E. and Pavlov, V., 2013. Fairness in supply chain contracts: A laboratory study. Journal of Operations Management, 31(3), pp.129-137.
London Bridge Hospital. (2017). World-class private hospital | London Bridge Hospital. [online] Available at: https://www.londonbridgehospital.com/ [Accessed 16 Nov. 2017].
Meixell, M.J. and Luoma, P., 2015. Stakeholder pressure in sustainable supply chain management: a systematic review. International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management, 45(1/2), pp.69-89.
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Pagell, M. and Shevchenko, A., 2014. Why research in sustainable supply chain management should have no future. Journal of supply chain management, 50(1), pp.44-55.
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Seuring, S., 2013. A review of modeling approaches for sustainable supply chain management. Decision support systems, 54(4), pp.1513-1520.
Slack, N., 2015. Operations strategy. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Stadtler, H., 2015. Supply chain management: An overview. In Supply chain management and advanced planning (pp. 3-28). Springer Berlin Heidelberg.
Turker, D. and Altuntas, C., 2014. Sustainable supply chain management in the fast fashion industry: An analysis of corporate reports. European Management Journal, 32(5), pp.837-849.
Williams, B.D., Roh, J., Tokar, T. and Swink, M., 2013. Leveraging supply chain visibility for responsiveness: The moderating role of internal integration. Journal of Operations Management, 31(7), pp.543-554.
Wisner, J.D., Tan, K.C. and Leong, G.K., 2014. Principles of supply chain management: A balanced approach. Cengage Learning.
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