TABLE OF CONTENTS TOPIC 1. INTRODUCTION 2. OPERATION MANAGEMENT 2.1 PROCESS FLOW 2.2 PROCESS DESIGIN 2.

3 TECHNOLOGY MANAGEMNT 2.4 TQM 2.5 LEAN PRODUCTION 2.6 SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT 3.0 CONCLUSION 4.0 REFERENCE : : : : : : : : : : : PAGE NO 2 2 3 4 4 5 5 6 6 7

1.0 Introduction In todays complex business situations where the recession is griping the every business sector, the health and care sector also effected from these economic situations and on the top of that the in health and care industry ever changing relationships between patients, physicians, hospitals, insurers, employers, communities and government making it more complex. Other factors like dynamic competitions, increasing expectations of demand, sophisticated consumers and decrease in funding and utilisation have generated an increasingly challenging environment for hospitals and health care value chain. The health care sector all over the world is experiencing tremendous pressure to not only control the escalating costs but also improve the quality of care it provides to its consumers. To deal with all these tremendous pressure health and care industry needs to study of operations work according to it.

2.0 Operation Management To improve the production of goods and services studies on various methods have been conducted since the beginning of the twentieth century. The researchers believe that if they research closely to the business and worked out how business worked, they will came out with the magic formula that would result in total efficiency. So the researchers star studying the operation systems of the business came out with the lot of results which leads to better operations to improve the production of goods and services. To study the operations management are the topics of process flow and capacity management, process design and layout, technology choice and

management, quality management, lean manufacturing, supply chain management and operation strategy. Thru this assignment how far this systems help in health care industry I will discuss each of these topics and how they have been applied in the health care sector.

2.1 Process Flow and Capacity Management: One of the most fundamental concerns in operation management is process flow and capacity management. In health and care sector simple techniques such as a capacity and demand management, have been shown useful. For example hospitals can achieve significant improvement in patent flow and hospital patent volume and reduction in unit costs through the application of techniques such as process mapping and simulation modelling. Research shows that critical paths developed through collaborative efforts of physicians, nurses, pharmacists and others help lower variation in the care provided facilitate expected outcomes reduce delays , reduce length of stay and improved cost effectiveness.

Capacity is also needs to be analysed. It is worst situation for the any hospital when they can not take more patents due to lack of number of beds or patents have to wait too long for their tests. Bed management plays important role in this factor it needs to study the process of patents admission, stay, transfer and discharges of patent from the hospital. According to Jack and Powers, 2004 they proposes volume elasticity as a means to improve service delivery and allow companies to control their scare resources for best possible

utilisation in responses to fluctuations in patent demand.

2.2 Process Design According to Michael Hammer, Fundamental rethinking and radical redesign of business process to bring about dramatic improvements in performance. But this technique has successful in the manufacturing sector but in service sector or in health care sector these fundamental and radical changes not much appeals. In health care sector the process needs to be differentiate between clinical and managerial tasks, in which it applied in the UK General practice where a model of primary care was proposed in which management issues are separated from the patient activities. In UK Health Sector the Business Process Reengineering (BRR) methodologies have been

extensively used.

2.3 Technology Management Information Technology (IT) is play important roll in operational process and management reporting which supports the infrastructure. An effective IT infrastructure is need for the hospitals around the world now a days it give the advantage to hospitals and health care institutes to improve their client

interface as well as to reduce the overall cost of providing quality care. It is important in improving primary care in many areas like medical records, communication between physicians and patients, information sharing among health care providers and easy and quickly access of information for physicians and patients. IT helps in improving the process in the hospitals and their results as well. 2.4 Total Quality Management (TQM)

Research shows quality in work or products relies heavily upon the human factor. Most organisations now believe that higher quality service and improved competitiveness will result from increased attention to people issues within the organisation. TQM in the health sector has limited research attention there are some challenges in implementing it in the health care environment despite potential benefits of TQM its results are not fully delivered in health sector according to Bate et al 2004, the insufficient

support of health professionals, the lack of leadership commitment and the tendency to look at TQM in isolation rather than putting it at the core of the institution's strategy. In the health sector there are difference of culture it is dominated by the physicians in which the quality of work they see from their own perspective and how the work should be done they has created a situation where the management has very little control over the most strategic areas where TQM could bring good results. In my opinion to get better results in both management and physicians should work together to achieve better results from the TQM system.

2.5 Lean Production According to founder of Lean production Taiichi Ohno, : All we are doing is looking at the time line from the moment the customer gives us an order to the point when we collect the cash. And we are reducing that time line by removing the non-value-added wastes. Using the Toyota approach, for example the hospitals can set free to patients exactly what they need when they need it, every time error-free in a safe environment at the lowest cost without waste. Though the practise of Lean Production is not very common in

hospitals but now it is gaining its momentum in hospitals and putting pressure on management for better results.

2.6 Supply Chain Management Now a days every organisation in this world is concentrating on the supply chain management because they know this is the best way to reduce the cost and to increase the operational efficiency. But again supply chain management is popular in manufacturing sector where lot of research is done and achieved good results but in health care sector it is still its infancy stage. Efficient supply chain management is critical factor for hospitals financial security . The concept of Just in Time (JIT) is gained momentum it is important part of organisations supply chain management strategy today. This technique was widely use in US health sector where the distributor would pick and pack products according to needs of each patient care unit and deliver the stock directly to them. Now a days hospitals using the Vendor managed inventory (VMI) software thru which forecast the hospitals demand for supplies based on the past use this helps to suppliers to respond to hospitals immediately when they need supplies.

3.0 Conclusion At the end I would like to say that in these situations where health and care sector is struggling for the finances needs to improve its operations thru the operational techniques to give the best services at the low cost. So that they can become self sustain dont have to much depended on the government grants. Better operations in this regard can help to overcome from this.

4.0 References 1. Jack, E. P., and Powers, T. L. "Volume Flexible Strategies in Health Services. 2. Bate, P., Robert, G., and Bevan, H. (2004). "The next phase of healthcare improvement: what can we learn from social movements?"