client
Outpatient Testing
Challenge:
There was an unacceptable level of no-shows and last minute cancellations of outpatient tests, leading to wasted materials, unutilized test capacity and overtime. There was also a belief that there was a high level of payment denials because pre-cert procedures were not being followed. Reduce the number of no-shows and last minute cancellations, and ensure that provider pre-cert requirements are fulfilled.
ASI Solution:
Telephone surveys of patients revealed that a large number of patients who missed appointments often forgot them, or were unclear about the location of the test. Some patients arrived improperly prepared because they had forgotten the preparation requirements. It was discovered that while overall payment denials for the hospital were substantial, those attributable to pre-cert failures were much smaller than previously believed.
Achieved Benefit:
Test cancellations were reduced by 50%. Pre-cert denials were not addressed, but a separate project was launched to address all denials.
Operating Room Scheduling
Challenge:
Operating room schedules were nearly full despite the fact that there were many unutilized hours. Some surgeons were not moving patients to the hospital because they could not obtain time in the schedule. Plans were being made to add another endoscopy room at a cost of $300,000. Increase the amount of time the operating rooms are used for procedures. If possible, eliminate the need to build an additional endoscopy room
ASI Solution:
Analysis of the scheduled and used hours revealed that many prime hours were allocated to specific surgeons in blocks without regard to the procedure load. Unused block time could be assigned to other surgeons, but typically too late to be of practical use. It was also discovered that procedures scheduled to start at 8:00 am typically did not start until 8:30 am. The endoscopy room was found to be only 35% utilized, despite the appearance of being fully booked. Work was reorganized to ensure that the first procedures of the day started promptly at 8:00 am. Block time scheduling was revised to allow for easier reallocation of unutilized time slots.
Achieved Benefit:
Operating room scheduling changes resulted in 20% more procedures completed. In addition, the addition of the second endoscopy room was cancelled.
Neuroscience Institute for Seniors
Challenge:
A hospital wanted to create a unique neuroscience institute for seniors that targets seniors with symptoms like neuro pain, balance, and/or cognitive functions without having a template of prior success to guide the creation and implementation.
ASI Solution:
We recommended using LEO to identify and Listen to the internal and external customers in the new process; Enrich the new process by identifying the existing process with measures and then designing a new process with measures that created a world-class level of service; and Optimize this new process by not only implementing it, but ‘designing in’ the quality so that very few changes needed to be made once the new process was implemented.
Achieved Benefit:
External customers (both the patients and the caregivers of the patients who were often times the sons/daughters of the patients) were grateful for the reduced time of patient service from 3 weeks down to 2 days and the internal customers (the doctors and administrators) were grateful that they could work quickly, effectively and collaboratively to help their patients. Patient care and satisfaction increased as did revenues while costs decreased.
Medical Instrumentation
Challenge:
A large, successful American medical instrumentation company was experiencing increasing difficulty competing with Japanese and German offerings. The company enjoyed a proprietary technology. However, the competitors were gaining market share with lower cost, more reliable products.
ASI Solution:
The company engaged ASI Consulting Group to help improve their Product Development Process. Enhancements to the Product Development Process included intense interactions between engineers and customers, Quality Function Deployment, Pugh Concept Generation and Selection, and a disciplined Verification and Validation Process which met FDA requirements. Verification and Validation are associated with Prototype and Pilot Fix Cycles respectively. Earlier development programs needed several Prototype Cycles to achieve performance goals and meet FDA regulatory requirements. The new process called for a single Prototype Cycle with the intent to drive completion of product and process design prior to undertaking the manufacturing intent Prototype Cycle.
Achieved Benefit:
The next new product development programs far exceeded expectations. The development schedule was cut in half and the early introduction of the new, superior offerings helped the company to regain market share.
Make It Right Foundation
Rebuilding the Ninth Ward in New Orleans
Challenge:
The “Make It Right Foundation” faced challenges in meeting their goal of building 150 new homes in the Ninth Ward. Progress was slow even though everyone was busy and working long hours.
ASI Solution:
ASI Consulting Group led the team at Make It Right through the Listen, Enrich, & Optimize (LEO) Transformation Process. During the Listen Phase the five steps of the existing process are listed: (1) Raise the money to pay for the property; (2) Acquire the lot on which to build the new home; (3) Assist the potential homeowner with financial and other pre-ownership requirements; (4) Build the home; (5) Aid the owner in getting settled. The Listen Phase identified Step 2, Acquire the lot, as the bottleneck in the process. Three staff members were acquiring three lots per month. In the Enrich Phase alternative processes were “invented” and then investigated to assure that the team selected the most efficient process for meeting their customers’ needs. Once the new process was defined, detailed job aids were created for each step of the process. In the Optimize Phase, ASI led the team through rigorous examination of each detail of the new process. Small scale testing was conducted where possible. Weaknesses were identified and removed.
Achieved Benefits:
The new process allowed one staff member to acquire 20 lots per month. The original process required three staff members to acquire 3 lots per month. The Make It Right non-profit began moving more quickly toward their goal of building 150 homes in the Ninth Ward.
Major Food and Beverage Company
Challenge:
A major food and beverage corporation needed a “next generation” quality deployment and did not want to use Six Sigma or Lean based on past failed attempts with these quality methods.
ASI Solution:
ASI-CG was called to deploy LEO which involves “all the people, all the time” meaning that everyone has a role to play in increasing quality. Using LEO the company was able to identify major areas of savings in operations, energy, labor and inventory which resulted in an ROI of 12:1.
Achieved Benefit:
Aside from the millions in dollar savings that ASI helped generate, the culture of the corporation was changed — for the first time middle management understood its role in increasing quality; operators instead of resisting management began to actively participate in increasing quality and leadership realized that when everyone truly understands what they need to do to increase quality, productivity increases, waste decreases, workers feel empowered to make changes and both the corporation and its customers benefited.
Intercooler
Challenge:
The audible noise problem caused by airflow through the intercooler used for a supercharger had become a critical issue. The normal approach to reduce the level of audible noise had typically been ineffective and inefficient and resulted in a cost increase.
ASI Solution:
The robust design approach using the ideal function was applied to reduce the variability of airflow through the intercooler while making the design robust to failure modes.
Achieved Benefit:
The optimized function not only cut audible noise by 6 dB (very significant) but also improved the cooling efficiency and reduced the cost by more than $3.50 per unit.
LEO
Practice / Industry: LEO
Challenge
Create a unique Neuroscience healthcare process for seniors with the key symptoms being neuro pain, balance, and/or cognitive functions without having a template of prior success to guide the creation and implementation.
ASI Solution
The Hospital used LEO as described in the book “Power of LEO“. They Listened to the internal and external customers in the new process; Enriched the new process by identifying the existing process with measures and then designing a new process with measures that created a world-class level of service; and Optimized this new process by not only implementing it, but ‘designing in’ the quality so that very few changes needed to be made once the new process was implemented.
Achieved Benefit
When the hospital used LEO, external customers (both the patients and the caregivers of the patients who were often times the sons/daughters of the patients) were grateful for the reduced time of patient service from 3 weeks down to 2 days and the internal customers (the doctors and administrators) were grateful that they could work quickly, effectively and collaboratively to help their patients. Patient care and satisfaction increased as did revenues while costs decreased.
Robust Engineering
Practice: Robust Engineering
Challenge
A company wanted to develop a new fuel delivery system to satisfy hot fuel handling requirement. In order to reduce pollution, the company needed to develop a new system which delivered precise fuel flow for combustion so that they could eliminate unused hot fuel returning back to the fuel tank. A team of engineers was assigned to accomplish this in three years. Two years into the assignment, they could not meet the requirement.
ASI Solution
The best solution was to introduce the company to our Robust Engineering methodology. ASI Consulting Group originated the concept of robust optimization strategies. After two months of work, the company they had a design that met all requirements.
Achieved Benefit
The team finished development in two months, meeting all requirements, and reduced time to market, which translated to saving of approximately $250k of engineering time and development cost. Cost avoidance in future warranty costs, as fuel pumps are a high warranty item was expected to be in the millions.
Food Manufacturing
Practice / Industry: Food Manufacturing
Challenge
A food manufacturing giant was seeking a path to increased quality, the corporation needed a “next generation” quality deployment and did not want Six Sigma or Lean based on past failed attempts with these quality methods.
ASI Solution
ASI Consulting Group was called to deploy LEO which involves “all the people, all the time” meaning that everyone has a role to play in increasing quality. Using LEO the company was able to identify major areas of savings in operations, energy, labor and inventory which resulted in an ROI of 12:1.
Achieved Benefit
Aside from the millions in dollar savings that was realized, the culture of the corporation was changed — for the first time middle management understood its role in increasing quality; operators instead of resisting management began actively participating in increasing quality and leadership realized that when everyone truly understands what they need to do to increase quality, productivity increases, waste decreases, workers feel empowered and both the corporation and its customers benefited.