The St Marks Hospital Capacity Problem - Essay Example

Project Management By: Question The St. Marks Hospital Capa Problem Problem definition Number of beds currently available of which are reserved for patients requiring major treatment. Hospital currently working at 75% due to some inefficiency in operations and human resource though management has plans to run at 95% capacity. Solution i. Current designed capacity =  x 4500 = 3600 beds ii. Current effective capacity =  x 3600 = 3420 beds iii. Current actual output =  x 3600 = 2700 beds iv. Current utilization =Actual output Design capacity =  x 100 = 75% v. Current efficiency = Actual output Design capacity =  x 100 = 78.9% vi. Future designed capacity =  x 4500 x  = 4095 beds vii. Future effective capacity =  x 4095 = 3090 beds viii. Future actual output =  x4095 = 3071 beds ix. Future utilization = Actual output Design capacity = x 100 = 75% x. Future efficiency = Actual output Design capacity =  x 100 = 99.4% The design capacity gives the maximum theoretical output of the hospital under ideal operational conditions, while the effective capacity gives the capacity which the hospital is able to achieve considering its prevailing operational constraints. In practice the effective capacity is always lower than the design capacity, normally because the design capacity is always in reference to earlier versions of the problem at hand and considers ideal conditions which are often difficult to achieve in operations. Utilization is given as a percentage of the design capacity while effectiveness as a percentage of the effective design, usually used in comparison with the standard measure. b) The Hospital’s approach to its capacity management Capacity refers to the number of units a facility is able to hold or to produce in a given span of time. Capacity available would refer to that which is at the disposal of the hospital and this is affected by among other factors: changes that are specific to the available capacity operations, the mix of different uses of the current available capacity and the speed and/or pace with which the workforce utilises this capacity. In measuring capacity, a unit standard of measure is often required, and in this case of St. Marks’s hospital beds resources are used. Capacity management involves capacity planning and this squarely falls on the duty responsibilities of the strategic planners in the organization. Its major aim in most organisations is to try and match the level at which the operations are taking place to that of the demand. It is carried out bearing in mind the future growth and the expansion plans of the organizations and also to a greater extent the market trend, in this case of the hospital, the patients’ trend. Normally with a fluctuation in demand, capacity planning becomes a tedious and a very unpredictable exercise. It is broadly concerned with the defining of both the short term and long term needs of an organization and finding means to satisfy them basing the decisions on the customer demands. This is done considering both the human and financial resources available to the organization. Usually, making capacity planning for the long term utilisation of resources is risky, uncertain and difficult in most organisations. This is mainly because a lot of changing parameters are to be considered for the planning process to have some accuracy. It involves major issues and those that would affect the organisation in a major way. Short term strategies on the other hand involving changes in a one year period are usually easier to plan and manage and do not involve major changes to the organisation. Managers in most occasions anticipate an increase in output and decide whether capacity increment is justified. The short term capacity planning strategies are often used in fixing fundamental organisation’s capacity problems. Most of it focusing on the labour intensive processes is solved by either hiring more workers or giving the present workers some overtime provisions. The operation research mangers are broadly concerned with capacity management and planning for some of the following reasons: To enable the capacity meet the customer demands in the appropriate time. If this is made possible then the organisation is able to take a due advantage of the various available opportunities existing in the market. Little capacity tends to limit the potential of organisations especially in serving its clients. It affects the scheduling operations. Scheduling of activities involves precedence in the activity operations and these are supposed to be done in time to prevent any backlog. A capacity problem is then able to affect all the operations of the organisation causing a lot of undeserved delays. Its creation needs an investment. Implementations of the capacity problem solutions usually incur a lot of cost and proper planning and management of the resources is needed. It affects the cost effectiveness of operations. When the demand and capacity needs of an organisation are properly matched, the operation cost tends to be minimized. In situations where there is a mismatch, then more cost is incurred in compensating for this. It eases management. In situations where the capacity is properly matched with its demand, the management process is made a lot easier. But in areas where there is a mismatch, the management process becomes a daunting task. Evaluation of the hospital capacity management can be considered in phases: Phase 1: Involves the identification and recognition of the current capacity constraints prevalent in the hospital. The bed capacity as it in the hospital, as recognized is not able to meet the current demand. In this first phase, the available options are considered in order for the hospital to be able to meet this demand both in the short and the long term. Projections of the future demands is carried out and matched with the available supply capacity of the hospital. The capacity constraint exists because, as explained, the demand from the hospital patients by far exceeds the available bed capacity. Phase2: Adopting to the increment of the bed capacity to cater for the future increment in demand and facilitation of the handling of more patients enabling operational flexibility. This planning phase involves preparation of a management paper discussed by the top level management focusing on the current situation, implications it has to the hospital and the proposed plan of action to eliminate the capacity problem. Phase 3: This involves the actual implementation of the proposed plan of action of capacity extension, with the view of serving more patients involving even the emergency cases. Once the go ahead is given, budgetary allocation is done and the respective proposed activities delegated to ensure that the objectives are met. Question 2 The times in the boxes are in weeks. ES = 0 EF = 10 A LS = 0 LF = 10 Points to note on the above network diagram ES represents the earliest time an activity can be started. It is usually determined from the early finish times of the precedent activities. For activities with two or more activities preceding it, then ES is taken as that of the latest Early finish times of either of these activities. EF represents the earliest time an activity can be completed. It is obtained by the addition of the activity duration to that of its early star time. LF refers to the latest time an activity can be completed without delaying the project completion. It is usually similar to the late start time of the subsequent activity. If two or more activities subsequently follow a particular activity, then it is represented by the earliest of the late start times of these next activities. LF Is taken as the Late Finish time of an activity minus its duration The Critical time from the network diagram is 55weeks. The different paths in the project are: Path Time A B E F K 40wks A D F K 34wks A C G H K 44wks A C G J L M 55wks A Q 22wks The critical path is. A C G J L M Total float on each of the activity Total float on an activity refers to the total amount of time that the activity can be delayed without causing any delays to the overall project execution time. It is normally calculated as: LF = LS – ES or LF – EF Delaying the activities with zero total float time will result to an overall delay in the project completion, and this can increasing the costs of executing the project. Those with some total float time can give the managers room for rescheduling without affecting the project’s completion time. However, this should be dome with caution as it could result in reducing the total floats of other subsequent activities. Tubular analysis of the total float times of each activity Activity Weeks ES LS Total Float A 10 0 0 0 B 8 10 18 8 C 10 10 10 0 D 6 10 26 16 E 4 18 28 10 Q 12 10 43 33 F 14 22 32 10 G 8 20 20 0 H 12 28 34 6 J 16 28 28 0 K 4 40 46 6 L 6 44 44 0 M 5 50 50 0 b) If Activity F is delayed by 19wks then the project will be delayed. Though it might not be on the critical path, it has got a total float of less than 19wks. If it is delayed, then it means there would also be a delay in the subsequent activities and this would affect the whole project. One action plan the operations manager could take in order not to exceed the current length of the critical path would be crashing the project. In most cases this is done to shorten the project completion time, especially by injecting more manpower and other expenses. After the determination of the critical path activities, some of them especially those that last longer durations i.e. Activity C and J could be expatiated, so that the project completion time is shortened and/or not exceeded. Crashing of a project is done usually to find the minimum time-cost trade-off model in a bid to obtaining the minimum cost schedule. As already stated, crashing is carried out on those activities that are critical, from those that cost less to the most expensive. Each of these activities can be crashed until other paths become critical, or it attains its minimum time reduction or until it becomes obvious that it would be more costly to crush more. The manager should also avoid assigning activities to project executers who have a known reputation of being lazy. A lot of incentives should be given for activities present on the critical path. This would assist in expediting their execution, preventing delays that could occur. Strict penalties should also be placed on these activities in case of any delays so that the activities are done in time ensuring that the project completion date is not exceeded. This tool is powerful and is available to operation managers to assist them in fast tracking the project or enable them to avoid the risks of surpassing the project completion times, especially as a result of uncertainties. Reference BURFORD, L. D. (2012). Project management for flat organizations: cost effective steps to achieving successful results. Ft. Lauderdale, FL, J. Ross Pub. HARRISON, F. L., & LOCK, D. (2004). Advanced project management: a structured approach. Aldershot, England, Gower. HELDMAN, K. (2011). PMP project management professional exam : study guide. Indianapolis, Ind, Wiley. HELDMAN, K. (2011). Project management jumpstart. Hoboken, NJ, Wiley. HOARE, H. R. (1973). Project management using network analysis: (by) H.R. Hoare. New York, Mcgraw-Hill. PORTNY, S. E. (2013). Project Management For Dummies. New York, Wiley. http://www.123library.org/book_details/?id=96898. SCHWALBE, K. (2009). Introduction to project management. Boston, Mass, Course Technology. TANG, S. L. (2003). Modern construction project management. Hong Kong, Hong Kong University Press. THOMSETT, M. C. (2010). The little black book of project management. New York, American Management Association. http://public.eblib.com/choice/publicfullrecord.aspx?p=472580. WYSOCKI, R. K. (2009). Effective project management traditional, agile, extreme. Indianapolis, IN, Wiley Pub. http://www.books24x7.com/marc.asp?bookid=31996. Read More