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August 13, 2004         

by Robert T. Yokl, President

Why There Are No Quick Fixes At Home, Work Or With Value Analysis? 

“Sustainable Results In Value Analysis Are The Consequence Of  Creating 8 Good Habits That Meet The Test Of Time.”

Like the rest of us, I’m always looking for quick fixes at home and at work to speed up the results of whatever I’m doing. Like you, I don’t have time to bloviate (rant and rave) about my situation. I need to find answers and solutions quickly with my assignments or obligations, so I can move on to the next project or task that has been lined up or assigned to me.

So what happens with my quick fixes? I often use screws that really don’t fit, throw things away I find I need later, or decide not to write down a phone number because I’m too busy only to find myself searching for at a later date.  Can you relate?

On the other hand, when I decide to create the good habits such as using a “To Do” list daily to organize my home and work priorities, filing right away as opposed to filing them later, writing down so I don’t forget them, and buying the right screws to fit in the right holes, I find that things go smoother at home and work, for a longer time and with predictable and repeatable results.

Quick Fixes Will Lead You On The Road To Disaster

Healthcare organizations have the same quick fix mentality in their quest to save money; instead of creating the good value analysis habits of plan, organize, target, train, involve, support, do, and inspect, that are guaranteed to produce longer-term, predictable and repeatable results for them. They decide to opt to do what’s obvious and easy, such as searching out lower cost GPO contracts for quick savings, or re-negotiate their current prime vendor contract to save a half of a percentage point that always looks good on paper.

Let’s think about the impact of quick fixes your healthcare organization for a moment. If you tried to operate your healthcare organization with only quick fix solutions to every challenge or problem your organization encountered, in no time at all you would have thousands of Band-Aids peeling off the sides of your buildings with the result that your buildings would soon fall down.

So why is it that we think that quick fix savings won’t result in a pending disaster too?

Value Analysis Is The Art Of Creating Good Habits

Anyone can find quick fix savings, but it takes a value analysis professional to generate long-term sustainable, predictable and repeatable savings that will meet the test of time. However, to generate these lasting savings, you must create 8 good habits for doing so:

1.                Plan your work and work your plan

2.                Organize in value teams to save big

3.                Target savings opportunities beforehand

4.                Train all those who will participate in the plan

5.                Involve your department heads and managers

6.                Support the initiative from the top down

7.                Do make sure that customers, stakeholders and experts are involved every step of the way

8.                Inspect to insure that savings really happen

These eight good habits should be the foundation of your value analysis program if you want to avoid quick fixes that will swiftly fall apart in no time at all.

About the Author

Robert T. Yokl, President, The HCP Group, Ltd., has over 35 years of experience as a consultant and manager in the field of Supply Value Chain Management and is one of the country's leading healthcare experts in value analysis, value engineering, Non Salary Expense Reduction and materials management. He is the developer and program leader of the award winning Certified Value Analysis Practitioner Training Program™. Mr. Yokl is also the developer of the healthcare industry's leading ValueNetCentral™ Value Analysis Software. Over the past two decades he has trained thousands of healthcare managers in his patented Strategic Value Analysis™ and Team-Based Project Management™ processes and has assisted scores of organizations in developing their own value management programs. He has published six books, videos and audios on supply/value chain management. His latest book being, “ Strategic Value Analysis™: The #1 Smart Strategy for Taking Cost Out of a Healthcare Organizations’ Healthcare Supply Value Chain”.

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