East-West can provide advisory and consulting service to meet special needs of your business. Our staff has international experience in identifying improvement opportunities and implementing programs to improve business performance. We have experience in:
- Organizational development & alignment
- Mission, Vision and Strategy development
- Business process re-engineering
- Process management
- Process simulation modeling
- Metrics development & implementation
- Supply Chain Management
- Executive mentoring
Examples of results include:
Pharmacy Cycle Time Reduction
We have provided leadership and analysis that allowed a large hospital to reduce the time to fill prescriptions for patients from their outpatient clinics. The pharmacy was averaging on average 65 minutes to fill a prescription with some patients waiting as long as 2 hours. Within 4 months the cycle time was reduced to an average of 12 minutes with no patients waiting longer than 30 minutes.
W have provided process design and process simulation modeling to assist in the development of a mail-out pharmacy that served a six state area and over 25 hospital facilities. The fully automated facility was capable of processing 20 million prescriptions per year in a fully automated process. All prescriptions were mailed the same day of receipt with high levels of quality control and processing accuracy.
Supply Chain Management
Developed and implemented a fully automated, unattended stockroom for dispensing laboratory supplies to researchers at a large medical research facility. The facility provided over 700 high usage items from 15 key suppliers. Researchers could access the stockroom 24 hours per day, seven days per week. As the researcher logged into the system, their profile provided the information to properly charge their research grant account without the need to fill out paper forms. The system automatically sent usage reports to administrators and restocking reports to suppliers. Transaction processing was integrated to the financial system for payment to the suppliers and cost tracking for the grant. The stockroom accommodated items that required special handling such as hazardous chemicals and refrigeration, as well as items that required storage temperatures as low as -80 degrees Centigrade.
Access to each cabinet, refrigerator or freezer is controlled by the item selected by the researcher on the search screen. Only the door containing their selection will open.
Systems Integration
Developed and implemented concept for eProcurement solution that effectively manages cost, product availability, enhanced delivery and prompt payment to suppliers. The process integrates and supplier and customer ERP systems using XML to electronically transmit purchase orders and invoices. This results in very rapid transmission of accurate orders that are fulfilled quickly. The goal of this process which manages over 20,000 transactions per year is to have a totally paperless system. It is integrated with a third party catalog hosting company for standardization of information availability and transmission. The relationship diagram below is the visual representation used by the design team as it developed methods for some end users to access the system without going through the financial management system.
Analytical Tools
Our staff is skilled at using simulation modeling tools to model both financial and business process problems. This allows for variation to be addressed effectively in understanding process performance. Modeling allows for evaluation of process change alternatives prior to implementation within the real process, allowing many “what-if” scenarios to be evaluated.
We can provide complete analytical services or we can train your staff to use these important decision-making tools. We have had good success in applying the following tools to business situations:
- Extend – Used for both continuous and discrete event modeling and includes a built in database manager. You can view this product at www.imaginethatinc.com.
- Crystal Ball – An add-in program that works within Microsoft Excel allowing for Monte Carlo Simulation and other advanced techniques. You can view this product at www.decisioneering.com.
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