Savings Beyond Price™
Innovative Supply Savings and Quality Solutions That Work
by Strategic Value Analysis® in Healthcare
Did You Know...?
That Value Analysis Was Developed Back In the 1940's After World War II as a Way to Find Lower Cost but Higher Quality Alternative products and methods. This was Due to the Lack of Material Resources At The End of The War.
Savings Beyond Price -Weekly eNewsletter - Jan. 23, 2008
Robert T. Yokl
President & Chief Value Strategist
Greetings!
The Hard Truth!
Everyone is looking for easy answers to improve their value teams’ performance, however based on my 27 years as a consultant/trainer I can tell you unequivocally that there are no easy answers to improving your value teams’ efficiency, productivity and savings yield.
The “hard truth” is that it requires extensive training in team leadership, verbal communications, collaboration, and time and change management to move the input/output meter on your value teams’ performance -- even one centimeter.
I learned this “hard truth” when I was hired as a consultant for a large consulting firm back in the 80s, when my new boss told me to “go save money” for our hospital clients. When I asked him how I was going to do this with the limited staff and resources he was providing me, he told me with a smile on his face to, “figure it out for yourself.”
Well, it took me a few years, but I did figure it out for myself! I realized that if I trained my clients how to save money vs. doing the work for them, they win and I win. They win because they would now have all the advanced strategies, tactics and techniques to save forevermore. And I would win since I could train hundreds of clients without needing a huge staff and infinite resources to do so.
When I set this plan into motion the results were phenomenal both quantitatively and qualitatively for my clients and me. The lesson for you here is that just asking your value teams to “go save money” isn’t going to “wring the towel dry” in savings for your healthcare organization or make your job any easier. The answer is to provide yourself and your team leaders with the extensive training you and they require to make the great leap forward in performance that you have been looking for in 2008. The best news of all is that this feat can be accomplished without adding even one new staff member to your department.
Think about this “hard truth” as the combination to a safe that, when it’s opened…presto. All of the money falls out and it’s yours! That’s what advance value analysis training can do for you and your value teams -- open the floodgates of savings for your healthcare organization.
It’s just that simple!
Your Partner In Savings Beyond Price!
Robert T. Yokl
President & Chief Value Strategist
P.S. If you have been looking for a “low cost” way to educate yourself and your team leaders on the advanced strategies, tactics and techniques of value analysis, then I would suggest that you sign up for our Certified Value Analysis Leadership Training Program on March 11-13. As I already stated in my column (above), I don’t know of any other way that would dramatically improve a value teams’ performance than to utilize this kind of extensive training. So don’t let this opportunity pass you by for another year.
P.S.S. I almost forgot! There are only 16 more days left for you to save $211 with our Early Bird Rate. Otherwise, I’m sorry to tell you that you will need to pay the full price for this limited seating advanced value analysis leadership training program. Check out the new software we just added to the training program!
VOICE OF THE CUSTOMER: What’s it all about?
“It’s not real, until we actually hear it from our customers”
You might have heard this term “voice of the customer” (VOC) in your healthcare organization, or read about it in some business publication, but do you actually know what it means? And do you understand how it can re-invent the way you evaluate and select the products, services and technologies you are buying?
To paraphrase Marketing Science, the definition of the “voice of the customer” is the identification of your customers’ wants and needs expressed in their own language, organized into a hierarchy and prioritized by your customers’ importance and satisfaction.
In short, VOC is the science of identifying, organizing and prioritizing your customers’ needs, wants and desires so you can buy the right product that will, in fact, meet their exact needs, not what they think they need at any given time. Trust me, there is a difference!
As you know, your customers are fickle and literally want almost everything a sales rep shows them. So how do you find out what your customers absolutely, positively need and actually require vs. the hype your sales rep has told you and your customers about the product, service or technology they are selling? That’s where understanding and applying the tenets of VOC can make a significant difference in how you buy. Here’s the top three VOC tenets based on our Supply Six Sigma™ methodology that you need to know about:
1. Conduct One-on-One, In-Person Interviews
The first tenet of VOC is that you must have one-on-one, in-person interviews with your requisitioners (i.e. customers) to determine their functional requirements. It doesn’t matter what they are requesting, you need to understand what they really need, want and desire. This is because most requisitioners are catalog buyers or depend on their sales rep for specifications, thereby never thinking through what their true requirements are based on their functions.
2. Organize Customer Needs in an Affinity Diagram
An affinity diagram will enable your value team to drill down from general needs (function by function) to specific based on what your customers say, not the evaluation of what your value team or sales reps think they need. This visual presentation of your customers’ wants, needs and desires will also enable your value team to develop lower cost alternatives to meet your customers’ functional requirements.
3. Have Customers Rank, Prioritize and Dollarize Needs.
You need to rank, prioritize and dollarize your customer needs, function by function, to determine their order of importance. The reason for this is that your requisitioners usually don’t need everything they are requesting, especially when they see for themselves the cost/benefit of each function they are requesting. For instance, if a new pacemaker is requested and then you have your customer rank, prioritize and dollarize the 24 or so features of the pacemaker, you will find that they would quickly realize that they only really need 10% of the features that they thought they originally required. This can reduce the cost of this pacemaker by 23% or more based on our studies.
In summary, the VOC concept might be new to you, but it shouldn’t be ignored, since it could become one of the most powerful tools in your cost management tool box. It’s tried, tested and it works in the evaluation and selection of any product, service on technology that you will ever buy. It’s really easy to employ this big idea once you and your value team members understand that your customers don’t need everything that they think they need and the VOC model (above) can help you to prove it to them.
Integrating Supply Six SigmaTM Into Materials Management
Feburary 13, 2008 - 1:00pm to 2:00pm EST
Planning and Implementing a New Way to Manage Your Supply Chain Operations
SVAH will share with you our strategies and insights that will allow you to start to utilize Supply Six SigmaTM and show you how you can begin to integrate this powerful quality and savings strategy into your everyday operations.
What You Will Learn:
How to Get Organize for Supply Six SigmaTM
How to Develop Your Plan for Supply Six SigmaTM
How to Define Your Unique Six Sigma Attributes for You and Your Supply Chain Organization
How the Supply Six SigmaTM Process Will Work For You (Examples and Case Studies)
Which Tools Will Work Best for Your Supply Chain Operations
Feburary 13, 2007 - 1:00pm to 2:00pm EST
Webinar Leader - Robert T. Yokl, President/Chief Value Strategist Strategic Value Analysis in Healthcare
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PLUS as an added Bonus, we'll also send you our SPECIAL REPORT "Your Targeted Blueprint for Supply Savings Success!"
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