help with peer responses (9) due in 20 hours
combs
peer.docxProductivity
Guided Response: Respond to at least two of your classmates’ posts and identify specific trade-offs. Give additional advice and alternative ways to increase productivity for the future.
Zachary’s Post:
The time used to creating something and the things used to make are being added and divided to calculate the productivity. In short, productivity is the time needed to make something or the efficiency of making a job done (Vonderembse & White, 2013). There are three parts of productivity and they are the labor, the capital and the material needed or used to make the product or provide the service. To make a product, it needs labor or the person to create it. There is a need for the capital or the money to make the laborers work or to buy the material needed and of course we need the material to make it work or complete the work.
When producing something, the exchange of things need to make the production are called tradeoffs. In a working environment, the common things to be traded off are capital and labor. We can say that capital and labor are being trade off because a corporate manager hires people for their labor and they are expected to work and produced the product. After doing their job, they are being paid off hence the capital goes to them. If there are no laborers, there will be no productivity but then if there is no capital to pay the laborers, then the laborers will not do any job as well thus affecting productivity. It is then important to have these two things to ensure the success of production and to make every hour a productive one. The tradeoff between capital and materials used or needed to produce is also important aspect of being productive. For example, a builder or someone who sells houses buys materials used to create houses hence in order to buy these materials or get this materials, he needs capital. Once the capital is provided, then they can now start buying materials and complete the house to be sold to someone else.
The tradeoff between labor and material is also possible and happens all the time. I am a trainer and I have one student who sells a product that I wanted. Now we decided to make our little business trade hence in every session that I am to teach her, she will give me a product or one of the products she is selling hence I am trading my labor to her materials.
Reference
Vonderembse, M. A., & White, G. P. (2013). Operations management . Bridgepoint Education.
Jacy’s post:
Productivity can grow by maintaining the output level while reducing inputs or by increasing output without increasing any input. To increase productivity, organizations must contend with tradeoffs among various inputs. Managers may be trading capital for labor, capital for energy, or material or labor in order to make this increase happen (Vonderembse & White, 2013).
For centuries we have been trading foods and goods for labor. As time has evolved, we do not have machines to do a lot of labor for us. This now provides less labor cost for businesses and the ability to increase productivity.
Also, Trading Capital for Material or Energy can improve productivity. For instance, investing in a piece of better equipment can leave you producing the same amount of parts but reduce the amount of waste. Now since less energy is used now, energy production has increased.
Another tradeoff is substituting materials for labor. An example is manufacturing production at economies of scale or outsourcing production. This keeps labor low and production very high.
Keeping all of the above in mind, it is essential to ensure that all resources are properly maintained. If not, this can lead to a reduction in labor and product productivity. Be sure always to have preventive maintenance set up to avoid any losses that may take place.
Vonderembse, M. A., & White, G. P. (2013). Operations management . Bridgepoint Education.
Product Design and Quality
Product Design and Quality
Guided Response: Respond to at least two of your classmates’ posts and identify critical factors of building quality into products. Provide additional advice and benefits of building quality into products.
Melissa’s Post:
According to Ambruch (2013), “To be certain, it’s not just one, but a confluence of factors changing the manufacturing landscape. Digitization, personalization, “smart” products, connectivity, and servitization are some key drivers, and globalization and regulation continue to drive manufacturing businesses, but in new ways.” Smart Products & Connectivity looks at the ability that everyday objects have to communicate with one another. Think about security systems. There are doorbell cameras to monitor the front area of a home or business, which can be viewed livestream on one’s smartphone allowing the owner access to monitor their property at any time, from anywhere. Servitization demonstrates the relationship a business has with the customers. It is not enough to create a valuable product; the product must be accompanied by on-going service. Businesses must look past the initial single sale and understand how that customer becomes a long-term customer and most often that relationship is enhanced and solidified thru superior service. I used to work for Verizon Wireless. We sold products but the most important aspect of our business was the service we provided to our customers on a network that allowed their fancy devices to actually work properly. Digitization, according to Ambruch (2013), is used “to better meet fragmenting customer demand, manufacturers are harnessing digital technologies that help them improve global collaboration and expand regional manufacturing processes into globalized design-build-service anywhere strategies.” Think about the current environment of 3D printers. Manufacturers can release the plans for certain items, such as machinery parts, to the customer and the customer can instantly create the parts needed to remedy a machine. An engineer for a large agricultural manufacturer, would potentially utilize this digitization frequently. Personalization dictates that businesses seek out the wants/needs and input from customers in terms of product development. Rather than producing a one-size-fits-all type of product, more businesses are learning that they need to produce more niche-based products. This engages customers and leads to loyalty. Globalization understands the world is getting smaller and smaller. “Manufacturers must be able to design, build, service, and sell to and from anywhere” (Ambruch, 2013). Of course, smart products and connectivity have also helped develop the concept of globalization as the internet has indeed changed the way business is conducted. This expands the potential customer base business can solicit which in turns can lead to larger profits. Regulation goes hand in hand with globalization. Businesses must recognize, understand and adhere to local, state, federal and international laws. This allows for standard regulation for all businesses thus creating a fair and level playing field which is devised to protect the consumer.
Reference: Ambruch, B. (2013, October 21). The forces that are transforming how products are made (Links to an external site.)
Federico’s Post:
Product Design and Quality.
For many decades, major manufacturers have been using traditional means to improve product quality, efficiency, and productivity, benefiting customers and manufacturers. However, with the challenges in cost reduction related to global markets, those companies are looking for new ways to develop specific competitive advantages in their business sectors. These days there is a necessity to initiate a transformation in the way such companies conduct their business. According to Ambruch (2013), the global industry “have to rethink everything from how products are conceived, designed and sourced to how they are produced, sold and serviced” (p. 2). The author states that not just one force is driving change in those companies, but several ones. Those forces include connectivity of intelligent devices, servitization, digitization, personalization, globalization, and regulation. These activities aim to increase the quality of the company’s products and services and improve its production processes through innovation and continuous improvement, supported by methodologies like Six Sigma, TQM, and lean manufacturing.
All of that is part of the concept of building quality into our companies by continuously developing their business processes and delivering high-quality products and services to their customers. This definition implies doing everything as well as possible every day, operating without defects or errors in all company areas. Building quality into the products and services also means that the products are planned and designed, and production procedures must be developed to make all operations error-free. According to Vonderembse & White (2013), “For many years, companies accepted a 1% to 3% rate of defects in goods and services” (chap. 4.2). Such a rate would generate about 34,000 defects per 1 million cases. However, after implementing a Six Sigma quality system, a defect would occur only 3.4 times out of one million cases.
In summary, building quality into a product could be a complex process, where the design of the product and the process by which the product is made are key factors. Driving and controlling a product quality is not a one department responsibility. Just a group of people cannot assure the quality of a product without the involvement of every individual in the company. Quality is everyone’s job. This state of mind begins with the Company’s CEO and rolls down throughout every level of the organization.
References
Vonderembse, M. A., & White, G. P. (2013). Operations management. Bridgepoint Education.
Ambruch, B. (2013, October 21). The forces that are transforming how products are made. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/ptc/2013/10/21/the-six-things-that-are-transforming-how-products-are-made/?sh=44e04a5e4980
Discussion
Quality Outcomes
Please respond to at least two of your classmates by Day 7 with your responses being approximately 75-100 words in length.
· Ask at least one question in response to an original peer post that you would like the author to explore further.
Carmen’s Post:
Quality Outcome
Week 2: Discussion
According to one of our readings this week, it provided a clear definition of quality outcomes. This definition coincides with the type of quality we want to see at least at the organization I work for called CTSHealth. According to the World Health Organization (2003) “quality is a measure of whether services increase the likelihood of desired mental health outcomes and are consistent with current evidence-based practice” (p.2). In quality outcome the desire for an agency is to look at the progress and the benefits the clients are receiving with the services based on the interventions that are being utilized.
CTSHealth is a Community Mental Health Center (CMHC) in Chicago, Illinois. Our Mission is to empower individuals to live effective lives in the community. CTSHealth meets with clients in the community as we are a community-based service agency. We want to make sure that the client has control of their goals. We utilize different tools to assess consumers outcome or progress through the following:
Individualized Treatment Plan (ITP)
IM+CANS (Mental Health Assessment)
Locus Score (Level of Functioning)
Service Verification (Looking at the quality)
Surveys (Survey Monkey)
Quarterly Report (Overview of services -quarterly)
Fiscal Year Review
These are some of the tools we utilize to follow up on quality outcomes and progress. Through these assessments and tools we are able to make modifications as needed. The ITP and IM+CANS are done at the beginning of services as it provides an overview of the client's history of mental illness, current presenting problems, clients interest goals, and it is client centered. This assessment helps identify strength to help clients reach their goals through motivating them to utilize their strengths. This tool helps see progress as it is reviewed every six months and annually. We are able to examine if goals have been met or need any changes. Here is a link to see assessment: https://www2.illinois.gov/hfs/SiteCollectionDocuments/IM+CANSLifespanVersion17118.pdf (Links to an external site.)
The Locus score is very important at our organization as we are certified as a community support individual (CSI) meaning the locus score is between 17-19. The Locus score helps us determine the level of functioning, so if a client scores higher he/she might be consider for more intense services such as community support team (CST), and if the consumer has several hospitalization and scores higher than 20-22 the client would benefit of ACT services which is the highest level of care. I have added a website link to get an idea of this tool below.
https://www.kyha.com/assets/docs/AdvocacyDocs/MCO/LOCUSWORKSHEET.pdf (Links to an external site.)
In regards to this assessment tool we complete along with the mental health assessment every six month and annually. We are able to see the outcome if the level of functioning stays the same, decreases or increases and modifications are made as needed. For example, we had a client that came in with a Locus score of 20 but the client came under distress and was dealing with grief. When the mental health assessment was completed after six months she was at an 18. The interventions and services she received have helped the client manage her symptoms of depression/grief. The next tool we use is the service verification. I will utilize this client as the quality team would make random calls to clients to follow up with services being rendered. They complete surveys through survey monkey anonymous. The quality team would send out surveys to all clients quarterly and request to be returned anonymously through mail, or online.
Quality outcome is very important in an organization for several reasons, and there are many effective ways to get the outcome not only through clients. I know that families have provided quality outcomes, stakeholders who see progress in clients and later want to build connections and send referrals. I feel when quality outcomes are not positive, it is important to review services. We provide strength base meetings based on the client center and seek to brainstorm in a team to identify the need and make modifications as needed.
Quarterly we measure quality outcome by looking at for example how many consumers were housed, how many locus scores improved, how many clients graduated, how many clients were hospitalized. Annually we see the improvement as well.
I also worked at another agency that provided a substance abuse tools to assess progress with individual who had dual disorder. The Integrated dual disorder treatment (IDDT) is a scale that will allow the staff to know if the client is in engagement, active treatment, and/ or remission. There are several quality outcome tools that are beneficial to help clients in their recovery path, having these tools can help make those modification needed as assess the overall quality of the services being rendered.
Resources
Hacimusalar, Y., & Doğan, E. S. (2019). Assessment of the functioning levels and related factors in patients with bipolar disorder during remission. Nöropsikiyatri Arşivi, 56(3), 213–218.
https://www.kyha.com/assets/docs/AdvocacyDocs/MCO/LOCUSWORKSHEET.pdf (Links to an external site.)
World Health Organization. (2003). Quality improvement for mental health. Retrieved from
Audrey’s Post:
Measuring quality healthcare
If I was an administrator in a mental healthcare setting I would use the definition provided as a guideline to measure quality care. That definition is whether or not the patient is receiving services that will increase the outcome they and their family and team are hoping for that is consistent with evidence-based practice (WHO, 2003). However, in healthcare and especially mental health care quality care is not cut and dry. Some patients will leave a mental health facility feeling as though they were unheard and unseen and some will feel as though their needs were met.
While I do not work in a mental healthcare setting, another reading from this week suggested that care coordination and involvement from the PCP, care team, and patients family as well as the patient being heard and seen determined how the patient felt about the care received (DeCarlo Santiago, et al., 2014). This involvement would also be reflected on the survey the patient was asked to fill out. For example, if I was an administrator I would try to make sure that each of my patients felt heard and seen as well as their family and care team outside of my facility. This way the patient would feel important as well as everyone involved with the patient. It should be noted measuring quality of care can sometimes be hard as it can vary from each organization and each country as well (Kilbourne, et al., 2018).
According to my source, mental healthcare settings do have assessments for their structure, process, and outcome of patients (Kilbourne, et al., 2018). This is for accreditation, their standard settings, how they can improve, accountability, and financial purposes. So if I ran a mental healthcare setting and I had an assessment I would have one that covered these areas as well as a feedback section so that we as a whole setting could learn where are strengths are and where the weaknesses are as well.
References
DeCarlo Santiago, C., Kataoka, S.H., Forness, S.R., & Miranda, J. (2014). Mental health services in
special education: An analysis of quality of care. Children & Schools, 36(3), 175-182.
https://doi.org/cs/cdu014 (Links to an external site.)
Kilbourne, A.M., Beck, K., Spaeth-Rublee, B., Ramanuj, P., O’Brien, R.W., Tomoyasu, N., & Pincus,
H.A. (2018). Measuring and improving the quality of mental health care: A global perspective.
World psychiatry official journal of the World Psychiatric Association (WPA), 17(1), 30-38.
https://doi.org/10.1002/wps.20482 (Links to an external site.)
World Health Organization. (2003). Quality improvement for mental health.
http://www.who.int/mental_health/resources/en/Quality.pd
Discussion Board: Cell Phones
Please make your own comments first and then build on at least three of the comments of your classmates. Work for at least 3 well-developed sentences in each response.
Kristi’s post:
I perceive that a person intentionally listening to a conversion to find out information or what the person is talking about constitutes eavesdropping, because everyone talks on their phone, but it is our choice to pay attention to what another person says. I feel that it is being unethical when it is done with the wrong intentions, because sometimes people can take a conversation out of context to start gossip. Sometimes in special occasions it can be appropriate to conduct personal telephone conversations near others because, some phone conversations are meant for more than one person to hear. I say this because my daughter must have zoom meetings with her psychiatrist and teachers that requires multiple people being on the call, so we must discuss personal information in front of others. This behavior has been effective in helping understand how to adjust my daughter’s information because, she has her meetings every six months. There are times however that it is inappropriate to have a personal conversation in front of others. This behavior can be sometimes taken as rude especially if you are sitting down to eat supper with her family. I am guilty of this behavior especially with my daughter because I tend to talk loud over the phone, and it affects how we communicate with situations.
Kendall’s Post:
One day I was in Walmart and a woman was on the phone talking to her husband. I tried not to listen to the conversation but she got pretty loud and she was furious at the cashier. I would say hearing another person's cellphone conversation does constitute eavesdropping. Yes, it would be unethical because I wouldn't listening to my conversation while on the phone. Some places are appropriate to conduct personal telephone conversation. If you around people you known for a little amount of time its ok but if you around others like in grocery store you should be less talkative about your personal life until you get away. This behavior is not a problem but also you shouldn't listen to others personal conversation because you might listen to the wrong conversation and wish that you didn't. I would feel guilty about this behavior.
Brandon’s Post:
I have been able to hear and see a person's conversation multiple times. I have heard it before in elevators or walking close to someone on the phone while they are on speaker. I think to a certain point it does constitute eavesdropping because sometimes people talk very loud on speaker phone so you are able to hear what they are talking about. I think if you are going out of your way to eavesdrop it is unethical but when you cant control overhearing someones conversation it is not unethical. I think if you are being quiet while having a phone conversation and you are not on speaker phone then it is appropriate to have a phone conversation in close proximity to others. I feel that when people are very loud with their conversations on the phone it is disrespectful when you are in a small building but when inside a big building then it is okay. I am not guilty of this behavior.
