Operations management using bar codes - health care industry

Operations Management:
Tracking Operations using
Operations Management Assignment
Prepared By: Manohar M. M. Iyer
XMBA Batch 19 , ITM Vashi, 2012.
Tracking Operations using
Bar Coding Technology

Introduction:
This study is taken from a real life Project handled by me
(Manohar) in the year 2007, while I was working with a
reputed UK Pharma marketing firm which was to launch a
Chain of Human care wellbeing centres across India that
will render all wellness services under one roof, like
Clinical diagnostics, Ayurveda, Homoeopathy,
Gymnasium, Consultations, Skin & Beauty, etc.
Gymnasium, Consultations, Skin & Beauty, etc.
I was a core member of Technology & Software Team of
the firm & our team’s job was to create a system that will
smoothen the entire operations not only intra-centre, but
also Inter-centre across India and all information will be
saved in one central server accessible across all systems in
all the centres.

The advantage was that the customer can book for service
from anywhere in India, avail of the service at any centre
in India and continue the next sitting at any other center as
per his convenience.
The top management could at the click of a button can
have a dashboard at any given time or for a specific
period, of any one centre in India or Region wise or the
whole unit and get details like number of customers
whole unit and get details like number of customers
availing of the services, number of consultants/ Service
providers available, Stock details of service ingredients,
efficiency of the centre, costs, inter-centre transactions,
Projections, etc. .
The Backbone of this operation is Bar Coding.

Disclaimer note:
This document is prepared purely as an educational project assignment
to be submitted as a component of the XMBA curriculum being
conducted by ITM (Institute for Technology and Management) at Vashi,
Navimumbai.
The information contained within this document is for educational
assessment purposes only
The idea & content totally belongs to the company I had worked for
or its investor, share holder, group, organization, company or any
or its investor, share holder, group, organization, company or any
other entity connected with it as specified by the company
None of the Idea & content mentioned in his document or
results/inferences that come out after understanding this document is
permissible to be copied or to be used in part or whole without
written permission from the company
The reader of this document is strongly advised not to indulge in any
such activity

Case Study

Learning
We will learn use of bar coding in
operations under following heads
•The Idea behind WBC Application
•Customer Perspective
•Customer Perspective
•Processes & system in WBC operations
•The final whole flow of operations

The Idea behind WBC Application
The Idea behind WBC Application

WBC software application is used for
capturing all information related to the
processes/ work practices of Brand X
What is WBC application?
processes/ work practices of Brand X
Wellbeing Centre, a human care centre
The process is driven by usage of Bar coding
technology.

Brand X Wellbeing Centre is a human care
centre, which takes care of Customer’s Wellbeing
by providing various Wellbeing Services &Wellbeing Services &
ProductsProducts.
What is Brand X Wellbeing Centre?
ProductsProducts.
The Objective is to improve & maintain customer’s
Wellbeing, by rendering all services under one
roof, like Clinical diagnostics, Ayurveda,
Homoeopathy, Gymnasium, Consultations, Skin &
Beauty, etc.

Why Wellbeing Centre & WBC
• All services related to Customer’s Wellbeing
provided under one roof.
• Facility to book for services in advance.
• Personal attention by customer care
• Personal attention by customer care
associates
• Complete track of services through
Barcoding.
• Customer record and history maintained.

Customer Perspective
Customer Perspective

Appointment
• Customers can book for services online.
• While booking customer provides details like
Name, Address, contact information, service
customer wants to avail, preferred time,
preferred centre and offer code.
preferred centre and offer code.
• When customer visits the centre for availing
the service, we will raise a order and provide
an itinerary with barcode and all details
related to the chosen service.

Provision of Service
• The Customer Care associate will Guide the
customer to the room where h/she can avail
the service.
• The Bar code provided to the customer will
be scanned and the consultant or technician
be scanned and the consultant or technician
who will attend the customer, will get all
details related to the service.
• The service will be provided to the customer.
• If it is a pathological related service, then the
sample will be collected from the customer
for testing.

Payments & Reports
• The Customer care associate will guide the
customer on where to make the payments for
the availed services, how and where h/she
can collect the reports, if any.
• The customer care associate can also provide
information related to any other services that
we provide, if customer inquires.

Follow - Up
• The Goal is Customer Delight & to achieve
this we need to know whatever customer has
to tell about us.
• We have a Customer follow-up system,
through which we will inquire about the
through which we will inquire about the
experience customer had while availing the
services.
• Customers can provide us with their
suggestions, feedback, queries, complaints,
concerns or comments, etc.

Processes & system in WBC operations
Processes & system in WBC operations

Operational processes
• Inventory (stock)
• Appointment
– Transactions
– Order Booking
– Room Activity
– Customer Follow-up
– Questionnaire
• Lab
• Receipt
• Reports
• Utility
• Users

Operations System Modules
•• Reception/ Front OfficeReception/ Front Office
•• Service Providers/ ConsultantsService Providers/ Consultants
•• Lab ProcessLab Process
•• Lab ProcessLab Process
•• StockStock
•• Business ConceptsBusiness Concepts

Reception/ Front Office
Reception/ Front Office

What we will see
• Appointments
• Orders
• Payments
• Delivery
• Order Completion

Appointment
• At the time of booking an Appointment enter the following
details
1. The appointment type
Pre-order
Post-order
2. Whether h/she is an existing customer or a new customer.
2. Whether h/she is an existing customer or a new customer.
Also whether h/she is an normal customer or a corporate
individual with whom we have some tie ups.
For new customers enter customer information like Name,
Address & Other contact details
For existing customers select the customer name.
– Select the Offer Code
– The service customer wants
– The preferred Time & Centre

Order
When customer visits the centre for availing a service, book an
Order.
– Check whether prior appointment or direct walk-in.
For walk-in customers,
– Book the service depending upon the room availability
– Enter the details of the service, the offer, the membership
details, etc.
For customers who has taken prior appointment, select the
For customers who has taken prior appointment, select the
Appointment number.
Note: For new customers, Capture complete customer details
like Name, address, contact details, Customer Type, Corporate
name, etc.
– Confirm the Order & Provide the printout of Itinerary with the
Bar-code to the customer
– Guide him / her to a Customer Care Associate.

Payments
• Enter the payment details.
• Choose the payment mode as cash / cheque,
DD/ Credit card.
–For Corporate individuals availing a
service under corporate Offer, choose the
service under corporate Offer, choose the
payment mode as Trade customer.
• Provide a 'Receipt'.

Delivery
• For clinical related services, reports need to
be delivered to the customer.
• Reports received at the centre from the Lab
can be delivered.
• Select the order based on the Order
Number.
• Choose the delivery type as by courier/ by
Post/ by hand.

Completion
•Services are completed if :
– Services are provided to the customer
– Tests reports, if any, are delivered to the
customer
– Payments are received for the services.
•Order is completed if all services, mentioned
in Order are completed.

Service Providers/ Consultants

We will see
• Room Activity
• Questionnaire

Room Activity
The Customer Care associate will guide the customer to the room.
• Scan the Bar code to get all the details of the customer.
• Provide the service customer has opted for.
• Enter the BMI information if required.
• Scan the bar code again to complete the service
• For pathological related services
• For pathological related services
– Collect the sample,
– Generate bar code sticker & attach it on the sample container
– Send the sample to the lab.
• Consultants update
– Consultation feedback & recommendation.
– Information related to the diet/ exercise regimen that customer
follows, If required.

Questionnaire
• A system in which you can update
– Some sets of questions that you may ask to customers
– Their responses to these questions
• This will help:
– To maintain the record of customers that can be retrieved
whenever required.
– To narrow down on a recommendation.
– To narrow down on a recommendation.
• Questions can be subjective or Objective and can be related to various
areas of health.
• For some Objective questions, we can have optional answers, that can
be predefined.
• Scores can be assigned to these answers.
• Depending upon the total score, some product/ services / information
can be recommended to the customer.

Questionnaire
General Questionnaire
Joints & Muscles Energy
Category
Joints & Muscles Energy
“Do you feel energy slump more often”
Yes
Score=2
Sometimes
Score=1
No
Score=0

Lab Process

Lab Process
• Issue sample to Lab (External or Internal depending
upon the service).
• Internal Labs to receive the sample
• Test & check the relevant parameters of the sample.
• Test & check the relevant parameters of the sample.
• Update the findings/ test results for the parameters
checked.

Stock
Stock

What we will see
• Stock Procurement
• Stock Consumption
• Stock Adjustment
• Stock Adjustment
• Stock Transfer
• Standard Costing

Stock Procurement
Stock Required
Purchase Order
Raise
Authorize through EDMS
Supplier Sends Goods
Goods Receipt Note
Supplier Provides Invoice
Book
Finance
Authorize through EDMS

Stock Consumption
Service Provided
Ingredient Consumed
Stock Reduced

Stock Adjustment
Stock Damaged Free Samples
Negative Positive
Stock Adjustment
Negative Positive

Stock Transfer
One Centre Another Centre
Stock Transfer
Stock Reduced Stock Added

Standard Costing
• Details of cost of components in a product
or Ingredients required for a service can be
updated in Standard Costing

Business Concepts

What we will see
• Service Groups
• Services
• Service Ingredients
• Service Kits
• Marketing Campaigns
• Marketing Campaigns
• Price List
• Memberships
• Trade Customers
• Efficiency
• Various Processes
• WBC Application & Masters

Groups of service
Service Group
Clinical Beauty & skin
• Depending upon the types of services, we
can group the services into segments called
service groups.
Clinical
Blood test
Urine test
etc
Beauty & skin
Manicure
Pedicure
Facial

Services
Services
Non- Sitting Based Sitting Based
Non- Sitting Based Sitting Based
Non- Defined Sittings Defined Sittings

Service Ingredients
• For providing service ingredients are required.
Blood Test
Syringe Bottle Cotton SwabTime/
Effort
• Ingredients can be Tangible or Intangible
• The cost of ingredients are included in the cost of the
service.
• Effort also contains the pre-calculated partial facilities
costs for that duration of service like rent of room, Salary
of the service provider, cost for Power, water, furniture,
systems, etc

Service Kits
Service Kit
Pre-Employment kit
Blood Test
Eye Test
ECG
Bridal Makeup kit
Manicure
Pedicure
Facial
• Some Assorted services can be clubbed into one & can
be promoted as a Service Kit.
• The Kits will be sold as a Package of services & all
services in the Kit will be provided.
Eye Test
ECG
Stress Test
Pedicure
Facial
Hair Style

Marketing Campaigns
Valentine 2007
Campaign
Feb 2007 offer
Massage 100/-
Weight Loss 200/-
Body shaping
Special beauty offer
Manicure 100/-
Pedicure 100/-
Facial 500/-
• All services are provided under some or other
offer and these offers will be part of some
Campaign.
Body shaping
200/-
Facial 500/-
Special Price on Feb 14th 2007
•Massage 50/-
•Facial 350/-

Price List
• Price list may vary
– from City to city.
– Depending upon the Offer, Campaigns or kits.
• Tie-ups with different Corporate will also be treated
• Tie-ups with different Corporate will also be treated
as Offers.

Memberships
• Services like Gym etc. required consistently
for longer durations can be offered as
memberships
Membership
Membership
Membership Plan
Quarterly
Yearly
Monthly
Bi-Monthly
Membership Type
Gold (10 Guest visits)
Premium (5 guest visits)
Family (2 family members)
General

Trade Customers
• Corporates with whom we have tie-ups, also known as
Trade customers, will be given some corporate offers with
select services for their employees (corporate Individuals).
• The payment for the services availed by the corporate
• The payment for the services availed by the corporate
Individuals can be received as Advance or On account or
Against Bills.
• These payments, received from the Trade customers, can be
matched, against the Receipts generated for services availed
by their employees.

Efficiency
• Few factors considered while calculating the Standard costing for
a service are:
– Cost of tangible ingredients & Intangible ingredients
– Time taken for providing the service.
– Number of times the service can be provided in a day.
– Expected number of customers availing the service in a day.
– Expected number of customers availing the service in a day.
• Over a period of time it may be observed that the actual costing
varies from assumed value.
• This variation can be positive or negative & will affect the
Efficiency of a service
Efficiency of a service = Actual Value - Assumed Value

The whole flow of operations

Book
Order
All Info captured, Bar code generated
Bar code Read
History displayed
Stock reduced
Room Occupied
Service rendered
C
E
N
T
R
A
L
Existing
Customer?
Room
Available?
Re-order?
Next
Slot?
Stock reduced
S
E
R
V
E
R
Questionnaire Response
Further Consultation
More
Sitting?
Cost updated
Sample collected
Reports?
Bar code read
Payment Received
Income updated

Summary:
• As one can see at each stage information is fed into the
centralized server
•The existing information in the server is updated
•As per the query, the information is served back to the
terminal
•For example
•Lets say a center has five rooms out which three can be
used for taking CBC blood and ECG samples
•At a given specific time all three rooms are occupied
•Average time taken for each service is pre-recorded
•When new order for CBC blood test is booked,
automatically the server searches for the next available
room and allots it to the customer
•Similarly when the one service is rendered to one
customer the corresponding service ingredients used are
automatically reduced from the stock in the system and the
relative costs are updated

Thus the operations are tracked by the system so smoothly
that at any given time the top management could at the
click of a button can have a dashboard to get details like
number of customers availing of the services, number of
consultants/ Service providers available, Stock details of
service ingredients, efficiency of the centre, costs for a
centre.
Since all the centres are also connected to the same
Since all the centres are also connected to the same
centralised server the dashboard can also be obtained
region-wise or for the whole unit.
The database can be used to track inter-centre
transactions, Projections, etc. .
Thus using the Bar Coding technology entire
operations can be tracked.

I thank one and all who have provided me with the opportunity to
handle this responsibility and the knowledge & support to prepare this
document.
Please feel free to forward your valuable feedback, comments, queries
and suggestions related to this document at
mumbai_man1977@yahoo.com
Thank you,
Thank you,
Warm regards,
Manohar M. M. Iyer

Operations management using bar codes - health care industry

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