It delivers its values through its highly precise and accurate mission statements “Create and deliver innovative healthcare solutions, developed in ethical collaboration with medical professionals, which enhance the quality of life for patients and improve outcomes or our customers and our shareholders. ” On a brief note I can summarize Chivvied Into the following highlighted points: 0 A large global healthcare products company committed to sustaining strong profit margins and cash flows, while making growth-driving investments for the future.
A leading manufacturer of medical devices and supplies with 201 3 revenue of $10. 2 billion. 38,000 employees worldwide in more than 70 countries, with products sold In over 150 countries. 41 manufacturing facilities In 17 countries. The company has over 14,000 patents worldwide, with another 1 2,000 patent applications pending. It is a technologically driven company with dedicated to R&D, spending over $500 million in 2013 alone. The only way it can revolutionize itself in compassion to its competitors is by taking support of its strongly driven R&D department.
And Just to show its support to research in medical field, Chivvied has made huge investments in its R&D department. The below mentioned key points signifies the investment done by Chivvied for its R&D: R&D spending has significantly increased and, at more than $500 million in 2013, Globally, Chivvied has more than 2,000 employees dedicated to developing products hat help healthcare professionals improve patient outcomes Chivvied has launched more than 100 new products in the last five years, and sales of these new products is its key growth driver.
The major product categories of Chivvied are: Surgical Solutions – Includes stapling, vessel sealing, fixation, mesh, hardware, international lung, GIG solutions, ablation, surgical instruments, sutures, electrotypers and buggery’s Vascular Therapies – Includes compression, dialysis, chronic venous insufficiency, peripheral extents, directional tracheotomy, other peripheral and neuromuscular Respiratory and Patient Care – includes sensors, monitors, airway, ventilation, wound care, incontinence, internal feeding, urology, medical surgical, Sharpshooter and MEMO Its noted brands of Chivvied in the healthcare market are: Kendall Kneeler Puritan Bennett Volleyball Chivvied being global healthcare product company has its high market share not only with hospitals but also has diversified itself to various other markets such as: 0 Acute care facilities Nursing homes Rehab centers Ambulatory surgery centers Physician offices Chivvied derives its 68 per cent of its revenues from medical devices, 15 per cent from medical supplies and 17 per cent from pharmaceuticals. While the US for 15 per cent. The brief introduction about the parent company as stated above, now I can introduce the ICE that I’m currently interning at. Chivvied, a provider of healthcare products had opened its first R&D centre in India. Known as the Chivvied India Engineering Center (ICE), it is a 40,000 sq Ft facility based in ODL Cybernetic Special Economic Zone (SEE), Hydrated. The ICE offers a range of engineering services for the company’s medical products business and employs up to 188 staff members. ICE provides engineering services to Coving’s R&D organization in the areas of sign, hardware, software and testing etc.
The establishment of this R&D facility expands Coving’s presence and commitment to India and other countries in the emerging markets. ICE tailors products to local market needs, increase speeded- market, develop breakthrough platforms, besides this Chivvied is rightly taking advantage of the huge talent pool available in India to provide a range of engineering services for the company’s medical products business. Introduction of the project The term Procurement Process is used to describe is the process required to supply equipment, materials and other resources required to carry out a project. This process usually involves sub-processes such as purchasing, logistics, monitoring, quality assurance and contract administration.
Currently there is a tendency to manage projects using a fast-track approach in an effort to reduce project schedule. To be able to serve the needs of these projects, the procurement process is subjected to high pressures which is why the process needs to be carried out in the most expedite and fluid possible manner. Research objectives: This project describes an effort to analyze the company’s procurement process by enervating strategies to improve and substantiate. The general objective of the project was to generate a means to evaluate the procurement process, and to launch an improvement of the process involving procurement, by applying an improvement methodology.
In order to go about the process I have pursued the following objectives: Understand the process of procurement for projects. Identify key variables and problems in the procurement process. Determine causes of variability and problems related to information and material flow. Propose performance indicators, at management level as well as operational, for the process ND sub-process related to procurement. Provide means for continuous process improvement and for minimizing cycle times. The research methodology was based on four elements: literature review, study of cases, casual interviews, structured interviews and the analysis of information sources.
A base questionnaire was applied to varied projects; the interviews considered 8 people from different Global Business Units within the company. The study of cases was focused on procurement which were already done or near the end of the process. From this it was possible to obtain specific information regarding he procurement process. The study of cases has allowed me to review historical and current data of projects, such as: purchase requisition, purchase orders, purchase reports, follow-up reports, claim reports, supply reports, etc. It was also possible to interview the participants (requesters) of these projects to verify, clarify the obtained information.
From the information gathered from these sources, a gap analysis has been done and, improvement strategies were obtained and a preliminary evaluation methodology was proposed. Suffocate diagrams were used to analyze three basic aspects within the procurement process, these were cycle times, costs, and delays. This diagram has helped to synthesize the main causes related to waste in the procurement process for these three aspects. Progress in the process: At the company I have set myself a series of tasks; depending upon the priority, I have divided it into set of daily targets, weekly targets and monthly target. On a daily basis I have helped the procurement team procure various off the shelves items for the general administration and also equipment for the labs.
The various equipment recurred by me as on date are: Acts, projectors, platform weighing scales, MAC for the Policy video conferencing machines, general stationeries, sanitary equipment, steel racks for the labs, etc. To name a few. I need to contact vendors for it on a regular basis, discuss the requirements, negotiate the prices and payment terms, discuss the contract terms of the company and other formalities. Other responsibilities given in the office is of evaluating the vendors as per the company procedure. The timeline I had set for evaluation was on wider scope of a week. I have made an evaluation sheet of for a certain class of vendors from which our company procures on a regular basis.
In this task I had to carefully understand the various attributes needed on which we can Judge the performance of the vendors. I was also assigned the work of evaluating the whole procurement process before the annual audit for this year. In this task I had to go through all the hard copies of the documents of every registered vendor and check for any missing documents if any. The manual task was time taking as I had to follow up with many vendors for the missing documents. My major task was the process improvement on the whole I have completed taking he voice of customer, here the customers for the procurement team were the Global Business Units. Every KGB has its own project manager and project coordinators along with a several engineers.
I had a chance to take open ended formal and informal interviews using which I could understand their difficulties with the procurement process. The major concern for all the project coordinators and delays. For automating the process I have created an online form for the Sharpening software. I had been given access to the required software as much as available with the organization. Major learning so far, challenges faced: The nature of my project in procurement team is very dynamic as it goes through a series of searching, selecting, finalizing of vendors; negotiation; processing and eventually ordering. Occasions had aroused where I had to deal with situations where, I had to identify and solve problems, to create new ideas, or to make difficult decisions.
This process has helped me learn the business language used for the vendors and also helped me improve my negotiation skills with vendors with which I could save company’s money. This project has proved to be essential for development of my research skills, intelligent behaviors and thinking strategies. I have learned the procurement process of the company on the whole and also have started to pin point the bottle necks in the process. The challenges faced were nothing but data mining constraints as there was a lot of hard copies involved in the verification of documents and the major constraint still involved in the project is the unavailability of further software to complete the automation. I need few licenses related to software I. E. Ms Vision and Ms Sharpening Developer.
Regarding this I need to speak to my higher authorities after which I can see further progress. Future course of action: The audit work of the company has Just now finished, so there is not much work for evaluating the vendors. My major concentration will be on making a few analysis on the collected data, I was planning for process mapping, analyses using cause and effect diagrams and root cause anally. Once I receive the licenses of the software I can go ahead in the automation process. I have got quite familiar with the procurement process of the company so I have started getting semi technical equipment for the office. So, I would be procuring office items parallel to my project.
