Question

How would you respond to this post?

There are several strategies companies who offer services can use to optimize their resources. The various strategies include scheduling for peak demand, chase demand, scheduling appointments or reservations, adjusting or sharing capacity, and cross-training employees (Vondermbse & White, 2013). Some restaurants can utilize reservations to help organize their busy time. In this case, management can have a clear idea of what the demand is, at what time, and can plan to schedule appropriate staff accordingly. Alternatively, fast-food restaurants that do not utilize reservations can still predict their peak demand during normal mealtime hours so they can plan for it. In addition though, they can utilize cross-training employees so that when one area of the restaurant is backed up, they can have another employee jump in and help. Organizations such as hospitals can also utilize scheduling appointments in some areas of the hospital. For example, elective surgeries can be scheduled ahead of time and management can staff a perioperative team appropriately. However, they would have to take into account the need for emergency surgery and have enough staff ready to prepare for those scenarios as well. In addition, hospitals have areas within the hospital like the emergency department that also has unpredictable needs. In this case, they should try to have a steady amount of staff 24/7 and offer overtime if needed. It is much more difficult to schedule with unpredictable demand, however, management must put into place strategies that can help cover all areas of their business appropriately.

Answer 1

Answer: This post highlights the importance of forecasting the demand and scheduling the workforce accordingly. I agree with this post that the strategies adopted by the industries like the restaurant industry can be effectively used in the hospitals as well. Just like the restaurant use different techniques like the peak demand scheduling, adjusting the capacity and sharing it, cross training of the employees can also be effectively used by the hospitals for managing their fluctuating demands. The hospitals provide a range of services including emergency services. At times during the emergencies, the hospitals may face extra burden on their service capacity. During such times the capabilities like cross training of the employees and pre scheduling of the activities like surgeries can create an ability of dealing with the emergency situations. The hospitals have their conditions much like the fast food industry where all the customers do not reserve time for using the services. Thus at times they may have high demand while at times they may have idle capacity. Hence by using techniques like scheduling reservations and cross training of the employees to handle different activities can enable them to effectively manage their demand.