ecided that I would staff more people inthe early shift, because this is where the majority of resident care was being given by thecaregivers. The caregivers bath, groom and medicate the residents in the morning hours. Ialso wanted the caregivers to wake up the residents that needed more care, one hourearlier then the residents that were more independent. This would give the staff, moretime to complete their tasks without being overwhelmed.This plan helped the overall care of each resident. Once the resident had a bathwas dressed and had their medication, the rest of the care that was needed during the daywas just maintenance care.Another important lesson learned from Goldratt’s book was increasingthroughput. In my case, accepting more residents into the complex would be consideredincreasing throughput for my company. Because with each new resident came anotherform of income, to increase our goal of making money. After the first shift in themorning finished morning care, we as a company were making money by just “babysitting” these elderly residents. Once the resident’s morning care was finished, thenumber of staff members could be decreased. So in evaluating this concept, we neededmore residents to “baby sit” because after first shift we make the most profit off ourresidents. By second shift the residents need little to no care from the staff. So, we dropour staffing by half and then drop it another half for the night shift. These techniquesincrease profit and increase productivity within the company.The integration of production type techniques for achieving TQM are not easilyseen by those in the service industry. But with a little creativity, links between the twoindustries can be obtained by a service industry manager. Because in the end, bothmanagers have the same goal of making money....
