Efficient Management of Materials & Equipment

This document provides information on the efficient management of materials & equipment. It covers topics such as determining stock requirements, consequences of not maintaining optimum stocks, workplace principles and procedures for stock control, recording receipt and issue of supplies, importance of maintaining records for quality standards, importance of using equipment effectively and efficiently, monitoring and control of equipment use, and the importance of scheduled maintenance for equipment in the workplace.

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ILM Work Based Assignment
Understanding the Efficient Management of Materials & Equipment 8600-305
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8600-305 February 2019 ILM Level 3 Certificate in Leadership & Management
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Work Based Assignment
TASK
To develop knowledge and understanding of the Efficient Management of materials & Equipment. The
assignment covers 8600-305.
In order to demonstrate your knowledge of this you need to respond to all of the questions listed below.
NOTE:
Relate all of your answers to the organisation that you currently work in. If you are not currently working within
an organisation, then you may complete this task in relation to an organisation with which you are familiar. This
could include experience working in a voluntary capacity.
You should plan to spend approximately 9 hours researching your workplace context, preparing for and writing
or presenting the outcomes of this assignment for assessment.
The 'nominal' word count for this assignment is 2000 words: the suggested range is between 2000 and 2500
words.
Please use the headings and spaces provided.Text in red provides further guidance notes and should not be
included in your final written assignment.
When you complete each assessment, criteria remove the guidance notes provided.
Check your assignment carefully prior to submission to ensure that you cover all the
Assessment Criteria (AC) by comparing it to the Mark Sheet where you can self-assess your work.

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AC 1.18600-305–Describe how to determine stock requirements in the workplace
The process of determining stocks at the workplace depends solely on how the management wants it to be.
The identification of stock requirements will vary for different manufacturing philosophy being followed in the
company. Two management philosophies are extremely popular and area widely used across the global
organisations. These are ‘Agile’ and ‘Lean’ manufacturing. A company with lean principle will always focus on
eliminating the waste. Hence, this will avoid over stocking of items. In case if it wants to over stock items it
must have an excellent forecast capability. This will help the company to be able to outflow these items to its
end users. On the other hand, if a company follow an agile principle the company is more likely to meet the
urgent market needs.
Hospitals are often criticised for their tendency to manually handle inventories and track the supplies. The
hospital where I work also has this issue. Most of the tasks of inventory management is manually handled.
Indeed, this is subject to human error. Due to the lack of appropriate technology and strategy in place staffs
are unnecessarily being involved in tasks, which could have easily be handled with suitable management
strategies. However, in a meeting held in recent time the management has identified few ways to improve its
capability to control stocks. Below is the “minutes of meeting”:
 Forecasting capability is ineffective leading to stock-related issues like over stocking or stock shortage
 Staffing issue as too much of staffs are involved taking care of inventories manually
 Check-out and check-in process for medical instruments is also not effective
Solutions:
Based on the meetings following strategies have been identified to improve the stock management capability
of the hospital (Jurado et al. 2016):
 To implement a Supply Management System in the hospital
 To adopt the automated systems for Inventory Management
 To use Asset Tags for facilitating an efficient Check-in and Check-out of
Medical Instruments

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AC 1.2 8600-305-Explain consequences of not maintaining optimum stocks in the workplace
Maintaining optimum stocks is a necessity for every single business irrespective of the size of the company. In
case if optimum stocks is not maintained this will lead to unwanted consequences. These are (Montwiłł,
Kasińska and Pietrzak 2018),
 There could be short of stocks at times when needed the most. This may delay the treatment process.
For an example, few of the equipment are older and therefore, lack the efficiency. The management
had decided in a recently held meeting to replace these pieces of equipment with the new and latest
pieces of equipment. However, it did not happen leading to not maintaining optimum stocks. This will
affect everything from diagnosing a disease to treat it depending on the kind of equipment missing in
the stocks.
 As stated this will affect the efficiency of the service leading to either faulty reports or entertaining no
such orders due to the outdated pieces of equipment
 The brand image of the hospital will also be affected. This will be advantageous for the competitors of
the hospital. On the other hand, the hospital will have less number of patients turning to seek its
service in the areas that lack the required equipment.

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AC 1.3 8600-305- Identify the workplace principles and procedures for stores/stock control
Following is how a list of principles and procedures can be applied for stock control. These are (Richards 2017),
 Stock review: This helps to review the stocks. At every review, the stock maintenance officer recognises
the needs to re-order to get the stock to a pre-determined level.
 Minimum stock level: It is a pre-determined level for a minimum stock. When the stock reaches that
level a re-order should be placed.
 First in, first out: It ensures that the materials are used at the most appropriate time. It is managed by
keeping a track of the date when the stock was received and using it strictly at the different stages of
operations.
 Just in Time (JIT): JIT aims to reduce the costs by maintaining a minimum stock. This principle helps to
deliver the products when there are demands for it. However, there is an issue. The suppliers can run
out of the stock. An effective coordination and communication between the employer and suppliers, and
efficient demand forecast can help counter this challenge.
 Few companies use Just in Time (JIT) to be able to meet the market demands for materials. They are
good at forecasting, which helps the company identify the market needs and communicate same to the
suppliers. Moreover, they are also aware of the availability at the suppliers’ end.

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AC 1.4 8600-305- Explain the workplace procedures for recording receipt and issue of supplies
Recording receipt: In my hospital, receipt is generally manually recorded to support various recording
procedures. Drivers deliver medication to the departments and community teams at specified times all along the
day. This medication comes in sealed boxes or bags. These bags contain uniquely numbered tag, which if not
found is reported to the Pharmacy Services Manager. Sheets are made to be signed by the community
practitioners on receiving the orders. Medications are prescribed in the prescription form. Prescription cards are
used to record the information about the prescribing and management of medicines in a well-established
manner. Prescription cards should be showing the accurate information regarding the correct medicine,
frequency, dose, prescriber and start/stop date (Zhao et al. 2019).
Supplies: After confirming that prescription card has all the details it needs to have, it is supplied to the concern
department. Before supplying the medication, its expiry dates should be clearly checked. If found that the
prescribed medication has crossed its expiry date it needs to be returned to the pharmacy. A safe carriage of
medication is required. This can be done as follows (Zhao et al. 2019):
 When visiting to a service user, in an inconspicuous case
 When travelling between visits, in a locked case within or inside the locked boot of a car

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AC1.5 8600-305 – Describe why it is important to maintain records for quality standards
Quality standards are given an importance to ensure that each and every task, which an organisation conducts
meet the quality standard set by the quality governance body such as ISO: 901 (Ahmed 2017). Quality standards
document quality instructions to a variety of tasks like specifications, requirements and guidelines. This can
consistently be used to ensure that products, materials, processes and services are fit for the purpose.
Medical recordkeeping is essential for ensuring a quality healthcare service, it is generally overlooked by the
hospitals. Good records help in an effective medical management of patients while also serving the
epidemiological purposes. Despite this medical recordkeeping in my hospital is often inadequately managed.
These records are managed in limited settings leading to threatening the healthcare quality. In addition, poor
archiving and charting does also affect the quality of healthcare services. The record keeping activity in my
hospital needs a revisit. This can be done by improving the adequacy of recordkeeping. This will require
emphasising on the recent technological innovations. The technological innovations were recently being applied
to settings that are resource limited (Koning, Haverkort and Leenen 2016). Additionally, there is a need to initiate
a culture of recordkeeping. A good recordkeeping can benefit my hospital in numerous ways. Such
documentation can be used in dispute cases like the patients’ families claim of mishandling of the cases.
Moreover, the overall service standard will improve and so, the hospitals’ brand image.

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AC 2.18600-305- Explain why equipment should be used effectively and efficiently
Effectiveness and efficiency are two very important aspects of managing the operations. An effective use of
equipment means identifying its appropriate application, its benefits and limitations. Moreover, it is also about
using equipment at an appropriate time. If these things are ensured before using the equipment will result in
positive outcomes (Misron, Khoiry and Hamzah 2018).
Efficiency, on the other hand, is about being able to use the equipment. It significantly indicates towards the
needs to have skilled people who are aware of the equipment, and understand its benefits and limitations as
well (Misron, Khoiry and Hamzah 2018).
The cost-effectiveness of delivering services varies across the health services. Some costly services operate at
profit while many other in loses. The reason being an inappropriate handling and management of equipment
that supports costly services like imaging. One of the reasons for such issue is that the affected services are not
included in the planning process. Health services planning and management for these expensive services is just
average. My hospital also faces the similar issue. There is a lack of informed planning at both the department
and health-service levels. Indeed, this may result in patients not being able to access to the affected services in
the hospital (Tomas et al. 2015).

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AC 2.2 8600-305- Describe how the use of equipment is monitored and controlled in the workplace
The use of equipment can be controlled and monitored in the workplace by measuring their performance against
the set key performance indicators (KPIs) (Sutherland, Dornfeld and Linke 2018).
My hospital is very concerned with maintaining efficiency and safety throughout the day and night all seven days.
All systems are in a continuous monitoring process. Whenever there is a problem related to any equipment an
immediate notification is immediately sent to the concern department through text, e-mail or phone. There is no
more manual checks conducted for possibly of an outage and temperature readings. Altering process varies by
department, time of day, piece of equipment, condition parameters, day of the week, escalation protocols and
delivery method. There is so much diversity involved in managing the piece of equipment. This indeed an
overwhelming task to streamline and simplify processes within my hospital. The continuous monitoring system that
exists in my hospital setting enables the management to add efficiency the services. They are able to ensure that
nurses and hospital personnel are able to perform their tasks efficiently over a minimum possible time span.
Moreover, the biggest priority of my hospital is to ensure that it offers a quality patient care.

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AC 2.3 8600-305- Explain why it is important to have a scheduled maintenance programme for equipment in
the workplace
It is very important to have scheduled maintenance of equipment to enhance their durability and manage
efficiency for a longer span of time. However, scheduling of maintenance works cannot be established without
consulting to an expert (Stoldt and Putz 2017).
The management of medical devices has become very complicated these days. It is due to the variety of pieces of
equipment, which are used to operate various healthcare related services and the inadequacy of technical
resources in the hospital setting. In addition, dependency on outsourcing of few health services has also
increased. Outsourcing is required for a specialised repair and maintenance of the devices. The ever-rising
demands for safety, compliance, accuracy and reliability have also grown up. The hospital where I work is very
concerned with these fresh requirements. This is why they ensure that a scheduled maintenance program is
conducted in the workplace. A scheduled maintenance programme for the pieces of equipment help our hospital
setting enhance the level of service in numerous ways. The processes being followed are (Mwanza and Mbohwa
2015):
 The medical team uses the historical data of the pieces of medical equipment
 The equipment audit is conducted regularly
 It helps health facilities professionals manage the services as well as improve service efficiency and
compliance while also decreasing the costs

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AC 2.4 8600-305–Compile a simple maintenance programme for equipment in the workplace
A simple maintenance program for equipments in the work place will require adhering to the follow mentioned
points (Cho, Park and Kim 2018),
 This can be done by establishing service contracts with the independent service organisations (ISOs),
device manufacturers and can also go with a combination of both.
 In such cases such as the one mentioned above it is necessary for the hospital setting to have personnel
well-versed with skills, and able to monitor and manage the range of activities of these service
contractors.
 On a practical ground, it is more important to develop some level of technical and management
capability within the healthcare setting to be able to provide a primary support to equipment failure.
This will save both time and money invested to outsource the maintenance work or call the experts to
get it done.
 It is to be noted that a few maintenance activities can be performed by the employees of the healthcare
setting.
 Other activities such as those that are complicated may be conducted by the external service providers
 It is very important for the management to decide which services should be made to be done by which
combination of external and internal service providers. This will depend based on the working capacity
of the facility staff.

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AC 2.5 8600-305- Conduct a simple risk assessment of equipment security in the workplace and explain how
the risks could be reduced
Risk Assessment:
There can be a list of hazards threatening the security of the workplace equipment for the hospital where I work.
These hazards should be assessed to identify the areas to implement risk management strategies. These are
(Hopkin 2018):
In context to the Environmental Health and Safety:
 Hazardous exposure to the control plan
 Personal protective equipment
 Controls in regards to Engineering and Work practice
 Regulated waste containment
 Fire and safety plan
 Post-exposure follow-up and evaluation
 Fire alarm and fire drills notifications
 Maintenance of building features and fire-safety equipment
In context to Hospital Physical Security:
 Know who all are in the facility that also includes public, patients and staff
 Know about the materials, which come-in and go-out of the building
 Respond to weapons available in the building
 Respond to disruptive behaviour
 Hazardous waste, toxic material and secure drugs
 Know about the security personnel
 To have sufficient security-related technology
Risk Management:
The best way to manage risks related to equipment is following certain basic rules of risk management. Hence
(Piette et al. 2015),
 Establishing the context: The specific equipment and department needs to be contextualise to avoid
waste of time and money. Identify the risks: needed to give an input to the Risk Management Tool (RMT) Analyse the risks: To be able to analyse the risks it is important to identify it first. This includes like risk
score, existing control measures and underlying causes. Evaluate the risks: The main purpose is to prioritise risks based on their severity level. Manage or treat the risks: This should include proposed actions, timeframes, resource requirements
and person/s who is responsible for action
AC 3.1-8600-305-Identify potential waste in the organisation
The potential waste related to the hospital can be many. These are (Rybicka et al. 2015),
 Defects: This means investing time in doing something, which could have been avoided with effective
waste management strategies. One of such examples is time being spent on looking for an item, which is
missing and has not yet been found from a surgical case cart.
 Over-production: A good example of this is following unnecessary diagnostic procedures.
 Waiting: Patients’ waiting to schedule an appointment is a kind of waste. Similarly, employees’ waiting
due to unequal distribution of works between employees.
 Human potential: A reduced employee engagement can cause employees to feel burnt out.
 Transportation: Unnecessary movements of materials or specimens and patients is also a form of waste.
 Inventory: One of the examples is letting the supplies expire.
 Over-processing: This means performing tasks not meeting the case needs. One of the examples is
putting the extra data stamps onto the forms and not using it.
 Motion: Movement of employees from room to room and floor to floor is a kind of waste. Lab
employees may be needing to walk miles every day due to a poor or average hospital infrastructure.

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AC 3.2-8600-305 Identify potential waste in the organisation and/or methods for measuring and monitoring
waste in the organisation
It is very difficult to measure and monitor the waste produced by an organisation. However, the following
information can help to measure and monitor the potential waste identified such as in the above question
(Gálvez-Martos et al. 2018),
The level of waste can be measured and monitored by developing few measures of the waste and preparing a
comparative index to prioritise the waste based on their severity level. Some of the measures could be as follows
(Awodele, Adewoye and Oparah 2016):
 At the patient level (for each one of the facilities): Overuse or over-consumption of blood bank,
overuse of respiratory therapy, overuse of diagnostic imaging, overuse of laboratory services,
pharmacy utilisation for anti-infective and hospital-acquired complications. This also includes
pharmacy utilisation for drugs for central nervous system (CNS), excessive ICU utilisation, excessive ICU
LOS and excessive LOS.
 At the facility level: Staffing skill mix (SM), staffing productivity, non-standardisation of supply items
containing high-value and staffing premium pay.

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AC 3.3-8600-305Compile a simple action plan to minimise waste in the workplace
Below is a detail of steps to be followed in the action plan to minimise waste I the hospital setting (Dururu et al.
2015),
1. Policy commitment, and identification and designation of responsibilities:
 Designate the authority
 Start implementing the action plan
 Interact with responsible bodies
2. Conduct the survey of the waste management in the healthcare setting:
 Distribute throughout the organisation
 Test and design the survey
 Use to develop the guidelines
3. Develop the guidelines:
 Using the hospital input
 The legislation structure
 Basis of regulations
4. Developing the common treatment policies:
 Treatment facilities on-site
 Alternative treatment facilities
 Cooperative treatment facilities
5. Establish standards and legislation:
 Include technical standards
 Use hospital input
 Consider principles
6. Develop and implement a training programme:
 Modify health curricula
 Receive professional assistance
 Develop a program to train the trainer
7. Review the programme thus implemented:
 Develop a review system
 Improve the programme
 Develop the information system
This action plan can be used to minimise waste in the hospital provided that each activity is adequately
performed and required resources are also available.

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Zhao, B., Tyree, G.A., Lin, T.C., Vaida, F., Stock, B.J., Hamelin, T.A. and Clary, B.M., 2019. Effects of a Surgical Receipt
Program on the Supply Costs of Five General Surgery Procedures. journal of surgical research, 236, pp.110-118.
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