Portfolio - Healthcare, 3 of 5
A Healthcare Services Company
Directive
Ensure that 1,000 PCs are deployed to various health care professionals around the Metro Detroit area, which was a monumental task, with a 90 day deadline.
The problem was that, although they had purchased the PCs from Dell at a significant cost savings, they had to receive them all in one shipment, which caused a series of warehousing and distribution issues never encountered before.
They needed me to figure out how to effectively and efficiently distribute all the PCs to the appropriate locations within the 90 day deadline so that additional costs did not off-set the savings they incurred.
I also needed to manage the disposal of the PCs being replaced and ensure the HIPAA regulations were adhered to.
Remarks
They did not realize they needed my assistance until the very day the PCs were arriving at the warehouse, giving me no advance notice. Yet, I responded to their need without delay.
In addition, and unexpectedly, there were two different models and three different configurations that needed to be deployed.
From their prior experience with smaller deployments, they expected extensions and loss of equipment. However, unbeknownst to me, they wanted to see if I could deploy 1,000 PCs more efficiently and effectively and without as much equipment loss.
Unexpected challenges that I overcame without impact to the schedule:
Dell was supposed to have the PCs configured for easy installation. They did not have the PCs pre-configured and I got the deployment technicians to do it.
They originally expected the PCs being replaced to be disposed of, but some department heads unexpectedly wanted the old PCs to be redeployed which required an increase in installations. We ended up with an increase of about 30% in installations while completing the project within the same 90 days.
The warehousing people literally did not know how to count pieces or track shipments. I had to conduct inventory checks at their facility and have the receiving dock and deployment technicians verify shipment models and quantities.
Department heads who were allotted PCs from the 1,000 PCs thought theirs should be deployed first and did not think they could wait the 90 days. I needed to facilitate solidification of the distribution list and negotiate priorities while scheduling deliveries collectively to keep costs low.
The truck drivers did not have the security access or authority to be at the receiving docks, so I had to get each of them approved.
Results
The deployment efficiency increased by more than 25%. The accuracy increased to 100% from about 80%.
I did deploy all of the PCs within 90 days and without any losses. As a result, future deployments were expected to follow my procedures and the customer would no longer accept less than my model of efficiency and productivity, including the elimination of theft.
This project's budget was intended to be spent as a cost of doing business, therefore there was no expectation for recuperating the costs. However, due to the unexpected savings and timely deployment, the ROI is less than 3 years.