Laboratorio de Analisis Argentina

Process Management Case:

Laboratorio de Analisis Argentina

Group 1

Emily Bellock

Myles McAllister

Andrew Merlino

Nick Rueda

Chris Walcutt

1. What are the key success factors for LAA?

The key success factors for LAA are as follows:

* Management’s belief in achieving and maintaining high-quality service based on fast turnaround times and accurate testing

* Management’s recognition that there are flaws in LAA’s current processes and their willingness to fix the problems by doing a thorough analysis of the internal operations

* Locally owned and operated (as opposed to LAA’s major competitors)

* LAA’s intimate knowledge of local markets (driven by their large network of clinics around the country)

* High-level management has international experience that can be applied to the local market.

* LAA’s ability to offer a high level of service by staffing labs with specialists

* LAA’s ability to service two types of customers (mutuals and pharmaceuticals; companies with a specific testing need, government ministries and other labs)

* Largest independently owned lab competing on a national level

* Significant manpower (i.e. Central lab staffed from 7:30 a.m. – 12:30 a.m.)

2. Analyzing the operations at LAA using the process flow perspective with a specific focus on:

The table on the efficiency spreadsheet draws attention to the bottlenecks and the steps in LAA’s process that are less comparatively efficient. The first half of the table shows the average number of samples that can be processed by each worker per hour for each step per hour. This is based off of the amount of time it takes for each step to process 1,000 samples. Initially, the table indicates that the Testing process takes the longest; however, to find the bottlenecks and the available capacities we must also consider the amount of workers we have to conduct each step.

The second half of the efficiency spreadsheet shows each step converted into...