Shrinkage and Loss Action Plan
Shrinkage and loss are one of the main challenges that most organizations are concerned about. Shrinkage according to Salehi Shahrabi (2015), refers to the process by which a significant reduction of organizational products and resources occur in the time between when the organization obtained the products from its suppliers to the time when the products are sold. Shrinkage thus occurs due to certain organizational based errors, which results in the loss of products after inventory and before they are offered and sold to the organizational customers. Loss, on the other hand, is when products are sold to customers at a lower price than the price which they were bought or obtained from the organizational suppliers. This paper provides a shrinkage and loss action plan for the New York Presbyterian Hospital Organization (Salehi Shahrabi, 2015).
Being a healthcare organization, the New York Presbyterian Hospital does not involve in the retail business where products are bought from suppliers at a lower price and then sold to customers for a higher price for the purposes of gaining profits. Never the less, the organization can still experience the challenge of shrinkage and loss in certain situations. The first most common situation in which healthcare organizations experience shrinkage, in which the New York Presbyterian Hospital is not an exception is when the organization purchases equipment and then they are lost before they can provide value to the organization. In such a situation, the organization spends funds to purchase equipment and then the equipment is lost thus the organization incurs losses. The main cause of such an occurrence within the organization is an organization planning error.
Another significant situation where shrinkage can occur within the organization is when the organization higher certain organizational employees with the notion that they are highly skilled and capable individuals, but they provide less value that they were intended and thus they receive much higher value pay compared to the value that they bring to the organization. In such occasions, the organization faces significant challenges since it pays the individual a lot of money but receives significantly low value from that individual. An organization having a large number of such employees is thus much likely to fail in meeting its set goals and targets and eventually have a significantly reduced profit margin (Smith, 2018).
The other situation where shrinkage can occur in the New York Presbyterian Hospital is when the organization’s security system is unable to prevent unauthorized access of individuals to organizational equipment. In such a situation, the organization may face certain challenges like theft or equipment tampering. Each one of these scenarios would result in the organization’s equipment becoming incapable of operating effectively, or on other occasions the organization completely losing them. With this understanding, it is clear that the organizational security is of essential importance, and that through it, the organizational shrinkage of inventory occurs. The occurrence of each one of these situations results in significant loses to the organization, since it causes the profit margin of the organization to reduce significantly. With this understanding, establishing a plan that can manage to minimize any form of shrinkage within the New York Presbyterian Hospital would also prevent any form of a loss from occurring (Smith, 2018).
The first section of the action plan is in the hiring strategy. This section has its main aim is to ensure that any organizational employee provides sufficient value to the organization equivalent to the pay that he or she receives. The organization should establish a quality evaluation program that will occur regularly whose main purpose is to evaluate the quality of value that every organizational employee provides to the organization. Through this strategy, all organizational employees will ensure to have all the necessary skills needed to provide value to the organization through the duties and roles that they carry out. This strategy will also manage to identify the skilled employees of the organization, who however choose in some occasions to offer low-quality services to organizational customers. Implementation of this action will thus ensure that all the employees of the organization provide value that exceeds the pay that they receive and thus shrinkage from this situation and form of losses will completely be avoided.
The other section of the action plan is the implementation of a highly effective security system which will manage to effectively protect all the resources and equipment of the organization. The system should ensure that the organizational equipment can only be accessed by qualified members of the organizational staff, to avoid tampering with these resources and organizational equipment. The security should thus require access credentials for rooms where equipment are stored. The organization should also have surveillance cameras being monitored by a security staff member, thus ensuring that any activity that takes place within the organization is visible in a camera tape. With these plans in place, the organizational equipment and resources would remain safe from any form of tampering. This would prevent any form or equipment shrinkage and organizational loss (Rousek, Pasupathy, Gannon, & Hallbeck, 2014).
The other essential aspect of the shrinkage and loss action plan is ensuring that there is an appropriate recording of all the organizational resources and equipment and that the records reveal the individual who is supposed to be responsible for them. With this clarity in recording, all the organizational resources and equipment would not simply get lost without the clarity of the individual to inquire their whereabouts from. This aspect would result in a sense of responsibility within the organization which will ensure that there will be no shrinkage that can occur or loses. Effectively implementing this action plan will thus completely solve the main challenge of shrinkage and loss which the organization may be vulnerable to.
References
Rousek, J. B., Pasupathy, K., Gannon, D., & Hallbeck, S. (2014). Asset management in healthcare: evaluation of RFID. IIE Transactions on Healthcare Systems Engineering, 4(3), 144-155.
Salehi Shahrabi, M. (2015). Reducing Errors by RFID Technology to Achieve Lean Healthcare. International Journal of Hospital Research, 4(2), 95-101.
Smith, A. D. (2018). Operational Strategies Associated With RFID Applications in Healthcare Systems. In Health Care Delivery and Clinical Science: Concepts, Methodologies, Tools, and Applications (pp. 401-419). IGI Global.
