EBME Forums Forums Management Medical Equipment Management Repair, Maintenance and Calibration

Found this article and thought was good to share.

http://www.labmanager.com/?articles.view/articleNo/30256

When I was young and still relatively keen, I used to collect articles like this. In fact I even penned a couple of my own which were then published in international magazines. But all that was back in the mid-1980's, and well before the era of the internet, of course.

To be honest, San, I found nothing new in the article. Unless, that is, we include the use of some of the "modern" jargon ("service event", and "parts cache", for example).

As always, the bottom line remains:- kit still has to be supported (serviced, whatever) somehow, and you still need resources (technical manpower, parts, know-how ... etc.) in order to do that. And regardless of how it is organised, technical services cost money. The "trick" is just that someone in charge (the lab manager in the article) has to sit down and work out the most cost-effective overall solution best suited to the situation at hand.

It would have been a bit more illuminating had the author tabled some priced examples of the service models he outlined. If the OEM model costs just a little more than the others, then that might be the one to go for, for example. Otherwise it might be back to the usual situation of mix'n'match, scraping around ... whatever!

But either way, Rocket Science it ain't!

Was there some particular aspect that you wanted to highlight and/or discuss, San?

Well, isn't it always good to just... 'share'?

Yes, sharing is good. As is "spreading the word". But so is editing, commentary, advising, sifting ... improving, and dare I suggest solving as well. Otherwise we never advance.

Forward!

I have seen a zillion articles on our usual topics over the years. Those willing to wade through them have often found many similarities within. "More of the same", regurgitated wisdoms, in the main. If only those ideas had actually been implemented over that time, by now we would have been well ahead of the game, with all the boxes ticked, and living in clover!

And, of course, in this globalised, joined-up, networked age - part of the problem is not only sorting the wheat from the chaff, but also finding the time to do it!

Hi guys , like I said I found it interesting enough to "share", and with some, who might still be "young" and looking for ideas (like myself!), obviously in view of two reasons:1) I do not see that much/adequate formal training going around(extra sourcing--nothing to loose and everything to win), and 2) this website is gone quite global,me and my young friends find it a good source of posetive and encouraging information.
Otherwise, guys, I do skip loads of other articles myself...

Take a tip from an Old Guy, San ... sharing is only of real value when it involves both give and take. Otherwise it is just a one-way street, or (if you like) an unclosed loop. Meaning that the one making the initial gesture ends up with nowt except wondering if what he offered was any good, ended up doing the good intended, or was yet another waste of his time.

Feedback is what we need. Not to mention dialogue. All I'm saying is that if ten (a hundred) people on here had found the time to read that article, and then debated it - based upon their own experiences, perhaps - then maybe we all would have learned something, and - who knows - taken some practical steps within our own situations.

Meanwhile (and here's Tip No.2):- no need for any more formal training, My Friend ... just do!

Was this a somewhat cynical and pessimistic response to a thoughtful link?

The complication here is that when young and keen, most of life is still new, challenging and somewhat exciting – and so it should be, after all it is the young that will have to take over when the old slide aside. Whereas the Greybeards have seen it all and done it all before and gained such experience that renders most new informative articles as being all too blatantly obvious.

One difference my old friends and I have noticed is that generally when we were young the boss/foreman (level 1 manager/supervisor to-day) was also of the older generation and could impart wisdom to us then greenhorns based on their years of experience. Alas, for too many years this is no longer in vogue, the young are now also the managers. They of course have to look for pearls of wisdom in whatever form they can, unlike the present Greybeards who absorbed wisdom from their elders almost by a form of industrial osmosis.

Becoming cynical and pessimistic develops with age, I have three children, one in his late twenties another in his thirties both still enthusiastic and optimistic and one now in her early forties starting to grow up and becoming a little pessimistic, this confirms to me the fact told to me by a greybeard when I was young, the difference between an enthusiastic optimist and a cynical pessimist is experience.

Interesting article, San.

I thought the writer made the process sound more complex than it actually is, though. You don't have to discuss each item in detail with each potential supplier. You get a quote for what they can do for you - then if there's a lot of it, ask for a discount; then pick the best value for your needs.

And of course in the NHS now we have Supply Chain to consider (* salutes *)

Moira