At the present time, I am preparing my home for what some are calling the worst hurricane to ever make landfall in Florida. During my planning, I recognize the importance of clean water, non-perishable food, plenty of fuel and charged batteries. I live by the idea that if you fail to plan, you plan to fail. I’ve learned my lesson before, waiting until after the fact, and knowing with each passing store that they will all be sold out. Then the storm passes, I’ve wasted an incredible amount of time and I find the batteries I need in a drawer I haven’t gone through in years ...now what good are they?
As the lead trainer with Reboot Practice Productivity Training, I have worked with 20 practices over the last 6 months. During 19 of these trainings, I have pulled - removed, trashed, tossed, flushed - at least $3,500 worth of expired inventory. Let me fill you in on a few secrets:
- Inventory management is knowing what you have at all times
- Knowing what you have is making your inventory visual
- Do #’s 1 and 2 every day
- These aren’t secrets
Operatory cabinets and supply closets are indicators that you don’t have a good inventory management system at all. Let’s just call it waste.
In addition to understanding how materials and supplies are utilized in the practice, I must gain a solid understanding of your practice’s supply budget. I do this by factoring in the time it takes to restock or resupply operatories (remember my battery example). My goal here is to improve the overall clinical efficiency while increasing your production. In turn, meeting this goal lowers your overhead costs.
The most critical step in creating an efficient supply management system is Central Resupply. That’s right, centralize your supplies by organizing them so that they are clearly visible and easily accessible.
- Get some inexpensive tilt bins and clear containers (dimensions relevant to practice size).
- Have 4-6 weeks of resupply inventory.
- Remove doors if they are in your centralized area.
- Get everything out of boxes.
- Label in sequence.
- Use logic (don’t put your prophy paste next to composite material).
But you’re not done there…ATTACK THE OPERATORIES!!
Visual inventory is now becoming the new “norm”. Don’t let anything stand in your way of treating your patients. Arrange your physical environment to reflect the way you want to work.
Reboot Training is NOT to make your job harder. I want you to work without roadblocks. If you are a dentist, you should be doing dentistry. No more spending time on mundane tasks. Allow your practice to function ergonomically!
By definition, work is any activity involving mental or physical effort in order to achieve a purpose or result. Why would one make work harder than it actually is? You’ve probably heard the cliche, “work smarter, not harder”. In an article called Working Harder AND Smarter published by Inc.com, Michael Gerber shares his opinion on what that cliche means to him and frankly, I agree. On working harder he goes further into stating that “if you want that business to prosper, hard work is needed to not only create the capital and income you need, but also the operating systems that the company will use”. In other words, "smarter" shows up after you've put effective processes in place to run your practice without you having to babysit every minute of the day.
So wish me luck, everyone! But with howling winds, driving rains and a potential storm surge of unprecedented scale - there’s one thing you DON’T have to worry about. When it comes to supplies and safety items, I’m as prepared as I can possibly be.
How do I know? Simple. I’m looking right at all of it.
