Background of the process involved
Discuss about Acme Medical Device Company Case Study.
The improvement in technology has introduced enhancements even in the medical field. This is why with every passing time; the medical world has also embraced the advancements that technology has provided in the industry. In the similar way, the Acme Medical Device Company has also decided upon the manufacturing and selling of insulin pumps that would be implantable to benefit the patients diagnosed with ‘Type 2’ diabetes. These pumps have a concise structure that makes in no longer than a matchstick in size. The product is suggested to be developed in 3D technique since it meets the needs of individual patient’s requirements as not everybody needs measurement of the similar amount of blood based on their body index. This comprehensive automation would take up several implementation issues in order to settle its place in the industry and the risks associated with the issues needs to be managed. It is required that the entire situation is studied throughout and is developed into a report presentation. A detailed Consultant’s Report and Consultant’s Summary about the status of the IT program risks needs to be developed as a result. Thus, the following report would have the detailed analysis of the situation from the point of view of the consultant. This would include a background study of the case scenario providing an overview of the process that would be presented to the Acme Medical Device Company to complete the assignment, that is; what steps should be followed in the task, what documents should be reviewed and whom to talk with within the organization. This would be followed by the qualitative and quantitative analysis of the risk management process which would include the analysis and treatment of the risks and issues for each of the eight IT projects. The analysis would be concluded henceforth, followed by recommendations for taking up the next steps for Acme Medical Device Company that would help in taking up better risk management methodologies for the company.
The type of chronic condition that the newest implementation of the insulin pumps were trying to treat to a betterment was the Type 2 diabetes. The innovation has been thought of because of the adverse conditions that Type 2 diabetes impacts upon the human health. This chronic disease impacts mostly on the pancreas, increasing the higher chances of processing the blood sugar levels overtime. This should be checked in order besides the regular intake of medicines as well as prohibiting from the general lifestyle choices that worsens the problem. The sampling of the blood through a lancet and testing it on the blood sugar meter is a tedious and lengthy process and needs to be checked many a times per day under different circumstances whatsoever. Based on these test results the dosage of insulin is measured. The rapid amount of blood drawn from a patient body and the requirement of testing many a times may be resolved with the insulin pump as suggested by the Acme Medical Device management team. However, it may be possible that the project might have some added risks attached to the entire process.
Risk Management Techniques
Carrying out a risk management process is not a difficult task. It involves steps that are common and there are chances that these are unconsciously done before for any other task without following proper methodologies (Lock, 2017). The steps that include managing risks should include the sense of likelihood that there must be something perilous around to harm the business process and the peril is most likely to bring about consequences in the long run. Therefore, the process that would be included in managing the risk should have the ability to process the information about the risks and use it in order to generate a feasible decision (Modarres, 2016). Furthermore, the processes for managing the risks in the organizational process shall be described in details as follows:
- Identifying risks:According to a person’s own discretion and the ethical codes, it should be kept in mind that identifying the risks in a business process is required the most (Larson & Gray, 2015). The physical factors that are involved in the context shall be analyzed in order to do so. This would be justified with the monitoring and reviewing the tasks that have happened so far. Identifying risks gets more eased out with persistence and experience (Sadgrove, 2016).
- Assessing the risks:To assess the severity of a risk it is required that consequences of an event as well as the chances that they are about to occur must be considered. This should be done with total analysis of a risk by assessing how likely the risk is able to damage the entire process of the business (Modarres, 2016). If the analysis results to low or trivial risk, the task can be progressed further. If the identified risk proves to be moderate, the task should either be carried on with extreme caution or should be aborted (Wang et al., 2016). However, if the risk is proven to be extremely harmful, it is better to completely abort the proceedings of the task.
- Controlling risks:There are several gradual processes by which a risk can be controlled from being a perilous affect to the business organization (Kerzner & Kerzner, 2017). There are various processes by which risks can further be eliminated from a system when it comes to extremity (Bañuls et al., 2017). These can be achieved by simply getting a risky process eliminated, isolating from the risk altogether to deter its chances of creating a ruckus or by simply engineering a process to get rid of the risk with the help of planned managerial steps.
It is a known fact that technical life cycle’s in any phase acquires some sort of risk associated with it. For proper assessment of risk, it is required that the situation needs to be analyzed correctly by choosing proper methods (Kendrick, 2015). These methods are expected to inspect the risk as well as treat it properly. In this case, however, risk factors regarding the introduction of the latest technology in the Acme Medical Device Company would consist of qualitative as well as quantitative approach. The qualitative approach would consist of the extensive research on the subjective judgment that would depend on the management expertise, acceptance of the latest technology and further research over the market (Hopkin, 2018). The quantitative research on the other hand would depend upon the understanding of the behavioral impact the latest technology has implanted on the workforce, business as well as the customers and would be analyzed through statistical modeling. Further, the detailed research would be as follows:
The qualitative technique in this case would consist of the technique associated with this project that helps in discovering the probability of the occurrence of a risk and the probability that the risk can affect the business organization (Heagney, 2016). This would generally be done with the help of the analytical skills that the person in charge possesses. The impact of a risk generally depends on the scheduling of the program, the budgeting of the project, resources, performance and impact. This would further be analysed with the help of the problems that currently the Acme Medical Device Company has been facing since the introduction of the new product.
The idea of the introduction of the newest item in the business organization was suspecting a 20 percent reduction in their workforce (Harrison & Lock, 2017). The company had the idea that this would thus help in the increase in production rate for the next three years to come into a completion. Along with these, there were many other problems witnessed in the structure of the organization regarding the faltering employee engagement scores as well as the problems arising with the technological issues. The problems witnessed in this regard can be justified to act as impending risks in future. The qualitative analysis that is performed is based on this risk analysis. The problems in the business structure and process in the organization is thus as listed as below:
- The organization has been facing much pressurization to bring about new and improved products to the customers in a much more frequent manner (Pritchard & PMP, 2014). This puts a toll over the manufacturing machinery that needs remodelling due to wear and tear as well as affects heavily on the outdated manufacturing machinery system.
- The newly introduced products often face serious interventions from the market given its competition in the market. The heavy incur of introducing new products in the market has made the product life cycle increasingly low. This impacts the working of the business organization since the manufacturing machinery have been severely obsolete given the recent technological standards (Fleming & Koppelman, 2016). The heavy production accounted for a huge changeover in the industry, or without the implementation of the change the reconfiguration or production of a newer product will take up to 4 to 8 days of down time.
- It has been found that it would take up to 12 to 18 hours in each month for a planned maintenance, whereas on the other hand, it will take up to 16 to 32 hours each month for the unplanned downtime that is the risk where the system crashes due to the heavy manufacturing process (Marcelino-Sádaba et al., 2014).
- The upgrading and the addition of the newest technology in the business process system are required since the traditional system that was previously used by the organization has been outdated (Wu et al., 2014). The system transformation in this regard has been in dire necessity of a change in applications and interfaces (Carvalho & Rabechini, 2015). This required time and execution modifications with the input of more amount of capital to the system.
- The security system regarding the IT system has been found to be given lower importance in the organization and thus all the policies and procedures regarding the IT security have been neglected and given low priority so far. Thus, it can be said that Acme Medical is much more vulnerable to IT security threats compared to its competitors in the market (Haimes, 2015). This is because, the other competitors of the organization have found to be more careful towards their IT security system and have been investing to implement a feasible security system to protect the integrity of their manufactured products or other significant data. There have been reports of minor breaches in the company till date which have been suspected to a gradually increasing threat in the global front regarding cyber attacks.
Qualitative Technique
Quantitative technique to make out the risks associated with the entire project is based on the secondary data that has been achieved with the project propagation. Typically, a quantitative risk analysis is based on the identification of risks that influences a project or an organization the most. This process is quantifiable by associating the risks along with the severity it has and the level of impact it forces upon the project or the organization (Modarres, Kaminskiy & Krivtsov, 2016). This maintenance of data is raw and generally not used by any other risk analysis report. The data generated in the quantitative technique of analysing risk is extremely raw and unique since it is based on the data that has been collected during the course of the project propagation (Nicholas & Steyn, 2017). Since, no project can be similar with the other, the data generated also has to be different in comparison to other secondary data collected.
The data that has been quantitatively collected with respect to this project for Acme Medical Device Company has been described in details in the appendix provided.
Conclusion
Therefore, the above risk management report can be concluded as a feasible analysis of the risk associated with the case in introducing the latest technology device for Acme Medical Device Company. The entire situation has been studied throughout and has been developed into a report presentation. A detailed Consultant’s Report and Consultant’s Summary about the status of the IT program risks has thus been developed as a result. Therefore, the following report consists of the detailed analysis of the situation from the point of view of the consultant. This had included a background study of the case scenario providing an overview of the process that would be presented to the Acme Medical Device Company to complete the assignment, that is; what steps should be followed in the task, what documents should be reviewed and whom to talk with within the organization. This has further been followed by the qualitative and quantitative analysis of the risk management process which had included the analysis and treatment of the risks and issues for each of the eight IT projects. The analysis has been concluded henceforth, followed by recommendations for taking up the next steps for Acme Medical Device Company that has helped in taking up better risk management methodologies for the company. The risk management analysis has thus been concluded in details for the company Acme Medical Device Company for the introduction of the new medical instrument called the insulin pump that would benefit the patients further.
Quantitative Technique
Recommendations for better management of risks in future
According to the development of the business case that was regarding the manufacturing of the Implantable Insulin Pump Program or IIPP, it was proposed that the devices be printed out by the 3D or three dimensional processes that would help in acquiring proper customization for the process. This is because different patients would require drawing out of different amounts of blood. Thus, without having a fixed size incompatible with the patient, it would be much more flexible and approachable to the customers. In addition to that, using the HL7 universal medical interface standards, the doctor anywhere in the world would be able to connect with Acme systems to order a customized device. Based on the primary information on this matter, there can be a few mentions about the next steps that can be taken by the Acme Medical Device Company in order to cope up with the risks that it has been facing with the manufacturing of the IIP or Implantable Insulin Pump and mitigate the risks as well with accordance to that.
It can be assumed that there are way outs to the risks that the company has been facing now or has the possibility to face in the future. Thus below are some details steps that the company can utilize next in the business process in order to keep up with the competitors as well as benefit the organization in a great deal.
- Prioritizing:The organization needs to prioritize its needs of business. Right at this point of time, it is important that the company needs to think about the Implantable Insulin Pump or IIP and its development rather than continuing with the older sets of manufacturing it had been doing in the past with little significance in the market.
- Development of PMO:It is definitely required to first and foremost hire an official who would handle the works of IT management in the project as soon as possible.
- Program support with facilities:It should be adjusted by KMPG to look for the disadvantages Acme has without a PMO manager and should support the organization with further facilities.
- Changing the method for project management:It should be made clear that Acme needs to put forward feasible and faster approach in meeting all the needs of the client as well as mitigating the risks associated with the project at get started along with IT implementations.
References
Bañuls, V. A., López, C., Turoff, M., & Tejedor, F. (2017). Predicting the Impact of Multiple Risks on Project Performance: A Scenario-Based Approach. Project Management Journal, 48(5), 95-114.
Carvalho, M. M. D., & Rabechini Junior, R. (2015). Impact of risk management on project performance: the importance of soft skills. International Journal of Production Research, 53(2), 321-340.
Fleming, Q. W., & Koppelman, J. M. (2016, December). Earned value project management. Project Management Institute.
Haimes, Y. Y. (2015). Risk modeling, assessment, and management. John Wiley & Sons.
Harrison, F., & Lock, D. (2017). Advanced project management: a structured approach. Routledge.
Heagney, J. (2016). Fundamentals of project management. Amacom.
Hopkin, P. (2018). Fundamentals of risk management: understanding, evaluating and implementing effective risk management. Kogan Page Publishers.
Kendrick, T. (2015). Identifying and managing project risk: essential tools for failure-proofing your project. Amacom.
Kerzner, H., & Kerzner, H. R. (2017). Project management: a systems approach to planning, scheduling, and controlling. John Wiley & Sons.
Larson, E. W., & Gray, C. F. (2015). A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge: PMBOK (®) Guide. Project Management Institute.
Lock, D. (2017). The essentials of project management. Routledge.
Marcelino-Sádaba, S., Pérez-Ezcurdia, A., Lazcano, A. M. E., & Villanueva, P. (2014). Project risk management methodology for small firms. International journal of project management, 32(2), 327-340.
Modarres, M. (2016). Risk analysis in engineering: techniques, tools, and trends. CRC press.
Modarres, M. (2016). Risk analysis in engineering: techniques, tools, and trends. CRC press.
Modarres, M., Kaminskiy, M. P., & Krivtsov, V. (2016). Reliability engineering and risk analysis: a practical guide. CRC press.
Nicholas, J. M., & Steyn, H. (2017). Project management for engineering, business and technology. Routledge.
Pritchard, C. L., & PMP, P. R. (2014). Risk management: concepts and guidance. Auerbach Publications.
Sadgrove, K. (2016). The complete guide to business risk management. Routledge.
Wang, T., Tang, W., Du, L., Duffield, C. F., & Wei, Y. (2016). Relationships among risk management, partnering, and contractor capability in international EPC project delivery. Journal of Management in Engineering, 32(6), 04016017.
Wu, D. D., Chen, S. H., & Olson, D. L. (2014). Business intelligence in risk management: Some recent progresses. Information Sciences, 256, 1-7.
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