Four APAC organizations driving operational excellence

In honor of PEX Network event PEX Live: Operational Excellence APAC 2022 which took place on 4 – 5 October, we look at four examples of organizations striving for operational excellence in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region.

NAB overcomes Covid-19 disruption with process improvement

At last year’s iteration of PEX Live: OPEX APAC event, Rodrigo Musicante, operational excellence manager at National Australia Bank (NAB) spoke about how his organization took steps to overcome the disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Musicante explained that with customers no longer able to visit branches, customer contact through call centers and digital channels exploded, making it difficult for the bank to keep up as its capabilities were simply not up to the task. The pandemic itself made it impossible to hire and train the number of staff that was needed.

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The bank took a different approach and sought to reduce the workload of the agents it already had by optimizing processes and looking to offload low-value tasks through automation. Process optimizations ranged from initiatives like ensuring all contact information on the website was correct to helping agents shorten customer conversations by offering more simplified solutions to customers, that could sometimes resolve issues with just one click or tap.

According to Musicante the approach was centered around attaining quick wins through process optimization while simultaneously preparing these processes to be automated.

Musicante noted that through these optimizations and the automation of rote, manual tasks NAB was able to save “thousands of hours” for its contact center agents with “minimum funding”. Not only were these initiatives effective but they were also quick to deploy, generally taking only a few weeks or months, offering agility in a time when it was much needed.

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Queensland health on track for 10-year digital transformation mission

In 2016 Queensland Health, the public health service in Queensland, Australia, set out on a 10-year plan for digital transformation across the enterprise. It includes 16 local hospital and health services. The primary goals of this initiative are to build consistent and sustainable capability, optimize and expand digital health and workforce and scale transformation across the health system.

In 2021, the organization began exploring its options for assessing how it was progressing with regard to the aims set out in the 10-year plan with the help of the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS).

The non-profit and global advisor for health organizations undertook an accelerated program utilizing its digital health indicator (DHI). The DHI measures four dimensions to determine progress toward a digital health ecosystem: interoperability, person-enabled health, predictive analytics, governance and workforce.

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Queensland Health scored a DHI of 143 out of 400, slightly higher than the Oceania average of 135 out for 400 and just below the Asia-Pacific average of 153 out of 400. As the business is still in the early stages of its digital maturity journey, it is not surprising to see that it still has some way to go before it can boast a truly digital health ecosystem.

Following the assessment, Queensland Health made a commitment to continue its drive for digital excellence by promising to continue its virtual care services that were well received as a response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Keith McNeil, deputy director general and chief medical officer, prevention division and chief clinical information officer at Queensland Health, said: “The acceptance of these options from consumers, clinicians and system administrators means that Queensland Health will continue to promote the use of virtual care services.

These service options not only increase the efficiency of the health system to cope with ever increasing demand, but they also ensure consumers have the option to receive care safely and effectively in their homes and be with family and carers whenever possible.”

For more insights on driving OPEX in APAC, register for PEX Live: Operational Excellence APAC 2022.

Japan outlaws outdated technology

Japan has been guilty of clinging to outdated technologies in its office culture. For example, it was not until 2019 that the country’s last pager provider finally halted its services.

More recently, attention has been drawn to the use of floppy disks that are physical storage devices made obsolete by the CD in the early 2000’s. Despite having long since been surpassed by more superior technology some Japanese offices still use them today.

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A Japanese government committee found at least 1,900 cases where the use floppy disks or other similar storage media was necessary for businesses, a statistic that was criticized by Japanese politician Taro Kono in August 2022.

The Japanese government is now driving for the replacement of such physical storage media in a push for operational excellence throughout the country’s offices.

Samsung Medical Center becomes first to reach INFRAM stage 7

The Samsung Medical Center (SMC), based in South Korea, has long been recognized as one of the world’s best hospitals. The medical center has taken first place in the ranking of the Ministry of Health and Social Development of South Korea in 11 categories and ranking number one in the Korean Customer Satisfaction Index a record 18 times.

The medical center has regularly undergone HIMSS’ infrastructure adoption model (INFRAM) assessment to determine its technology and healthcare infrastructure capabilities. It became the first in the world to reach INFRAM stage 7 in April 2022. The INFRAM accreditation assesses the maturity of a medical institution’s technical infrastructure including the level of adoption for medical technology and level of capability in deploying it.

Professor Wonchul Cha, chief medical information officer, department of emergency medicine at SMC, said:

“In the case of INFRAM, it is a story about the invisible infrastructure for the stable operation of a hospital. A stable infrastructure helps a lot because the hospital can self-evaluate what it is missing out on and what it is doing well.”

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The hospital has been working toward digital transformation for many years now, having undergone a six-year transformation of its healthcare information system, culminating in the launch of a reconstructed, patient-centric system in 2016.

The medical center promises to serve as an exemplar for operational excellence in healthcare across the globe, having made commitments to drive data-driven personalized medicine, AI-driven predictive medicine and 5G-driven connected medicine in the coming years.

Have you noticed any businesses setting the pace with regard to OPEX in APAC? Let us know in the comments below.