Improving Procurement Lead Times at Hill Air Force Base Essay -- Busin

Improving Procurement Lead Times at Hill Air Force Base In today’s tough economic times organizations need to seriously look at ways to improve their service level, even in the government. With decreasing military budgets and workforce reductions all government agencies need to streamline activities as much as possible to ensure that the taxpayers’ dollars are being spent wisely and the warfighter is being supported. The National Health Service (NHS) of East Midlands, England has established an excellent website, which benchmarks their twelve steps to process improvement on their Improvement Network (NHS - East Midlands, 2012). The website offers many tools and techniques as well as improvement tools that can be used during the process improvement steps. Although many organizations struggle with process improvements, careful analysis suggests that government agencies can reap the benefits of process improvements just as much as other public and private sectors, especially if they follow an organized approach such as the one identified on the NHS improvement network. Step 1 - Choose a Specific Service to Improve The government procurement process can be a daunting task. Whether the acquisition is competitive or non-competitive, procurement lead times can vary greatly depending on the type of procurement. With news stories of impropriety transpiring among the government on a daily basis more oversight is being required during the procurement process which is adding unnecessary time to the procurement lead times. With the increased oversight requirements it has become more difficult to get the necessary products to the warfighter during their time of need, which greatly affects the ability for government procurement offi... ...though some may argue that making improvements within an organization can be difficult. As long as organizations follow the first four steps in process improvement they should be able to operate more effectively and efficiently. In order for organizations to improve their service levels they need to examine both their internal and external processes and determine the steps required to make necessary improvements. It is essential for organizations to reduce operating costs and improve their service level, even in the government. Works Cited Jacobs, F. R., & Chase, R. B. (2010). Operations and supply chain management. (13 ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill/Irwin. MindTools.com. (2012). essential skills for excellent career. Retrieved from http://www.mindtools.com/ NHS - East Midlands. (2012). The improvement network. Retrieved from http://www.tin.nhs.uk/