Applying Data Analysis to Quality

Applying Data Analysis to Quality Management

The intent of this analysis is to apply the quality management technique called the House of Quality (Talib, Rahman, Azam, 2011) to the key points made in the article Get Healthy -- Or Else: Inside one company's all-out attack on medical costs (Conlin, 2007) which serves as the case for this analysis. The relationships within the roof of the House of Quality are analyzed in addition to the matrix that defines subsequent design activities. Based on this analysis a series of conclusions are offered for Scott's Fitness Center.

Analysis of the Roof of the House of Quality

Using the House of Quality as the framework for evaluating the Scot's Fitness Center, the role of senior management and their support for the program immediately emerges as a critical success factor in the overall effort. Combining senior management's strong support and believe in the program with low costs to join, and cash & travel incentives to continually improve, the Scott's Fitness Center has set a solid foundation for bringing lasting change to their organizational culture. This single factor alone, senior management's active and significant support financially for new programs, is the single greatest determinant of change management success in quality management initiatives across industries (Hall, 1992).

In addition to senior management support, the combining of convenience and incentives ensure this program will succeed, as it is designed to deliberately lower the barrier to adoption and use. As the CEO and management team see investments in this program as being crucial to keeping healthcare related costs under control, the cost-effective dimension of the roof is consistently positive as well. The roof of the House of Quality makes sense in that it also sets the foundation for future expansion of the program globally due to the replicable nature of these process areas. They are easily duplicated across other areas of the organization given the clarity of goals and, measurements. Figure 1 shows the House of Quality for the Scott's Fitness Centers.

Figure 1: Scott's Fitness Center House of Quality

Analyzing the Body of the House of Quality

In creating the Scott's Fitness Centers, the CEO and management team of the company have concentrated on measurable results aimed at reducing three critical metrics of heath-related performance. These include weight control, cholesterol and aggregate health scores that capture excessive drinking, smoking or unhealthy activity (Conlin, 2007). This aggregate score is used for determining what healthcare premiums employees will pay over the long-term and how often they will be prompted to visit the Scott's Fitness Center and get a check-up, also enrolling in a healthcare program (Conlin, 2007). This aggregate score, derived from the Reduce section of the House of Quality, is useful for recruitment and retention of employees in the program. The level of accountability that the Scott's Program provides is unlike any other option that the employee (or customer in this situation) would be able to gain externally. Change management is best handled in the context of quality management initiatives as a shared responsibility as it brings greater accountability, responsibility and transparency surrounding results (Sepic, McNabb, 1994).

The Improve dimension of the House of Quality will also provide employees and management with the critical feedback and information they need to continually increase their participation and results achieved. For the employee, the Improve dimension includes the attributes of having a customizable and measurable program. Using long-term teaching techniques including autonomy, mastery and purpose, trainers in the fitness center will be able to get more employees enrolled and continually working out compared to any other approach. Measuring how effective the program is will bring greater credibility and trust in the results, and the scorecards and benchmarks will continually fuel mastery of healthcare on the part of employees. The measurable aspects of the program are particularly important to the CEO and senior management, as they will want to calculate the Return on Investment (ROI) of this program in addition to the long-term trending on healthcare costs for Scott's overall. All of these factors will contribute to the CEO and senior management further defending investments in fitness centers globally, based on the analytics, intelligence and metrics generated from these measurable programs.

The most significant metric of all will be the health of the employees, as measured by their aggregate score, their quality of life and satisfaction with their jobs. Healthy employees who have less stress are less likely to leave one employee for another, or seek to derail efforts internally. These are unquantifiable but very real costs that the CEO and his senior management team are also watching. Putting a $7M Fitness Center across the street from their corporate headquarters and manufacturing operations says that employees' health is worth the investment and Scott's believes their welfare is critical to their success. This has a major effect on morale and further strengths the dimensions of the House of Quality.