E-News for November 2000
Greetings ALMA Members,
The new OSHA Ergonomics ProgramStandard (29 CFR 1910.900) goes into effect on January 16, 2001. Under this standard, if an employee reports an ergonomic injury, the employer must assess the employee’s job to determine if it has risk factors such as repetition, awkward posture, force, vibration, or contact stress. If these risk factors are found, the employer must establish an ergonomics program for that job. The program must contain the following elements: hazard information and reporting, management leadership and employee participation, job hazard analysis and control, training, ergonomics management, and program evaluation. The standard provides the employer with several options for evaluating and controlling risk factors for jobs covered by the ergonomics program, and provides objective criteria for identifying musculoskeletal disorder hazards in those jobs. OSHA estimates that the final standard will prevent about 4.6 million work-related musculoskeletal disorders over the next 10 years, have annual benefits of approximately $9.1 billion, and impose annual compliance costs of $4.5 billion on employers. The standard is activated for a company when an ergonomic injury occurs; since these injuries account for about 34% of all reported injuries and illnesses, this standard is likely to affect almost all of us.
In case you missed it, H.L. Bouton is voluntarily recalling certain lots of Eyewash, Emergency Eye/Face/Body Wash, Eyewash Concentrate and Normal Saline due to possible contamination. These products are marketed under the Lavoptik, Zee Medical, and Rapid Clear labels. If you have any of these products in your lab, check with your distributor to determine if you have any of the affected lot numbers.
Today’s competitive environment has led to a high degree of interest in benchmarking among lab managers who are under pressure to deliver more services at less cost. While benchmarking can unquestionably lead to operational improvements, managers must be careful to insure that this activity does not replace strategic planning for their organization. In an article entitled “Best Practice does not Equal Best Strategy” (The McKinsey Quarterly, No. 2, 2000), Philipp Natterman points out that simply copying whatever the leaders are doing leads to “strategic herding” where no-one gains an advantage. Instead of succumbing to the herd instinct, he recommends looking for “unexplored areas on the strategic landscape” where you might differentiate your organization from the competitors—so called “whitespots.” For example, he mentions Chrysler’s introduction of the minivan in 1984 when the station wagon segment of the automotive market was dying as a very successful differentiation strategy at a time when other auto manufacturers were benchmarking (copying) the Japanese model. So where are these “white spots” for laboratory management? I believe that two prime areas for innovation that can lead to strategic advantage for a lab are in the application of knowledge management and on-line analyzers. The lab managers who can build systems to utilize these powerful concepts to replace (or partially replace) the current system of analyzing samples and reporting data will be the winners.
Our 21st Annual Conference in Palo Alto featured an outstanding panel of speakers, excellent facilities, extraordinary hospitality by our host Agilent Technologies, and plenty of mixing and personal interaction among the attendees. We are already planning next year’s conference to be held in Houston with workshops on October 30-31 and the program on November 1-2. This should be a very reasonably priced meeting where you can get many improvement ideas and meet colleagues who share your interests. Put this event on your calendar now!
Tom Lyttle, who edits the “Management Questions and Answers” column in Managing the Modern Laboratory, has asked that I mention his need for new questions on lab management problems. If you would like advice on how to handle a particular problem, send the question to Tom. All questions are treated anonymously.
If you have any comments, cost saving suggestions, opinions, etc. let me hear from you .
Wayne