Manufacturing Capacity As A Commodity

Writen by Lance Winslow

Excess capacity in an automobile plant at Ford, Chrysler, Toyota, GM, and Honda is a commodity and those who study finite capacity scheduling modules can readily see the possibilities for increased production and that means profit. Einstein said time is relative, that is true, time is relative, manipulating commodity theoretical models allows companies to see thru time and keep costs and purchases on an even keel without the problems of relative time. Thus the commodity can be simplified to price/cost models. The commodity is still relative to fluctuations in currency, weather, and supply and demand. There is no reason a company like Ford cannot take those plants, which have closed and use them to make something else. Instead, they ran their plants at maximum capacity or close to it, and built lots of cars, which are now in the dealers or on their way to the dealers and there is no need to run the plants now sense there are enough cars built. If the cars become scarce, then the price goes up. As with anything; supply and demand. Are cars a commodity? It appears they are, but more so the time in the excess capacity in the factories is the real commodity although from a purely conceptual standpoint, both the time and the cars are commodities.

Excess capacity also occurs in many other industries, such as electricity, water, oil, mainframe time, bandwidth, etc. When deregulation came to the California energy market we saw an interesting thing occur. People would buy blocks of kilowatt-hours from the existing energy companies who made electricity. They had to make this available to anyone. So entrepreneurs Bought lots of it and then they sold it to others wishing to buy it. Commodity theory is fun to study, because it is everywhere in our civilization, think about it.

Lance Winslow

Medical Billing Fraud

Writen by Michael Russell

Nobody wants to talk about it, but not talking about it isn't going to make it go away. It is more common and more costly than most people want to admit to. It is one of the major contributing factors to our rising health care costs. It is very hard to prove and it is even harder to identify when it does happen because the people doing it have gotten very good at it. If you're wondering what we're talking about, it's medical billing and fraud. We're going to take just a brief look at the problem, as this is a topic that you could write books about.

Probably the most disheartening thing about medical billing fraud is that in order for it to be successful, in most cases anyway, more than one party has to be aware that it is going on. While we're not pointing any fingers, this has become a joint effort. The best way to explain exactly what is going on and how this is a coordinated effort, is with an example, albeit a fictitious one.

A patient suffers an injury on January 1, 2006. The injury, because of the circumstances, is not covered. Maybe it was the patient's own neglect. The reasons don't matter. The injury isn't covered under insurance so the patient just let's it slide by. Six months later, the patient is involved in a car accident. While there are no injuries sustained in the accident, the original injury is aggravated and the patient can now claim that the injury they sustained in January of that year actually took place six months later while in the auto accident. All they need is a doctor's say so.

This is where things get sticky. Yes, we can argue that the doctor is only human and can only go by what the patient tells him. But certainly, with today's technology, the doctor should easily be able to tell if the injury the patient sustained happened yesterday or six months ago. The problem is that the tests that would need to be performed, in some cases, would be too costly to do. It's just a lot easier to do a preliminary exam and certify that the injury must have occurred during the accident. The doctor then treats the patient for the injury, writes up his bill and sends it along to the insurance carrier. The claim is then paid for something that shouldn't have been covered in the first place. Yes, maybe the injury was worsened by the accident, but if it hadn't been sustained in the first place, the resulting injury may have not been as bad.

Splitting hairs? Maybe. But this is a borderline case. There are many cases of medical billing where the patient and doctor are both more than aware that this item should probably not be billed and hold their breath hoping that the insurance carrier won't smell something funny and reject the claim. If you think this sort of thing doesn't go on, spend a day at one of our courts and listen to all the cases of fraud going up before the judge. It's enough to make you sick to your stomach for real.

The solution? For people to be honest. Is this going to happen? Well, we can always check with the courts six months from today.

Michael Russell Your Independent guide to Medical Billing

Commitment A Door To Open

Writen by Hans Bool

Is commitment something you gain on the way, or do you need it right from the start?

Many projects and business activities fail because of a lack of commitment. Some of these activities stop halfway others near the end – when most commitment is needed – and others do not even get really started. It´s all in the emotion around it. People can be sceptic at first, they are insecure (I know I am) and they wait what others do before they step in.

Even in personal relations you cannot do without commitment. Or put it another way; personal relations are relations because of the commitment. You said ´yes´ at one point at time. It is possible that commitment fades away down the road. But this is another topic. Any relation starts after commitment.

Commitment is not something you gain over a period of time. You need it at day one. Project managers know this and the first step they take in accepting (an existing or new) project is to check the commitment as part of an intake. They know whether a project is viable or not.

What you should never do is, if you reckon that there is no commitment, try and pull or push in the hope you will receive it soon. You should rather start with it. Commitment is like a door that should open. And if it doesn't you have a problem. This is where sales comes in. Sales representatives know how to deal with this aspect. They might give something away to let you feel good. After which the barrier should fall. The door gets open, and you are a guest, welcome to come in.

© 2005 Hans Bool / Astor White

Astor White
Committed to your management issues. On a distance.