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Most organizations either set too narrow a scope for innovation efforts or try to target more than one process at the same time. The underlying assumption in the later cases is to get small aggregative benefits that would lead to overall operational efficiency. There doesn't seem to be any harm in this methodology.
But often in such cases, the attention gets spread among different activities which finally results in no major achievement. No doubt what they achieve is just incremental improvement.

In this way, Aravind now focused on different aspects of the surgical treatment that they can address in order to decrease the costs and in turn achieve two-fold advantage. Firstly, they can get better patient-drainage owing to low cost of treatment and secondly, this would ensure better operational efficiency.

It's not surprising that Aravind came up with a unique financial model never ever heard before, operating on such a large scale. They invented a model in which everyone was free to choose either free treatment or paid treatment. In case of paid treatment, the charges for surgeries were designed in such a way that they need not charge too high a price from the paying customers compared to existent market rates. At the same time, the paid customers ended up paying for the costs of two other free patients. Thus, the institute was able to treat three patients by charging for just one patient.

Aravind also started implementing the practices of manufacturing sector by designing the operation theatre and its surgical processes in such a way that the surgeon can easily move between two tables without any significant loss in time and resources. It also conducted various kinds of time-motion studies and concluded that on an average, 40 surgeries can be performed in a day without putting excessive burden on the operating surgeon or his quality of work.

In this way, Aravind acts as an excellent example of a clear focus on process which resulted in successful implementation of its operational innovations.

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* Contributed by: -
Dr. Shreyas Goswami is a II Year Business Management student at XLRI, Jamshedpur. He is an MBBS doctor from B. J. Medical College, Ahmedabad, and had extensive work experience in the Healthcare Sector prior to joining XLRI.
This Paper was adjudged one of the Best 8 Papers in "Ashwamedh Paper Writing Contest" organized by XIMB.