Do engineers stop thinking like engineers when they become managers?
Do engineers stop thinking like engineers when they become managers
?
One of the most significant aspects surrounding the recent cuts in healthcare budgets is the fact that Estates Managers, who grew up as engineers, are purchasing the cheapest equipment to cover their facilities management operations.
When you were young and in your prime, you looked at what could be achieved with the best instruments available - microscopes, engines, pumps, boiler controls, alarm systems, computer-aided this-and-that systems etc.. Then you looked at what was possible and those with the brains became developers in a chosen specialist field. Others concentrated on doing the work with what others had developed. You were good at it, and you were promoted. Then came the day when you became a Manager', with personnel and budget responsibilities. Engineering was a useful tool to help you make critical practical decisions, but you had to retrain (or not) to establish that everything that went before, played second-fiddle to the balance-sheet.
In the NHS, the profit and loss statement is about how well you used your budget. Did you spend wisely, and were there any disasters during the course of the year? If there weren't, you were rewarded - not by having an increased budget or more personnel to play with; but with more responsibility and less room for manoeuvre.
At this point you are beginning to lose your engineer's head and are more focused on productivity, absenteeism, project targets or how you cap maintenance charges without things falling apart. The balancing tricks are very different from the mechanical and electrical possibilities of your youth.
However, there is one area that you can address as both an engineer and a manager the quality of your purchases. Let's take a small, often overlooked, area of the facilities management landscape: Medical Gases. OK, so you didn't major in this pharmaceutical subject at Technical College, but although medical gases are seen as medicinal products, it is not the pharmacist that has to make sure the medical air or vacuum plants are maintained correctly. Actually, strictly-speaking, it isn't you either it's the medical gas pipeline systems provider that has the duty of looking after these systems. You are the one with the responsibility. So you are trained to oversee these systems as an Approved Person (MGPS), as well as being the AP for other HVAC systems, water, electricity etc. etc.
This means that you have all the managerial clout you need to make sure that everything is working as it should be on behalf of the Acute Hospital Trust except that the budget setters haven't got your knowledge of how things operate at facilities management level. So this whole function is either farmed out to a specialist facilities management company or you are given a budget that doesn't reflect your needs.
Getting back to our medical gases example be clear, we are talking about life saving gases (including vacuum), that are fed throughout an acute hospital 24/7. When specialist providers for MGPS turn up on your doorstep with something new and often innovative as a solution to a problem, are you able to view it with your engineering head or with your managerial head? The engineer will say it is perfect to solve your high maintenance costs, whilst your managerial head will say it doesn't fit into your budget. So even if it solves the problem, and will provide you with a better return on investment than the cheaper model, you must buy the cheaper model - even when your engineering head is screaming the opposite!
This situation is played out all over the NHS, and is very often the reason why progress on cost-savings on overheads is so slow. Managers (engineers or not) will not pay more than the cheapest quote unless there is an overwhelming NOW benefit for them.
This NOW benefit could very well be something other than money. It may be that by spending the extra on a much more efficient piece of equipment, it may provide the hospital as a whole, with massive kudos and positive publicity. We have already seen this for Theatre equipment and catering products; where better equipment, which cost a little more, has meant better outcomes and healthier eating and great publicity!
So why not take the same practical and beneficial approach within estates management, and in line with our example, within the field of medical gases. There are more highly efficient medical vacuum pumps and medical air compressors out there. There are MGPS providers that don't sub-contract the servicing of these important pieces of machinery to non-specialist service engineers; and there are MGPS installers who understand pressure in pipes and diversity factors when they propose new medical gas plant.
You have to pay more for better quality products and services. The days of "let's buy the cheapest so we can stay within budget" could be over. When this was last challenged, the response was that NASA put a man on the moon by procuring the cheapest parts from all its suppliers! What they don't tell you is that those were the days when quality came with every product since 1970, obsolescence has been built into any product you buy. The only difference being that the more you pay the further away in time that obsolescence is.
Engineering is much better now than it has ever been we are in the golden age of engineering, and we are wasting it under the confines of a budget. It is about time managers put back on their engineering heads and saw the better capital investment as a saving not an extra cost.
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