Holism versus reductionism in healthcare and Athletics Gear Manufacturing Industry

This paper discusses holism and reductionism in health care and athletics gear industries.

Healthcare industry
The primary concept of holism is that its proponents have a common belief that things are better understood in their wholeness rather than when broken into component parts (Freeman, 2005). The body functions as a complete unit. It’s thus not possible to trigger a cell without triggering the whole body. This same concept, when applied to the healthcare industry, could mean that all aspects of healthcare provision are considered more realistic and more gratifying when what is under consideration is treated in its original state rather than in parts. For instance, if a person diagnosed with a certain illness is admitted to a healthcare facility, he is considered wholly in need of medication. In any case, the pain or agony in a particular part of the body affects the whole body (Freeman, 2005). When medication is applied, its carried in the blood to heal the place in pain though this affects the whole body. It’s thus not possible to isolate any part of the human body no matter whether it’s the part/organ most affected by the ailment. When a person suffers mental delusion, the whole body is affected. If he suffers stomach upsets, the whole body is considered sick or unhealthy.

There is one thing that comes out from the above consideration; that healthcare service provision is a large enterprise requiring many and different health care providers including pharmacists, psychologists, dentists, opticians, etc. who are closely interdependent. Their system of work is so much intertwined that if one breaks out of the system, it may crash. If sufficient healthcare is to be accorded to patients, then these departments have to work as a whole and interdependently rather than separately (Ahn et al., 2006)

Reductionism is, however, the complete diversion from holism. For reductionists, the parts are crucial if the whole is to be understood. In the healthcare context, reductionists believe that the patient has to be studied more aggressively though analyzing the organs affected rather than the whole body (Ahn et al., 2006) For them, the symptoms alone cannot be used by a physician to know what really the patient suffers. When a patient is admitted, each organ reported to bring about his/her suffering is looked into independently. Smaller concepts of studying or researching what may be the cause of the problems in the various parts of the body are applied. More so, the medication for the differently affected parts of the body are given and prescribed separately (Ahn et al., 2006).

Athletics gear manufacturing industry
This industry deals with the manufacturing of athletics protective aids for athletes and related apparel. Such industries produce athletics goods such as sailboards, skates, exercise machines and other playground equipment. They also manufacture protective goods for athletes such h as helmets, athletics pads, snowshoes, shin guards among other protective gear.

Holism and reductionism apply in this industry in various dimensions. In the dimension of production, holism occurs in the notion that athletics gear industry is incomplete if it produces or manufactures a particular set of apparel. For instance, this industry must produce all focal goods required by athletes for it to be termed so. Reductionism would not coincide with that. For it, the industry may warrant the term ‘athletics gear manufacturing industry’ even if it produces one nature or line of the above goods (Freeman, 2005). The second area of consideration that may bring in the concept of holism and reductionism with respect to the industry is production process of the apparel. If the principles holism is considered, an all-inclusive design perspective is used. As such, the criteria for producing athletics apparel might be the same. The price determination criteria (Wu, 2012) for the same system of items (protective athletics items for instance) might be the same. More so, the raw materials might also be the same for a system of items so that similar items can match in many, if not all aspects. Holism as far as this industry is considered is a considerable notion that all things, methodology of their production and price processing are connected in such a mutual manner that none is stand-alone (Benci et al., 2003).

If reductionism concept is used, however, the contrary of the above among other things is possible. In reductionism, the manner of treating even a system of related goods in terms of pricing criteria, production process, branding and other levels of good handling might not be equal. Since reductionist believes every part of the system is a stand-alone facet, every unit of the production process in the manufacturing process of the athletics apparel will be treated independently. As such, every item that will be produced might possess different attributes from the other even though the same department produces the items. In that case, every item deserves its own handling since quality might not be the same. In short, reductionism when applied in any manufacturing industry or production process means that every bit of the process is independent of the preceding or succeeding stages.

Verifying the variance

Variance shows the change from a particular period to another which can be in months, quarters, or years. According to Garrison, Noreen, and Brewer (2003), variance analysis is necessary when evaluating the financial statements and departmental level budgets for the overall financial health of an organization or department. The calculation of variance helps to establish whether an organization is growing or not and at what rate. Variance analysis provides the management team with concrete information on how to make business decisions that would strengthen the financial position of an organization (Garrison, Noreen & Brewer, 2003). The Northeast Health System appears stable in various financial aspects but with normal changes between 2010 and 2011. The health system income statement shows that there was a decrease in the total unrestricted revenue and support in 2011 as compared to 2010 though the total expenses reduced from 2010 to 2011. However, the changes in unrestricted net assets show that year 2011 ended with negative (-) changes as compared to 2010 probably due to huge pension and post-retirement remittances in 2011.

From the variances data obtained, the major positive variances between 2010 and 2011 are observed in cash and cash equivalents (41.3), excess of revenue and gains over expenses (223), net assets from restrictions of purchase of property (68.3), and pension and post-retirement related adjustments (390.3). The significant negative variances are observed in prepaid expenses and other current assets (-87.9), non-operating gains (-197.4), change in net unrealized gains and losses on investments (-170.9), total other changes in unrestricted net assets (-578.1), and a decrease in unrestricted net assets (-283.6). The variances show that there were significant differences in particular aspects of the financials of Northeast Health System both positive and negative.

According to the proportional allocation analysis data, the most significant positive proportions are net patient service revenue for both 2010 and 2011[98.0 (2011); 97.7 (2010], income from operations in 2011 (211.9), change in net unrealized gains and losses on investments in 2011 (167.1), and decrease in unrestricted net assets in 2011 (158.1). The most significant negative proportions from the analysis data are non-operating gains in 2011 (-111.8), and pension and post-retirement related adjustments in 2011 (-76.4).

Most of the financial aspects of Northeast Health System are not heading in the right direction since most of the variances are negative. It shows that the financial health of the firm in 2010 was better than that of 2011. However, the variances in pension and post-retirement related adjustments and excess of revenue and gains over expenses shows that there were more expenses on the two items in 2011 than 2010. Regarding the firm liabilities, the changes were not significant that showed a level of stability. The firm’s assets appear to be on a downfall trend which reveals of some losses or depreciation. For the proportion allocation analysis, it is evident that unrestricted revenues and support decreased in 2011 as compared to 2010, total expenses also reduced in 2011 thereby making the gains over expenses to increase in 2011 as compared to 2010. The major problem experienced in 2011 was the increase in pension and postretirement adjustments as well as fluctuations in unrealized gains and losses on investments.

I would recommend certain actions to the Northeast Health System regarding decreasing or increasing the significant variances and proportional allocations. First is to reduce the accrued wages and vacation payable, the accrued pension liability, and professional liability reserves. The Health facility ought to diversify on the mechanisms of revenue generation to ensure there is an increase in cash flow. The allocations for pension and post-retirement adjustments ought to be controlled to avoid the rapid changes in unrestricted net assets.

Crm at minitex

Minitrex Systems
The Minitrex Company is a business entity with different divisions under different personnel heads. The company has various data and information databases. The Minitrex Company has complete operations conducted under four divisions. The divisions include the sales and marketing department, the financing department and the insurance department. The company operates four data and database information systems which include the Customer Contacts System, the Management Business Center System, the Credit Administration System and the General Management System.

Customer Contacts Database

The customer contacts are a data and information system dedicated to serving the sales and marketing department. The database maintains and controls data and information for customers contacts. The main process of data and information entry into the customer’s contacts is through the customers having direct contact with the sales and marketing department. The customers can also get information through making a phone call. The customer contact is not shared with the other department divisions. However, the Customer contacts database share data involving the orders with the credit administration database. Customer contacts database also share data containing the products and services with General Management System.

General Management System
The other form of the data processing and management platform is the General Management System. The data and processing database are used by the department of insurance division the insurance division can receive bills from the customers. The General Management System shares data and information with the customer contacts database. The data and information shared includes the products and services.

Credit Administration System
The credit administration system is the data and information processing system that obtains the billing information from the insurance department. Credit Administration System shares the credit data and information with the customer contacts database. The General Management System is controlled and managed by the insurance department.

Management Business Center System
Management Business Center System manages and process data and information within the financing department. The financing department controls data and information stored in obtained by the customers. Management Business Center System share data and information concerning the orders placed by the customers. Management Business Center System supports the World Wide Web access to the internet.

CRM Minitrex Data
The Minitrex organization has three independent departments. The finance department, the sales and marketing department and the insurance department carry out their transactions on their individual operations. The customer accesses the Minitrex and services through contacting the four areas of customer service. The customers have the freedom of accessing any customer service. The vital data and information concerning the customer contacts information are not evenly distributed between the departments. The process of disseminating and sharing the information among then departments is not defined. The Minitrex organization encounter data and information redundancy resulting from customer’s inability to use a single point service point. The data stored in the Credit Administration System is similar to the data stored in Management Business Center System. The data and information stored by the processing unit lead to data and information redundancy. The departments have no developed mode of data and information sharing. Only a sing department has properly developed a system of education through the online network. The Management Business Center System has access to thru web services hence the customers can access the services through the online services.

Explanation for Calling a customer and Failing to know he is a Customer

An individual at Minitrex can call a customer and fail to know if he is a customer due to lack of sharing the customer contact data and information. The organization has no copy or way of accessing customer contact data and information. The situation results in the organization employee failing to understand their current customer. The poor communication results to the major operation of the company failing to get accomplished due to poor infrastructure of communication (Piercy, & Lane, 2009). The members from a different department like the finance and members of the department of insurance should shares data, and the information is containing the customer contacts. However, the failure may lead to the Minitrex workers calling and failing to identify the customer.

Explanation of failing to understand that the customer had called for the third time

The reason for failing to understand that the customer called for the third time is due to the lack of clear customer registration system. The communication m system at Minitrex has no way of recording the new customers within the organization. The customer contact processing unit doesn’t have the data and information for unregistered individuals. The data and information stored is only that exist within the database. When a call is made and happens that the one calling is not a registered customer, then the system has no record to indicate how many times the person has called through the system. The fact that the individual is new he is also new to the system and people when he is not recorded in the system database.

The Process of Implementing the Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

The Customer relationship management helps in making the general tasks and the functions involving the customers easily to operate for the customers. Jon Bettman should focus on implementing clear customer platform that shares data and information of the customers evenly to all individuals (Farkas, 2011). Denny Khan should design a dynamic communication system that should facilitate the customer data being disseminated across all departments. Denny Khan should implement the automation of the operations by designing an online platform that supports the customers (Schniederjans, et al…, 2012). The system should ensure that the customer can access the services and the functionalities of the Minitrex organization at any time. The company services should get availed to the clients to ensure that all the operations have been automated. The CRM is also achieved through making a simplified system that enables the customers to receive services at one point. The organization should concentrate the business operations to a customer care service n to promote the issue of standardization. Standard services are well offered by having only one point of service delivery (Peppers, & Rogers, 2011).

All departments should be linked by a single cloud-based architecture where all departments should access the company data and information. The cloud computing technology should get applied in the Minitrex Company to facilitate easier access and to unite the departments. Uniting the department shall lead to better terms among Mariella Hopkins, Harold Blumfen, and Jon Bettmann. The togetherness would promote the customers also to emulate the unity of the company. The organization should also avail the goods and services always to the customer have to ensure that they maintain them always. The platforms such as the social media and solution solving platforms should be implemented on the company website for entertaining the customers for social networking. The solutions and feedback to the clients should be made online through chat box (Fjermestad, & Romano, 2006).