Category: Continuous Improvement

Continuous Improvement: Faster, simpler hotel check-in using smartphone to improve customer experience by removing inefficient pain-point - the check-in/out process

11/9/2014

How are you using technology to improve your customer's experience by replacing pain-points with faster, cheaper, simpler options? Put customer needs first to identify the pain points. Then test tech to figure it out.

“A lot of our members are saying, ‘I want to skip the front desk,’ ” said Geraldine Calpin, senior vice president and Hilton’s global head of digital. “It’s superefficient,” he said. “Hold up your iPhone and, zoom, you’re in.” Hotels say their research tells them that the prospect of being able to skip line at front desk is appealing to business travelers, well any traveler really.

“I’ve stayed in a lot of hotels where, at the end of the day, you’re tired and you’re waiting in line,” Mr. Monk said. Being able to go straight to his room saved him time and hassle, he said. “It made everything a lot easier.”

Starwood offering smartphone key apps at 10 hotels in its Aloft, Element and W hotel brands, including 5 in US.

Hyatt Hotels and Resorts started testing mobile keys at 1 hotel in New York City. Pilot expected to conclude early 2015. This quarter,

Hilton Worldwide starting test of mobile keys at 10 hotels in US, a project expects to finish early 2015. By middle of 2015, loyalty program members in US visiting Hilton, Waldorf-Astoria, Conrad and Canopy by Hilton brands will be able to use phones as keys.

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/04/business/hotels-test-turning-guests-smartphonoes-into-room-keys-.html

CKB Solutions is all about real solutions for the real world. To learn how we can help your business, contact Greg Kovacic in Hong Kong.

Continuous Improvement: Faster, cheaper medical diagnostic tests

11/7/2014

Better, faster, simpler, cheaper diagnostics will be lifesaving during any virus outbreak. Speed of diagnosis means speed in treatment, and increased likelihood of patient recovering. Using current Ebola outbreak as example: Currently, most Ebola diagnoses involve taking blood sample to specialized laboratory. Labs typically use polymerase chain reaction, or PCR, machine to detect viral genetic material. Turnaround time is often a problem, especially in emerging markets like West African nations hardest hit by Ebola. PCR test take 4-6 hours, but delivery of samples and communication of results can cause delays of several days.

PCR machines also expensive and run on electricity, which can be problematic in emerging or developing markets like West Africa. It can take up to 3 days after symptoms appear for virus to reach detectable levels, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. So even if early sample is negative, later specimen may be needed to rule out Ebola, according to CDC.

Now, companies, government agencies and nonprofits focusing on development of diagnostics that can detect Ebola virus sooner after infection and deliver results more quickly after sample taken and closer to patient “point of care.”

Some of companies are designing low-cost tests with Africa in mind, but need government agencies for financial support to develop and deploy. Some machines will be expensive, and not clear how widely they’ll be made available outside of wealthy countries as opposed to Africa where needed the most.

BioFire’s FilmArray uses PCR technology, but can deliver results in about 1 hour on premises of any treatment facility that has one of their machines, which cost around US$39,000 apiece. Many US hospitals already have the machines, which were approved to diagnose pathogens including those causing gastrointestinal and respiratory diseases. FDA’s emergency clearance for Ebola testing should allow about 300 hospitals in the US that already own machines to use them to make Ebola diagnoses, and BioFire is expecting additional demand thanks to new Ebola use.

Denver-based Corgenix Medical Corp. is speeding up development of portable Ebola test kit designed to deliver results from drop of blood in about 10 minutes. It uses “lateral-flow” technology, which is similar to home pregnancy test, and doesn’t require electricity or machine to process sample. Paper strip displays one blue line if no virus is detected, two blue lines if virus is detected, and no lines if test didn’t work properly. Corgenix is working with Tulane University in New Orleans and other partners in the Viral Hemorrhagic Fever Consortium, with funding from NIH. Researchers testing Corgenix device, including in West Africa, but haven’t gathered enough data to apply for approval by either FDA or WHO. Corgenix expects test would cost about US$10 to $15, and NGOs would help pay for deployment.

Chembio Diagnostics Systems, Medford, NY, maker of rapid diagnostics for HIV and syphilis, formed partnership with Integrated BioTherapeutics in Gaithersburg, Md., to develop point-of-care test for Ebola. Plans to use substances known as “reagents,” developed by Integrated BioTherapeutics, for test. Goal is develop test that uses drop of blood drawn by finger-stick and delivers results in 20 minutes or less, costing <US10 per test.

San Diego-based Genalyte developing Ebola diagnostic that uses silicon chip to test drop of blood drawn with pinprick. Chip is processed through 15-inch-wide machine that delivers results in about 10 minutes.

Rapid diagnostics using oral fluid also could be useful tool. OraSure Technologies, Bethlehem, Pa. maker of oral test for HIV, exploring whether can develop rapid oral test for Ebola.

Source: http://online.wsj.com/articles/race-is-on-to-detect-ebola-more-quickly-1415213428

CKB Solutions is all about real solutions for the real world. To learn how we can help your business, contact Greg Kovacic in Hong Kong.

Continuous Improvement: Potato genetically engineered to eliminate potentially harmful ingredient that emerges in high heat required for French fries and potato chips approved for commercial planting by US Department of Agriculture

11/7/2014

Innovation and disruption are different sides to the same coin. How do you help people do things in a faster, simpler and/or cheaper way? The answer is the key to creating opportunities from obstacles.

J. R. Simplot Company, based in Boise, Idaho, one of US’s largest potato producers and major supplier of frozen french fries to McDonald’s, developed the potato by altering its DNA so less of chemical acrylamide is produced when potato is fried. Acrylamide has been shown to cause cancer in rodents and is suspected human carcinogen. Newly designed potato resists bruising. Resistance to bruising is characteristic long sought by commercial users of potatoes because damage, which usually occurs during storage and shipment, makes them unusable.

Source: www.nytimes.com/2014/11/08/business/genetically-modified-potato-from-simplot-approved-by-usda.html

CKB Solutions is all about real solutions for the real world. To learn how we can help your business, contact Greg Kovacic in Hong Kong.

Continuous Improvement: Faster, simpler hotel check-in using smartphone to improve customer experience by removing inefficient pain-point - the check-in/out process

Continuous Improvement: Faster, cheaper medical diagnostic tests

Continuous Improvement: Potato genetically engineered to eliminate potentially harmful ingredient that emerges in high heat required for French fries and potato chips approved for commercial planting by US Department of Agriculture

Author

Categories