Project Plan Overview

Introduction

The Department of Environmental Health is part of the College of Medicine at the University of Cincinnati. The department is located in a state-of-the-art research facility equipped with the latest technologies in environmental chemistry, aerosol physics, genomics, and molecular genetics. The department offers graduate degrees and medical residencies. Its graduate programs are in Environmental Genetics and Molecular Toxicology, Environmental and Occupational Hygiene, Environmental and Occupational Medicine, and Epidemiology and Biostatistics. Within the Department of Environmental Health future graduates find careers ranging from the practical, such as occupational medicine, to basic research into how genetic and environmental factors affect susceptibility to disease. All of the graduates of the department share a common goal: to improve the quality of life by understanding the causes of environmental damage and identifying the effective methods of prevention.

Project Description

The Department of Environmental Health at the University of Cincinnati is divided into four divisions. The four divisions consist of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Environmental and Occupational Hygiene, Occupational and Environmental Medicine, and Environmental Genetics and Molecular Toxicology. Each division is headed by a division administrator who is in charge of the business aspects of their perspective division. (Epidemiology and Biostatistics along with Occupational and Environmental Medicine is under one division administrator due to the small size of these divisions). Currently, the division administrators have offices in different areas within the department and the business office which services the entire department is located elsewhere. This project proposes that the business office be revamped to include the division administrators to better serve the needs of its clients including, students, professors, staff and a variety of vendors. The new project will include slight construction being done to the current business office which will include all three division administrators.

Problem/Result Statement

The Department of Environmental Health is part of the College of Medicine at the University of Cincinnati. The department is rich in ethnic and racial diversity and is located in the state of the art Kettering Laboratory. Since the inception of the department in the early 1970's the division administrators have been located in different parts of the Kettering laboratory. Within the past five years there have been extreme changes in the executive staff of the department. There has been an interim director for three years and within the last year, the department has acquired a new department director. Under the new director's leadership I am proposing that there be a revamping of the business office to include the three division administrators. This project will achieve the objective of all the customers that come through the department to be serviced through one office meeting a variety of needs in one place. The proposed project will improve educational, research and business goals and initiatives, there by facilitating the fair treatment of all the people the department services. This will potentially create a well serviced department with minimal complaints from faculty, staff and students.

Mission Justification

The goal at the University of Cincinnati is that every employee provides quality service in accordance with the expectations of each individual department and that each employee will find enjoyment in performing his or her job. By reconstructing the business office to include the division administrators, the service provided by staff member will meet the needs of the customers it serves. Once this project has begun it will meet technology requirements in support of implementation, compliance, monitoring and inspection for existing and emerging grants, contracts and agreements. This project will also allow the division administrators to understand how the business office is run in regards to how revenue and expenses flow throughout the department. Efforts under this project will also support the director's office and other departments within the College of Medicine and the university as a whole. With the completion of this project current and emerging technologies will be properly assessed to provide a continuing basis for research and development decisions, evaluate existing programs, and provide the technical input required to make compliance judgments and support the evolvement of the department. With this project being undertaken selected technologies will be developed and demonstrated to support confidence building measures to ensure that capabilities to monitor, comply with, and implement business practices and agreements are available when required.

High-level Scope

The process to redesign the business office to include the division administrators begins with the receipt of how much it will cost for the reconstruction to include three more people and ends with the completion of four additional cubicles. The process includes sending the quote to the business manager who then passes it to the department chair. The process does not include the manufacturing activities required to make the product, or the billing process. Organizations involved include order processing, logistics and shipping, manufacturing and accounting. The customer contact software is not part of the project scope. The project objective is to do a partial redesign of the business office and fulfill the processes and systems to increase customer satisfaction and reduce operational costs. Conditions of satisfaction include:

* project completed in 120 days

* employee satisfaction with work tools and