System Thinking

Assignment 1.2

1. Define a system of your choice
2. Explain why it should be regarded as a system
3. Describe a hypothetical problem, condition, or situation that is adversely impacting the system.
4. Discuss how systems thinking may help address and perhaps resolve # 3.  You may apply or adapt any of the “strands” of critical thinking discussed in the reading, or you may develop your own.  

According to the dictionary the System thinking is a process of understanding how things, regarded as systems,  influence one another with a whole.  Example of system thinking  includes ecosystems in which various elements such as air, water, movement, plants, and animals work together to survive.  In organizations,the  system consists of people, structures, and processes that work together to make the organization strong or weak.   System thinking is used for testing the new ideas in engineering.  It allows people to  understand the social  and mechanical systems.  

System thinking is very effective to use for problems solving and limiting mistakes. System thinking is used  effectively to deal with problems and raise thinking level and create results.  I currently work in the finance department as a senior financial analyst at Cardinal Health.  In my department we are using SAP, Mediclick, Data insight and Pyxis  systems for  invoices, billing, and data processing.   There have been many problems that affect these system’s abilities from human errors. For example: Pyxis PAR system we are using to manage our inventory at the hospital.  .  This system is supposed  to  help  reduce errors and improving accurate information. But when a nurse gets the product out of Pyxis station, if she  forgets  to enter the number  or sometime enters  the wrong  unit of measure could lead to wrong inventory calculation in our book and charge to our  customers  incorrectly.    Another example,   there was a problem when exporting the data  report from Pyxis,  which missing information , $238K of the inventory was missing due to the system was not working properly.   AS finance people, we work carefully and do a lot analysis to make sure all these errors fixed in-house  timely.  The Communication system is a good tool to fix all these issues.  

Overview of Systems Thinking. Aronson, Daniel. Retrieved from https://cyberactive.bellevue.edu/bbcswebdav/courses/MBA608-T302_2155_1/Overview%20of%20Systems%20Thinking.pdf

Leveraging Change: The Power of Systems Thinking in Action. Stroh, Peter David. Retrieved from https://cyberactive.bellevue.edu/bbcswebdav/courses/MBA608-T302_2155_1/The%20Power%20of%20Systems%20Thinking%20in%20Action.pdf

1.     System thinking can be used to repair these communication issues and lack of understanding between team members by looking at the root of the problem. The issue here may not have been that the technical specialist did not review the item, but that it did not reach his desk for review. There could also be an issue with an misunderstanding of what is each team member does and the steps in their process. System thinking can be used to bring this problem to light and figure out the best way to rectify the situation.