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Since the start of the Optimize NIH initiative, the ORS Office of Quality Management (OQM) has taken on an active leadership and collaborative role.

In December 2017, NIH launched Optimize NIH to improve organizational effectiveness and performance in support of the NIH mission. NIH Deputy Director for Management and co-chair of the Optimize NIH initiative, Dr. Alfred Johnson, recognized the valuable contribution OQM could make to this initiative and "recruited" the team to participate in this effort.

Dr. Johnson and OQM Director, Antonio R. Rodriguez, have worked on many improvement efforts in ORS over the years.  "OQM contributes skills in industrial and systems engineering and quality management," said Mr. Rodriguez. "And we take a systems-wide approach to analyzing processes, organizational systems, and developing recommendations for improvement." 

For 2018, Optimize NIH focused on achieving efficiencies in committee management, ethics, and Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) functions through enterprise-wide improvements. To better help NIH understand these business processes, OQM Director Rodriguez formulated an approach using computer simulation and process mapping to develop recommendations for improvement. OQM team members received NIH Director's awards for their contributions.

OQM Team Leader, Joseph Wolski, noted, "Optimize NIH presented a great opportunity for OQM to contribute our skills in process and organizational improvement, and computer simulation to assist with these efforts."  The OQM team developed a computer simulation that was used to better understand resources needed to process FOIA requests and how to best deploy those resources NIH-wide.  "The modeling approach developed for NIH FOIA could be used in a wide-variety of business processes throughout the Federal Government," said Mr. Wolski.

OQM Industrial Engineer, Marco Narciso, and Industrial and Organizational Psychologist, Janice Rouiller, worked with a wide range of functional experts in ethics and committee management across NIH to map processes and identify ways to achieve improvements.  "We began mapping each process the teams identified, worked with trans-NIH team members to drill down into the way the work gets accomplished, and provided a sound framework to help identify opportunities for improvement," Ms. Rouiller said.

This project has not been without challenges, though. "The approaches we advocate really force looking inward at existing ways of doing things thoughtfully and sometimes critically," Mr. Wolski said. "This sort of analysis can be eye-opening, and recommendations sometimes conflict with the current way of doing things. Being open to making change is critical."

OQM is currently collaborating with the Optimize NIH Acquisitions team on a survey to help identify improvement opportunities across the NIH community.  Mr. Rodriguez added, "We plan to continue to contribute and make available our skillset to the Optimize NIH team and other areas to help the NIH achieve our mission efficiently and effectively.