Forensic Science Laboratory Benchmarking
The FORESIGHT Manual
Max M. Houck, Paul J. Speaker
- 344 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
Forensic Science Laboratory Benchmarking
The FORESIGHT Manual
Max M. Houck, Paul J. Speaker
About This Book
Forensic Science Laboratory Benchmarking: The FORESIGHT Manual takes a step-by-step instructional approach to utilizing FORESIGHT data, detailing how labs can participate in the process to improve efficiencies. The FORESIGHT Projectâa business benchmarking process for forensic service providersâwas created in 2008 to collect and report data while offering improvement to processes through analysis, comparisons, and best practice evaluations. The program has grown to include more than 200 participating forensic laboratories worldwide.
FORESIGHT offers the capability for labs to improve core functions, provide and benefit from metrics, and thus, improve the labs capabilities and functioning for the public good, while maintaining their often limited, fixed budgets. Due to ever-increasing caseloads, forensic laboratories are constantly plagued by backlogged caseworkâcases submitted to the laboratory but not yet worked. This leads to inefficiencies, delays, and unhappy agencies expecting timely results. Unfortunately, even if a lab's slates were wiped clean and the backlog were erased, many of the inefficient processesâthat created the backlogâwould still be in place. Eventually, and inevitably, the lab would develop a new backlog.
Unique coverage and features:
- Presents critical and proven cutting-edge measures to utilize FORESIGHT data improve laboratory testing, operational efficiency, and policies without added additional costs.
- Synthesizes the data input from more than 200 labs and a decade's worth of analytics to illustrate process improvements and the advantages of participating.
- Outlines how to develop data-driven responses to solve current and future problems.
Forensic Science Laboratory Benchmarking will be of interest to quality assurance specialists, economists, supervisors in the parent agencies of the labs, managers at all levels of any of the hundreds of public laboratories around the world, and anyone concerned about the effectiveness and efficiency of laboratory testing. As an operational guide, the book provides a helpful roadmap to help public science agencies and forensic labs analyze how they operate, improve on what works, and change what doesn't to better meet their mission and serve their community's goals.