1,720,999 research outputs found
Approaches and Solutions to Hospital Emergency Department Overcrowding Including Failure Mode and Effect Analysis as a Risk Assessment Technique of Real-time Locating System
No full textEmergency Departments (ED) are highly dynamic environments comprising complex
multi-dimensional patient-care processes. In recent decades, there has been increased
pressure to improve ED services, while taking into account various aspects such as clinical
quality, operational efficiency, and cost performance. Overcrowding has become a major
barrier to receiving a proper and timely emergency care in many acute hospitals throughout
the world. Patients often face long waiting times to be seen and treated. Those who require
admission may even wait longer. The scope of this research is to focus on ED factors that
lead to overcrowding and their management. Technology is being cited as one of the
management tools, specifically the utilization of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) for
tracking patients as their journey progresses through an ED.
Like any technology, RFID has potential and pitfalls. The author chose to use Failure
Mode and Effect Analysis (FMEA) as a tool to explore the possible failures of RFID
technology as it is utilized in one of the ED in Riyadh Military Hospital (RMH). This
particular ED has been used as a case study to explore those failures and, with the use of
FMEA, propose a set of recommendations to address those failures and improve the design
and implementation of RFID. The experience of RMH-ED was explored through interviews
and a survey in which 100 participants took part. The survey touched upon various aspects of
this experience. This was due to the various roles of the surveyed staff who were involved
with this technology. These roles ranged from front line clinical staff to administrative staff,
management staff and technical support staff. Data analysis showed convincing evidence of
the positive impact RFID had on managing ED overcrowding. However, and as expected,
there are some pitfalls and failures that FMEA helped identifying and suggested potential
solutions to them. RFID is a small link in the chain of other technological innovations and
solutions. It is by no means capable of solving the problems associated with ED
overcrowding by itself. Most of the search carried out by the author identified large variation
in approaches to dealing with the issue of ED overcrowding. Those ranged from applying
more human resources to altering the pathways of managing patients journey through
healthcare system to applying more intermediate layers of management to ease the pressure
of the Emergency departments. Other approaches included some aspects of technology such
as development of early warning systems that have not been widely adopted and remained as
isolated efforts
The Design and Implementation of Manufacturing Infrastructures
Get PDFThis work addresses the problem of difficulties in the implementation of Computer Aided Production Management systems, and presents a methodology for their implementation which significantly improves on current practice. The methodology provides a structured approach which leads the company through a series of strategic business decisions which establish the context within which the solution must operate. The work focusses attention upon the design of the whole system with respect to the relationship between computerised functions and the infrastructure of human elements which facilitate and govern the system\u27s operation. A model of the tasks involved in production management is presented. The model is used to structure decisions relating to the design of the infrastructure. The research work described proceeded in two distinct stages. In the first stage the author participated with other researchers who jointly developed the framework of the process methodology for CAPM implementation. This stage provides the context for the development of the task model approach to the design of the system, which represents the author\u27s individual contribution (see section 1.8). The task model can be used as a tool to identify the options available for the way each task within production management may be executed, giving the user a basis for the design of a particular system while not advocating any particular solution. By the use of this approach the user is encouraged to consider the options available and to adopt an integrated approach which looks at all areas of production management, not only those for which there is a pressing problem or a tempting solution. This work results in a contribution to the development of the process methodology, the development of a tool in the CAPM task model and a review of the factors involved in the design of a system including both human and computerised elements
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Supply chain systems::life cycle thinking and analysis
No full textWith the growing impact of global supply chains on resource efficiency, environmental stewardship, and sustainability, supply chain researchers must extend the scope of inquiry towards understanding the life cycle impacts of production and consumption. Indeed, life cycle decisions are central to the viability of supply chains, not least because actors are accountable to society, investors, other stakeholders for the economic, environmental, and social implications of the resource production and consumption life cycles that underpin competitive supply chain performance. This chapter aims to reflect critically on the relevance of life cycle thinking in supply chains to introduce supply chain researchers to the theoretical underpinnings, rationale, application, and methodological steps for executing life cycle assessments in supply chain research
Business processes and strategic framework for inspection in remanufacturing
No full textA crucial stage of the remanufacturing process is the inspection procedure. Surveys carried out in the automotive remanufacturing sector show that the industry is concerned about its need for such a large amount of specialist skills. Despite this, there has been little research into what is actually involved in the inspection process and what different strategies are used in different companies carrying out remanufacturing operations.
This thesis presents case based research that was carried out on the inspection procedures of sixteen companies. These included companies from all industries ranging from those in the automotive and defence industries, to those in consumer electronics and IT. The cases range from small companies remanufacturing a few units per month to those with established remanufacturing production lines.
This project has created two key contributions to theory. The first is a theory for remanufacturing strategy. A framework for remanufacturing strategy has been produced showing how different strategies are used to remanufacture items with different characteristics. The second is a generic inspection process which breaks down each inspection procedure within remanufacturing to its main objectives and methods.
These, practical and applicable, contributions are of vital interest to researchers who can use them to enhance their knowledge of inspection procedures within remanufacturing and will act as a road map for future research into this new and exciting area.Engineering & Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC
Variations on the Author
Get PDF“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Get PDFWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Sustainable supply chain management and theory: taking stock and looking ahead
No full textSustainable Supply Chain Management (SSCM) scholars are constantly pressured to demonstrate the theoretical value of their work. In response, academic work often produces a superficial dialogue with theory and most papers are actually atheoretical even when trying to sustain they are not. It is crucial to move away from this strange relationship to theory and reconnect with theorising as a craft within the discipline. In this chapter, we propose a categorisation of theorising efforts, which we use to review the SSCM literature between 2014 to 2016 and contrast this period with our previous work that covered mid-1990s until 2013. We show that despite advancements both in the share of theoretically informed papers and in the breadth of theories, the field is still excessively based on theory borrowing and thus we still lack a robust and original theoretical framing to SSCM. We offer some reflections on how to address this problem
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