A Framework for Prioritizing Opportunities of Improvement in the Context of Business Excellence Model in Healthcare Organization

In today\u27s world, the healthcare sector is facing challenges to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of its operations. More and more improvement projects are being adopted to enhance healthcare services, making it more patient-centric, and enabling better cost control. Healthcare organizations strive to identify and carry out such improvement initiatives to sustain their businesses and gain competitive advantage. Seeking to reach a higher operational level of excellence, healthcare organizations utilize business excellence criteria to conduct assessment and identify organizational strengths and weaknesses. However, while such assessments routinely identify numerous areas for potential improvement, it is not feasible to conduct all improvement projects simultaneously due to limitations in time, capital, and personnel, as well as conflict with other organization\u27s projects or strategic objectives. An effective prioritization and selection approach is valuable in that it can assist the organization to optimize its available resources and outcomes. This study attempts to enable such an approach by developing a framework to prioritize improvement opportunities in healthcare in the context of the business excellence model through the integration of the Fuzzy Delphi Method and Fuzzy Interface System. To carry out the evaluation process, the framework consists of two phases. The first phase utilizes Fuzzy Delphi Method to identify the most significant factors that should be considered in healthcare for electing the improvement projects. The FDM is employed to handle the subjectivity of human assessment. The research identifies potential factors for evaluating projects, then utilizes FDM to capture expertise knowledge. The first round in FDM is intended to validate the identified list of factors from experts; which includes collecting additional factors from experts that the literature might have overlooked. When an acceptable level of consensus has been reached, a second round is conducted to obtain experts\u27 and other related stakeholders\u27 opinions on the appropriate weight of each factor\u27s importance. Finally, FDM analyses eliminate or retain the criteria to produce a final list of critical factors to select improvement projects. The second phase in the framework attempts to prioritize improvement initiatives using the Hierarchical Fuzzy Interface System. The Fuzzy Interface System combines the experts\u27 ratings for each improvement opportunity with respect to the factors deemed critical to compute the priority index. In the process of calculating the priority index, the framework allows the estimation of other intermediate indices including: social, financial impact, strategical, operational feasibility, and managerial indices. These indices bring an insight into the improvement opportunities with respect to each framework\u27s dimensions. The framework allows for a reduction of the bias in the assessment by developing a knowledge based on the perspectives of multiple experts

Maximizing Financial Benefit of Lean Six Sigma Projects Through Optimized Selection Criteria

As evolving threats across the globe keep pace with increasing budget constraints, the US Army’s major subordinate commands and their sub-organizations are constantly challenged to do more with less. Resources such as human capital, information technology, facilities, and budgeted funding are stretched as thin as ever, while requirements to serve the Warfighter remain paramount. Each dollar of financial benefit gained through cost reduction efforts at the US Army can affect the Warfighter directly. Budgeted money saved or avoided is reprogrammed both locally and atop the hierarchy at the Department of Treasury to serve the Warfighter better. Ordinal Logistic Regression was performed to analyze the selection criteria and financial benefit results from Lean Six Sigma projects executed within the US Army’s Tank-Automotive and Armaments Lifecycle Management Command (TACOM LCMC). TACOM LCMC Headquarters, its depots, arsenals, Program Executive Offices, and logistics center reported over $366,000,000 in total Continuous Performance Improvement (CPI) financial benefit in fiscal year 16. Seventeen selection criteria from an array of scholarly articles, textbooks, and proprietary industry sources were analyzed retroactively against TACOM’s FY16 results. The study produced a number of organization-specific results, as well as a modular process that can be used in any industry to analyze project selection criteria and their effect on an ordinal output. In the case of all FY16 TACOM LCMC projects, it was found that projects initially selected with the factors of a predicted high financial benefit or strong internal documentation of poor performance led to the highest probability of yielding$1M or more in financial benefit. Projects selected with factors of a three month timeline or internal-only focus led to lower financial benefit results. This analysis was also performed on non-gated LSS projects executed within the TACOM LCMC’s depots and arsenals. This analysis case resulted in the significant factors of having the right non-human capital resources in place or the prediction of a high benefit corresponding to a positive odds ratio, and again the restriction of a three month timeline which corresponded to a negative odds ratio with respect to achieving the highest financial benefit. Additionally, the Army-specific output measure of readiness was analyzed across all projects. This study found that factors such as a predicted high financial benefit, strong leadership buy in, external gap-focused, and the consideration of readiness yielded a greater probability of achieving the highest levels of readiness when a given project was complete. Factors such as stretch goals and internal gap-focused decreased the likelihood of positively affecting readiness. The specific results and underlying process presented in this Praxis will enable US Army CPI leaders to make better informed decisions which will result in achieving maximum financial benefit for the betterment of the Warfighter, the Army, Department of Defense, and United States

Aggregating group MCDM problems using a fuzzy Delphi model for personnel performance appraisal

Personnel performance appraisal is a tool towards achieving organization goals. Its main focus is to increase the abilities, merits and growth of personnel. We looked at the personnel performance appraisal as an element of group decision making model in which personnel are evaluated from different points of view. A fuzzy Delphi method and linguistic terms represented by triangular fuzzy numbers were applied to bring out qualitative and quantitative attributes and assess attributes weights and relative importance of evaluation group's viewpoints. We developed MCDM models for group personnel performance appraisal. All the known MCDM methods have their own advantages and drawbacks and therefore yield different results based on their various techniques. As a consequence, we presented a model for aggregation of the results of MCDM models

Seleção e Análise do Perfil da Produção Científica sobre o tema Seleção de Projetos.

La relevancia del proceso de Selección de Proyectos para las organizaciones ha despertado el interés de diversos investigadores para estudiar el tema y dar soporte a los gestores. En ese sentido, con la finalidad de conocer los estudios ya publicados, la presente investigación selecciona una cartera bibliográfica sobre el tema Selección de Proyectos y analiza el perfil de esas publicaciones. Se trata de una investigación descriptiva, cuya recolección de datos fue realizada en el portal de Periódicos de la CAPES. La búsqueda resultó en una muestra de 23 artículos, que componen la cartera bibliográfica analizada. Como resultados, se destacan: i) Gestión & Producción, Producción y Expert Systems with Applications son los periódicos de destaque; ii) los autores más prolíficos son Elko J. Kleinschmidt y Prasanta K. Dey, por ser los autores de la cartera bibliográfica más citada en las referencias bibliográficas de los artículos; iii) entre los artículos analizados, tres se destacan por su relevancia académica: Product innovativeness from the firm's perspective: its dimensions and their relation with project selection and performance; A fuzzy AHP application in government-sponsored R&D project selection e Integrates project evaluation and selection using multiple-attribute decision-making technique.The relevance of the project selection process for organizations has aroused the interest of many researchers in studying the subject, to support the managers. In this sense, in order to know more about the already published studies, this research selected a bibliographic portfolio on the Project Selection topic and analyses the profile of these publications. This is a descriptive research, whose data collection was performed at CAPES Journals’ website. The search resulted in a sample of 23 articles that comprise the analyzed bibliographic portfolio. The following results can be highlighted: i) Gestão & Produção, Produção and Expert Systems with Applications are the journals that stood out; ii) the most prolific authors are Elko J. Kleinschmidt and Prasanta K. Dey, since they are the most quoted authors in the bibliographic references of the bibliographic portfolio; iii) among the analyzed articles, three stand out for their academic relevance: Product innovativeness from the firm's perspective: its dimensions and their relation with project selection and performance; A fuzzy AHP application in government-sponsored R&D project selection and Integrates project evaluation and selection using multiple-attribute decision-making technique.A relevância do processo de Seleção de Projetos para as organizações tem despertado o interesse de diversos pesquisadores em estudar o tema, para dar suporte aos gestores. Nesse sentido, com a finalidade de conhecer os estudos já publicados, a presente pesquisa seleciona um portfólio bibliográfico sobre o tema Seleção de Projetos e analisa o perfil dessas publicações. Trata-se de uma pesquisa descritiva, cuja coleta de dados foi realizada no portal de Periódicos da CAPES. A busca resultou numa amostra de 23 artigos, que compõem o portfólio bibliográfico analisado. Como resultados, destacam-se: i) Gestão & Produção, Produção e Expert Systems with Applications são os periódicos de destaque; ii) os autores mais prolíficos são Elko J. Kleinschmidt e Prasanta K. Dey, por serem os autores do portfólio bibliográfico mais citado nas referências bibliográficas dos artigos; iii) dentre os artigos analisados, três se destacam por sua relevência acadêmica: Product innovativeness from the firm's perspective: its dimensions and their relation with project selection and performance; A fuzzy AHP application in government-sponsored R&D project selection e Integrates project evaluation and selection using multiple-attribute decision-making technique

Fuzzy Multiple Criteria Decision Making Approach to Assess the Project Quality Management in Project

AbstractProject quality management is all of the processes and activities needed to determine and achieve project quality. It includes the processes required to ensure that the project will satisfy the needs for which it was undertaken. Based on the identified evaluation criteria, a hierarchical structure of three dimensions and fifteen criteria is constructed, and a systematic approach with fuzzy ANP (FANP) was employed to assess the relative importance rates and rankings of these criteria. Discussions for the results are made and a brief conclusion is proposed. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to evaluation project quality management in project. The results found that there were interactive relations between all the criteria, where the dimension of “Quality planning” was the most influential dimensions; Furthermore, criteria “Project management plan”, “Project Scope”, and “Quality management plan” have the higher influences among each dimension, so we suggest to consider them as the major steps to promote the quality of project management

An integrated approach of AHP-DEMATEL methods applied for the selection of allied hospitals in outpatient service

Nowadays, the citizens are more aware of high-quality medical care than ever. They pay much attention to medical treatment safety, instructions from physicians, and the overall service quality performed by the hospital. To manage a hospital successfully, the important goals are to attract and then retain as many patients as possible by meeting potential demands of various kinds of the patients. In this context the decision making process is important in order to achieve a strategic decision and strategy. When the decision making problem occurs there is usually a limited number of possible alternatives but a large number of criteria according to which the optimal solution is selected. It is important to use an appropriate approach. This study presents a hybrid methodological approach based on the Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) method and Analytic Hierarchy process method to define the best allied hospital for an integrated network of outpatient service. The goal of this paper is to present a methodological approach and a practical application of hybrid method in a real case study

Quality management maturity: Its application and evaluation in Chinese private equipment manufacturing enterprises

Although China’s private equipment manufacturing enterprises have made significant progress, quality problems still occur because of the weak quality foundation. Therefore, it is necessary to scientifically evaluate the quality management of equipment manufacturing enterprises, identify the deficiencies and defects of quality management, and provide systematic and targeted countermeasures and suggestions. The thesis conducted text analysis on the quality award self-assessment materials of three companies and constructed an evaluation model for private equipment manufacturing enterprises including four sub-systems (management process, support process, customeroriented process and result) through three-level coding. Meanwhile, in order to empirically test the quality management maturity evaluation model of private equipment enterprises and explore the relationships between the sub-systems, the thesis selected 6 private equipment enterprises located in Guizhou province as the pre-survey objects and selected 80 private manufacturing enterprises located in Beijing, Zhejiang province, Guizhou province, Hunan province, and Sichuan province as the formal survey objects to carry out hypothesis test. Moreover, the thesis developed a maturity evaluation scale. Applying the scale to the case GXTF company, the thesis proposed improvement strategies for GXTF company. In theory, the thesis enriched the research on the quality management of private equipment manufacturing enterprises. In practice, the thesis provided reference for maturity evaluation, and provided an updated version for GJB9001C quality management accreditation institutions.Embora as empresas de manufaturação privadas da China têm feito progressos significativos, existem ainda problemas de qualidade uma vez que as fundações para a qualidade são débeis. Por isso mesmo, é relevante avaliar de forma científica a gestão da qualidade das empresas de manufaturação, bem como, identificar os defeitos e as deficiências da gestão da qualidade nessas mesmas e, por fim, apresentar sugestões e medidas de melhoria. Esta tese conduziu um estudo com base em procedimentos de auto-avaliação para concurso de prémios de qualidade fornecidos por três empresas e construiu um modelo de avaliação da maturidade da gestão da qualidade com quatro subsistemas (processo de gestão, processo de suporte, processo de foco no cliente e resultados) e três níveis de desempenho. Com o intuito de o testar empiricamente, foram selecionadas 6 empresas particulares de manufaturação da província de Guizhou para o pré-teste. E ainda, foram selecionadas 80 empresas sediadas em Beijing, nas províncias de Zhejiang, de Guizhou, de Hunan e de Sichuan para formalmente testar as hipóteses do odelo. Por outro lado, concebeu-se um guião para análise de processos de maturidade da gestão de qualidade e foi selecionada a empresa GXTF para este estudo. Contribuímos para a teoria com o enriquecimento da investigação da gestão da qualidade em empresas de manufaturação. E, contribuímos para a prática da gestão, com um novo modelo de avaliação da maturidade da gestão da qualidade e ainda de elementos para a atualização da norma GJB9001Cl da gestão da qualidade

Identification and Prioritization of Risk and Its Effect of the Renewable Energy Life Cycle Based on Performance and Risk Indicators

Risk management consists of two aspects of risk control and risk assessment in the electricity market. So, risk control should cover the risk and work out of the way of optimal investment portfolios. Thus, the aim of this research is producing solar electricity life cycle profitability. First to identify existing risks in the production of electricity using Delphi technique between 300 experts in 15 Powerhouse. Then, the grey ANP model was the adoption of the New Energy Organization of Iran. The number of risk factors were collected by subject literature in renewable energy in Iran that have analyzed and selected the high-risk factors by ANP GREY method. Finally, to examine the life cycle of solar power, the authors analyzed financial indicators and the life cycle’s factors which relates to performance and risk variables, then, the Regression model used in three stages of life cycle. Finally, the result provides incentives for the energy system to support production renewable electricity and aid to increase the profitability of the renewable energy cycle

Analytical Quality Control in Shipping Operation Using Six Sigma Principles

A large number of benefits achieved through the successful implementation of Six Sigma programmes in different industries have been documented. However, very little research has been conducted on their applications in the shipping sector, especially in the Onshore Service Functions (OSFs) of shipping companies. Literature shows that heavy human involvement in the service industries such as shipping leads to a high volume of uncertainties which are difficult to be correctly and effectively measured or managed by simply using the traditional data analysis and statistical methods in Six Sigma. The aim of this study is to develop new quantitative analytical methodologies to enable the application and implementation of Six Sigma to improve the service quality of OSFs in shipping companies. Intensive investigations on the feasibility and effectiveness of the developed new methods and models through case studies in world leading container ship lines and shipping management companies have been carried out to ensure the achievement of the aim.This study firstly reviews the evolvement of quality control and some typical methods in the area, the development of Six Sigma, its tools and current applications, especially in the service industries. It is followed by a new framework of the Six Sigma implementation in the OSFs of shipping companies which is supported by a few real process excellence projects carried out in a world-leading ship line. In the process of the framework development, various issues and challenges appear largely due to the existence of uncertainties in data such as ambiguity and incompleteness caused by extensive subjective judgements. Advanced methods and models are developed to tackle the above challenges as well as complement the traditional Six Sigma tools so that the new Six Sigma methodologies can be confidently applied in situations where uncertainties in data exist at different levels.A new fuzzy Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to an Ideal Solution ii(TOPSIS) method is developed by combining the traditional TOPSIS, fuzzy numbers and interval approximation sets to facilitate the effective selection of Six Sigma projects and achieve the optimal use of resources towards the company objectives. A revised Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA) model is proposed in the “Analyse” step in Six Sigma to improve the capability of classical FMEA in failure identification in service industries. The new FMEA model uses the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Fuzzy Bayesian Reasoning (FBR) approaches to increase the accuracy of failure identification while not compromising the easiness and visibility of the Risk Priority Number (RPN) method. Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) and Analytical Network Process (ANP) methods are incorporated with Fuzzy logic and Evidential Reasoning (ER), for the very first time to generate a Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) management method where the weights of indicators are rationally assigned by considering the interdependency among the indicators. Incomplete and fuzzy evaluations of the KPIs are synthesised in a rational way to achieve a compatible and comparable result.It is concluded that the newly developed Six Sigma framework together with its supporting quantitative analytical models has made significant contribution to facilitate the quality control and process improvement in shipping companies. It has been strongly evidenced by the success of the applications of the new models in real cases. The financial gains and continuous benefits produced in the investigated shipping companies have attracted a wider range of interests from different service industries. It is therefore believed that this work will have a high potential to be tailored for a wide range of applications across sectors and industries when the uncertainties in data exceed the ability that the classical Six Sigma tools and methods possess