3,722 research outputs found
Improving access to health services â Challenges in Lean application
Purpose: Healthcare organisations face significant productivity pressures and are undergoing major
service transformation. This paper serves to disseminate findings from a Lean healthcare project
using a NHS Single Point of Access environment as the case study. It demonstrates the relevance
and extent that Lean can be applied to this type of healthcare service setting.
Design/methodology/approach: Action research was applied and Lean tools used to establish
current state processes, identify wastes and develop service improvement opportunities based upon
defined customer values.
Findings: The quality of referral information was found to be the root cause of a number of process
wastes and causes of failure for the service. Understanding the relationship and the nature of
interaction between the serviceâs customer/supplier led to more effective and sustainable service
improvement opportunities and the co-creation of value. It was also recognised that not all the Lean
principles could be applied to this type of healthcare setting.
Practical implications: The study is useful to organisations using Lean to undertake service
improvement activities. The paper outlines how extending the value stream beyond the organisation
to include suppliers can lead to improved co-production and generation of service value.
Originality/value: The study contributes to service productivity research by demonstrating the
relevance and limitations of Lean application in a new healthcare service setting. The case study
demonstrates the practical challenges of implementing Lean in reciprocal service design models and
adds validity to existing contextual models
Lean Thinking: Theory, Application and Dissemination
This book was written and compiled by the University of Huddersfield to share the learnings and experiences of seven years of Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) and Economic and Social
Research Council (ESRC) funded projects with the
National Health Service (NHS). The focus of these
projects was the implementation of Lean thinking and optimising strategic decision making processes. Each of these projects led to major local improvements and this book explains how they were achieved and compiles the lessons learnt. The book is split into three chapters; Lean Thinking Theory, Lean Thinking Applied and Lean Thinking Dissemination
Luxury brand forums set the scene for status competition between consumers
Two groups, the âhavesâ and the âhave-notsâ, develop their own strategies to compete on the forums, write Marina Leban and Benjamin Voye
Achieving ICS resilience and security through granular data flow management
Modern Industrial Control Systems (ICS) rely on enterprise to plant floor connectivity. Where the size, diversity, and therefore complexity of ICS increase, operational requirements, goals, and challenges defined by users across various sub-systems follow. Recent trends in Information Technology (IT) and Operational Technology (OT) convergence may cause operators to lose a comprehensive understanding of end-to-end data flow requirements. This presents a risk to system security and resilience. Sensors were once solely applied for operational process use, but now act as inputs supporting a diverse set of organisational requirements. If these are not fully understood, incomplete risk assessment, and inappropriate implementation of security controls could occur. In search of a solution, operators may turn to standards and guidelines. This paper reviews popular standards and guidelines, prior to the presentation of a case study and conceptual tool, highlighting the importance of data flows, critical data processing points, and system-to-user relationships. The proposed approach forms a basis for risk assessment and security control implementation, aiding the evolution of ICS security and resilience
Where is the competitive edge in Knowledge Transfer?: the impact of KTPs
The need for technology transfer from universities to industry is a theme that resonates throughout many advanced countries of the world. This paper explores the effectiveness and efficiency of Business and Management schools in transferring technology through formal Knowledge Transfer schemes; it examines the value and impact of these activities by reporting on the outputs from thirteen major case studies across two sectors, manufacturing and healthcare. The paper assesses the impact of knowledge transfer, in relation to the development of a competitive edge and proposes some initial frameworks for potential application and use
ReInform: Selecting paths with reinforcement learning for contextualized link prediction
We propose to use reinforcement learning to inform transformer-based
contextualized link prediction models by providing paths that are most useful
for predicting the correct answer. This is in contrast to previous approaches,
that either used reinforcement learning (RL) to directly search for the answer,
or based their prediction on limited or randomly selected context. Our
experiments on WN18RR and FB15k-237 show that contextualized link prediction
models consistently outperform RL-based answer search, and that additional
improvements (of up to 13.5\% MRR) can be gained by combining RL with a link
prediction model
Orientation to work: comparison between the British workforce and Polish migrant workers
The aim of this study is to investigate the differences between Polish migrant workers and British labour in relation to their orientation to work. Using a sample of 128 employees in the industrial sector in the UK, we examined the orientation to work among the workforce. The results show a difference in orientation towards employment between the employees in the industrial sector, in the UK. Polish workers reveal characteristics of intrinsic orientation to work, while British employees reveal characteristics of instrumental orientation to work. Unexpectedly, the results suggest that individuals with intrinsic orientation to work expose higher need for recuperation
Occipital Cortex of Blind Individuals Is Functionally Coupled with Executive Control Areas of Frontal Cortex
In congenital blindness, the occipital cortex responds to a range of nonvisual inputs, including tactile, auditory, and linguistic stimuli. Are these changes in functional responses to stimuli accompanied by altered interactions with nonvisual functional networks? To answer this question, we introduce a data-driven method that searches across cortex for functional connectivity differences across groups. Replicating prior work, we find increased fronto-occipital functional connectivity in congenitally blind relative to blindfolded sighted participants. We demonstrate that this heightened connectivity extends over most of occipital cortex but is specific to a subset of regions in the inferior, dorsal, and medial frontal lobe. To assess the functional profile of these frontal areas, we used an n-back working memory task and a sentence comprehension task. We find that, among prefrontal areas with overconnectivity to occipital cortex, one left inferior frontal region responds to language over music. By contrast, the majority of these regions responded to working memory load but not language. These results suggest that in blindness occipital cortex interacts more with working memory systems and raise new questions about the function and mechanism of occipital plasticity.David & Lucile Packard FoundationNational Science Foundation (U.S.). Graduate Research Fellowship Progra
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