Theory of constraints and LP modeling as strategic decision tools for productivity increasing in the towel line of a textile-confection sector company

Día tras día, las empresas buscan aumentar los niveles de productividad de sus procesos y por ende, la consecución de mejores dividendos en proyección con el tiempo. Para ello, resulta fundamental, la efectiva gestión de las restricciones presentes en un sistema productivo. Hecho por el cual, se requiere direccionar estos recursos hacia la maximización de los niveles de ganancia de la organización. Cabe resaltar, que los fenómenos presentados en los mercados nacionales e internacionales impactan directamente sobre el sistema productivo de las empresas; por lo cual debe verificarse constantemente las distintas posibilidades de gestión operacional, táctica y estratégica que permitan hacerle frente a tales eventos. Por tal motivo, este artículo se ha enfocado en la aplicación de técnicas de optimización combinatoria como la programación lineal y teoría de restricciones para la gestión efectiva del subproceso de confección, recurso cuello de botella del sistema productivo de una empresa textil y de confecciones colombiana afectada por las relaciones aduaneras de nuestro país con la China. La aplicación del estudio genera como resultado la creación de una alianza con un proveedor de maquila nacional para la confección de las toallas “pequeñas” de la compañía; además de la generación de aportes académicos e investigativos.Abstract: Day after day, companies look for increasing productivity levels of its processes and hence, the attainment of better dividends in time progression. For this, it´s essential to guarantee an effective management of the restrictions containedin a productive system. Act for which, it´s required to lead these resources to a maximization of the organization gain levels. Significantly, the phenomena presented at the national and international markets impact as a direct way on the enterprises productive system; for which the various operational, tactic and strategic management possibilities must be explored constantly in order to cope with such events. For this reason, the article has been focused on combinatorial optimization technique application such as linear programming and theory of constraints for the effective management of the confection thread, bottleneck resource of a confection-textile and colombian enterprise productive system affected by the customs relations between our country and China. The application of this study generates as a result the creation of an alliance with a national maquila provider for the company “small” towels confection; besides to the generation of academic and research inputs

Process Improvement Approaches for Increasing the Response of Emergency Departments against the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Systematic Review

The COVID-19 pandemic has strongly affected the dynamics of Emergency Departments (EDs) worldwide and has accentuated the need for tackling different operational inefficiencies that decrease the quality of care provided to infected patients. The EDs continue to struggle against this outbreak by implementing strategies maximizing their performance within an uncertain healthcare environment. The efforts, however, have remained insufficient in view of the growing number of admissions and increased severity of the coronavirus disease. Therefore, the primary aim of this paper is to review the literature on process improvement interventions focused on increasing the ED response to the current COVID-19 outbreak to delineate future research lines based on the gaps detected in the practical scenario. Therefore, we applied the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines to perform a review containing the research papers published between December 2019 and April 2021 using ISI Web of Science, Scopus, PubMed, IEEE, Google Scholar, and Science Direct databases. The articles were further classified taking into account the research domain, primary aim, journal, and publication year. A total of 65 papers disseminated in 51 journals were concluded to satisfy the inclusion criteria. Our review found that most applications have been directed towards predicting the health outcomes in COVID-19 patients through machine learning and data analytics techniques. In the overarching pandemic, healthcare decision makers are strongly recommended to integrate artificial intelligence techniques with approaches from the operations research (OR) and quality management domains to upgrade the ED performance under social-economic restrictions

A Novel Integration of IF-DEMATEL and TOPSIS for the Classifier Selection Problem in Assistive Technology Adoption for People with Dementia

The classifier selection problem in Assistive Technology Adoption refers to selecting the classification algorithms that have the best performance in predicting the adoption of technology, and is often addressed through measuring different single performance indicators. Satisfactory classifier selection can help in reducing time and costs involved in the technology adoption process. As there are multiple criteria from different domains and several candidate classification algorithms, the classifier selection process is now a problem that can be addressed using Multiple-Criteria Decision-Making (MCDM) methods. This paper proposes a novel approach to address the classifier selection problem by integrating Intuitionistic Fuzzy Sets (IFS), Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL), and the Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS). The step-by-step procedure behind this application is as follows. First, IF-DEMATEL was used for estimating the criteria and sub-criteria weights considering uncertainty. This method was also employed to evaluate the interrelations among classifier selection criteria. Finally, a modified TOPSIS was applied to generate an overall suitability index per classifier so that the most effective ones can be selected. The proposed approach was validated using a real-world case study concerning the adoption of a mobile-based reminding solution by People with Dementia (PwD). The outputs allow public health managers to accurately identify whether PwD can adopt an assistive technology which results in (i) reduced cost overruns due to wrong classification, (ii) improved quality of life of adopters, and (iii) rapid deployment of intervention alternatives for non-adopters

Teoría de restricciones y modelación PL como herramientas de decisión estratégica para el incremento de la productividad en la línea de toallas de una compañía del sector textil y de confecciones

Day after day, companies look for increasing productivity levels of its processes and hence, the attainment of better dividends in time progression. For this, it´s essential to guarantee an effective management of the restrictions containedin a productive system. Act for which, it´s required to lead these resources to a maximization of the organization gain levels. Significantly, the phenomena presented at the national and international markets impact as a direct way on the enterprises productive system; for which the various operational, tactic and strategic management possibilities must be explored constantly in order to cope with such events. For this reason, the article has been focused on combinatorial optimization technique application such as linear programming and theory of constraints for the effective management of the confection thread, bottleneck resource of a confection-textile and colombian enterprise productive system affected by the customs relations between our country and China. The application of this study generates as a result the creation of an alliance with a national maquila provider for the company "small" towels confection; besides to the generation of academic and research inputs.Día tras día, las empresas buscan aumentar los niveles de productividad de sus procesos y por ende, la consecución de mejores dividendos en proyección con el tiempo. Para ello, resulta fundamental, la efectiva gestión de las restricciones presentes en un sistema productivo. Hecho por el cual, se requiere direccionar estos recursos hacia la maximización de los niveles de ganancia de la organización. Cabe resaltar, que los fenómenos presentados en los mercados nacionales e internacionales impactan directamente sobre el sistema productivo de las empresas; por lo cual debe verificarse constantemente las distintas posibilidades de gestión operacional, táctica y estratégica que permitan hacerle frente a tales eventos. Por tal motivo, este artículo se ha enfocado en la aplicación de técnicas de optimización combinatoria como la programación lineal y teoría de restricciones para la gestión efectiva del subproceso de confección, recurso cuello de botella del sistema productivo de una empresa textil y de confecciones colombiana afectada por las relaciones aduaneras de nuestro país con la China. La aplicación del estudio genera como resultado la creación de una alianza con un proveedor de maquila nacional para la confección de las toallas "pequeñas" de la compañía; además de la generación de aportes académicos e investigativos

Miceps methodology for statistical process control: a case study applied in production process of tempered glass

El Control Estadístico de procesos es considerado como una herramienta de la Gestión de la Calidad orientada a la mejora de procesos y productos. Su aplicación exitosa en la industria manufacturera y de servicios ha representado beneficios a nivel financiero y de mercado. Para ello, es importante garantizar una efectiva articulación entre las perspectivas del cliente y la compañía. Por tal motivo, el presente estudio tiene como objetivo el desarrollo de un enfoque basado en la metodología MICEPS (Methodology for integrating customer expectations and production systems) que ayuda a las compañías a traducir las expectativas del cliente en sistemas efectivos de control de calidad. Primero, se efectúa un análisis de proceso y luego se aplica el enfoque MICEPS para el establecimiento de puntos de monitoreo y control basados en el cliente. Un caso de estudio de la industria de vidrio templado ha sido empleado para explorar la efectividad del enfoque propuesto.Abstract: Statistical Process Control is regarded as a Quality Management tool for the improvement of processes and products. Its successful implementation on manufacturing and service industries has provided financial and market benefits. Therefore, it is very important to guarantee an efficacious link between customer expectations and companies. This study aims to develop an approach based on MICEPS (Methodology for integrating customer expectations and production systems) to help companies design effective systems of quality control. First, a process analysis is carried out and then MICEPS is applied to establish monitoring and control points with customer focus. A case study from tempered glass industry is used to explore the effectiveness of the proposed approach