Metodologia de apoio à gestão logística em unidades de saúde

No sector da saúde, verifica-se a necessidade de planear, implementar e controlar, de forma eficiente e eficaz, os fluxos directos e inversos de serviços (e materiais) e toda a informação associada, desde o ponto de origem ao ponto de atendimento, de forma a satisfazer os requisitos da prestação de cuidados de saúde aos utentes. Geralmente, reconhece-se que existem vários exemplos reais de desperdícios nas unidades de saúde, associados aos fluxos de materiais e serviços, que poderiam ser reduzidos ou eliminados, sem por em causa a qualidade dos serviços de saúde prestados aos utentes. Nesta óptica, propõe-se uma metodologia de apoio à gestão logística em unidades de saúde, que visa a qualidade dos serviços prestados e a redução e eliminação de desperdícios. Numa primeira fase, define-se o processo actual onde foi identificado o problema recorrendo a ferramentas visuais (mapeamento da cadeia de valor, fluxograma) e à quantificação do desempenho actual do processo. Numa segunda fase, analisam-se os factores que, hipoteticamente, influenciam significativamente o problema em causa (diagrama de causa efeito), seleccionam-se os factores mais críticos (Análise de Pareto), investigam-se as melhores práticas e estabelecem-se objectivos de melhoria. Numa terceira fase, propõe-se a melhoria que visa a eliminação ou redução dos desperdícios utilizando ferramentas Kaizen. A proposta de resolução do problema deve ser descrita e representada, para ser posteriormente implementada. Finalmente, controla-se o desempenho do processo de forma a averiguar a implementação da melhoria. A metodologia requer a intervenção de equipas multidisciplinares (especialistas de gestão, especialistas da saúde) e deve ser aplicada no âmbito da melhoria contínua. Apresenta-se um caso de estudo preliminar de aplicação da metodologia para redução de desperdícios em unidades de saúde, realizado por equipa multidisciplinar. Conclui-se que a metodologia proposta facilita a análise da situação actual, contribui para uma melhor visualização dos problemas, permite perceber as origens das dificuldades e desperdícios, tornando a proposta de soluções mais evidente e aceite pelas entidades envolvidas

Performance assessment of wind farms

This study develops a methodology to provide insights regarding the performance of wind farms from a European player in energy sector. Firstly, the DEA is used to measure the performance of wind farms in generating electricity from the resources available and nondiscretionary variables such as wind (speed and availability). This analysis enables to identify the benchmarks whose best practices can be emulated by inefficient units and provides useful information for regulators in the sector. Secondly, bootstrap procedures are applied to obtain statistical inference on the efficiency estimates

Metodologia de apoio à gestão logística em unidades de saúde

Referências Bibliográficas (1)Carvalho J, Ramos T. Logistica na Saúde. Lisboa: Edições Sílabo, 2009. (2)Taner M.T., Sezen B., Antony J. An overview of six sigma applications in healthcare industry. International Journal of Health Care Quality Assurance, 2007; 20(4): 329-340. (3)Imai. Masaaki Kaizen – The Key to Japan’s Competitive Success. McGrawHill, 1986. (4)Vilelo Sara. Estudo comparativo do sistema de sugestões- Bosch e Quimonda: Universidade de Aveiro; 2009. (5)Chalice, Robert. Improving Healthcare Using Toyota Lean Productions Methods. ASQ Quality Press, 2007 (6)Womack, J. P., Jones, D. T. Lean thinking: Banish waste and create wealth in your corporation. New York: Free Press, 2003. (7)Vaz C.B. Apontamentos e casos de estudo de Gestão e Logística de Unidades de Saúde: Mestrado das Organizações, Ramo Unidades de Saúde, 2011. (8) Cavalcante J.B., Pagliuca L.M., Almeida P.C. Cancelamento de cirurgias programadas em um hospital-escola: um estudo exploratório. Revista Latino-Americana de Enfermagem, Ribeirão Preto, 2000, 8(4): 59-65. (9)SIGIC. Manual de Gestão de Inscritos para a Cirurgia – Processo de Gestão do utente. Unidade Central de Inscritos para Cirurgia. Ministério da Saúde Português, 2005.No sector da saúde, verifica-se a necessidade de planear, implementar e controlar, de forma eficiente e eficaz, os fluxos directos e inversos de serviços (e materiais) e toda a informação associada, desde o ponto de origem ao ponto de atendimento, de forma a satisfazer os requisitos da prestação de cuidados de saúde aos utentes. Geralmente, reconhece-se que existem vários exemplos reais de desperdícios nas unidades de saúde, associados aos fluxos de materiais e serviços, que poderiam ser reduzidos ou eliminados, sem por em causa a qualidade dos serviços de saúde prestados aos utentes. Nesta óptica, propõe-se uma metodologia de apoio à gestão logística em unidades de saúde, que visa a qualidade dos serviços prestados e a redução e eliminação de desperdícios. Numa primeira fase, define-se o processo actual onde foi identificado o problema recorrendo a ferramentas visuais (mapeamento da cadeia de valor, fluxograma) e à quantificação do desempenho actual do processo. Numa segunda fase, analisam-se os factores que, hipoteticamente, influenciam significativamente o problema em causa (diagrama de causa efeito), seleccionam-se os factores mais críticos (Análise de Pareto), investigam-se as melhores práticas e estabelecem-se objectivos de melhoria. Numa terceira fase, propõe-se a melhoria que visa a eliminação ou redução dos desperdícios utilizando ferramentas Kaizen. A proposta de resolução do problema deve ser descrita e representada, para ser posteriormente implementada. Finalmente, controla-se o desempenho do processo de forma a averiguar a implementação da melhoria. A metodologia requer a intervenção de equipas multidisciplinares (especialistas de gestão, especialistas da saúde) e deve ser aplicada no âmbito da melhoria contínua. Apresenta-se um caso de estudo preliminar de aplicação da metodologia para redução de desperdícios em unidades de saúde, realizado por equipa multidisciplinar. Conclui-se que a metodologia proposta facilita a análise da situação actual, contribui para uma melhor visualização dos problemas, permite perceber as origens das dificuldades e desperdícios, tornando a proposta de soluções mais evidente e aceite pelas entidades envolvidas

Performance assessment of wind farms

This study develops a methodology to provide insights regarding the performance of the wind farms of a European player in the energy sector. The focus of the wind farm performance assessment is on the operating stage which corresponds to the electrical energy generation process. Firstly, the Data Envelopment Analysis is used to measure the performance of wind farms in generating electrical energy from the resources available and exogenous variables, during the period under analysis. This analysis enables the identification of the best practices of the efficient farms which can be emulated by inefficient ones. Secondly, bootstrap procedures are applied to obtain statistical inference on the efficiency estimates. The performance assessment approach proposed will be useful for promoters in the management and control of wind farms and for the installation of wind farms in new areas, but also for repowering processes in existing farms

Experiential learning: connecting theory and practice

This study describes an experiential activity conducted with students enrolled in the Operations Management (OM) subject from Mechanical Engineering and Electrical Engineering Bachelors. This activity was the result of the close collaboration between university and industry, in which a company was involved in the learning process at the school and the students were involved in solving some real problems at the company workplace. This collaboration was crucial to innovate the experiential learning practices. At the university, five seminars were taught by the staff company, in the topics of the OM subject during the first five weeks of the semester. After the seminars, the students developed some projects at the company workplace during six weeks. Each project was developed by a group of students, solving a real problem of the company where it was necessary to eliminate or reduce the waste with the supervision of the lecturer and the company staff. The students all agreed that this experiential learning activity helped them to better understand companies’ real problems and how the company works, enabling to boost the most relevant skills to be better prepared to handle the challenges that they will face in the real world.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Assessing the brand effect on the efficiency of retailing stores

This paper explores the differences in performance between two groups of grocery stores that operate with different brands. The study develops a Malmquist-type index to distinguish internal inefficiencies from those associated with the group (or brand) characteristics. A fundamental characteristic of the new index is to compare groups in a static setting. The study described in this paper combines the use of a Malmquist-type index with statistical testes. The Malmquist-type index is decomposed into sub-indexes for comparing the efficiency spread between groups and the productivity differences between the best-practice frontiers of the groups. The hypothesis tests are used to verify if the differences between groups captured by the Malmquist-type index and its components are statistically significant. There are several methods based on DEA for comparing the performance of two groups, such as the program efficiency method, the comparison of efficiency distributions using statistical hypothesis tests, and methods based on the Malmquist index. The strengths and weaknesses of these methods are explored using data sets that represent different scenarios regarding the relative position of the frontiers and the efficiency spread within the groups. The new method used in this paper is compared with the existing approaches described in the DEA literature to highlight its potential for performance assessments. The applicability of the method is illustrated with a case study that compares the performance of sections from stores with different brands (supermarkets versus hypermarkets). Only large supermarkets are compared with hypermarkets, such that the comparisons are only made between stores with similar scale size. The stores are organised in five different sections: grocery, perishables, light bazaar, heavy bazaar and textiles. The objective of the analysis is to determine if there is evidence that the sections of stores in hypermarkets perform better than the sections from stores in supermarkets. The study showed that there is evidence to conclude that the frontier of the sections in hypermarkets is more productive that the frontier of the sections in supermarkets. This conclusion is valid for the five sections analysed. However, the efficiency spread among sections within the same group did not differ between supermarkets and hypermarkets for all sections except for the heavy bazaar section. If the best practices of the heavy bazaar section are followed by the other sections in the same group, the scope for efficiency improvements is larger in hypermarkets than in supermarkets. In conclusion, we recommend changing the brand of large supermarket to the brand of hypermarkets, whenever this is compatible with the organisation requirements to label a store as an hypermarket. Hypermarkets seem to be more appealing to customers and to allow the attainment of higher productivity levels

Performance comparison between retailing stores using a Malmquist-type index

This study develops a framework that combines different methods to provide insights regarding the performance of retailing stores. Firstly, the framework enables to specify appropriate targets for stores using DEA. This involves comparing stores within homogeneous groups. Secondly, the framework compares the overall performance of these groups. This requires the combined use of Malmquist type index and statistical tests. This index is decomposed into components for comparing the efficiency spread between groups and the productivity differences between the best-practice frontiers of the groups

Monitoring the productivity change of retailing stores

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the productivity change of stores from an European retailing organisation. The Malmquist index, complemented with bootstrapping, is used to measure the changes in store productivity between the years 2002 and 2004. It also investigates the differences between two distinct store formats (supermarkets and hypermarkets), and the impact of scale size on productivity change. This paper describes a case study of the application of the Malmquist index and bootstrapping to retailing stores. From a methodological point of view, it describes an enhanced approach to explore the relative position of frontiers from two di erent time periods, which enables determining if the frontier of one period dominates the other, or if the frontiers are crossed. The analysis of performance changes over time should take into account two e ects: the variation of technical e ciency of each store and the change in the position of the best-practice frontier. The Malmquist index correctly captures these two e ects. The variation in technical e ciency measures changes in the ability of each store to approach the best performance levels observed in the reference units. The changes in the frontier re ect technological developments in the practices of the best shops. The results of the case study showed that hypermarkets had a more favorable performance than supermarkets between 2002 and 2004. The stores improved overall productivity levels, mainly due to improvements in the productivity levels of the frontier. There were some supermarkets which moved further away from the best-practice frontier (both technical and scale e ciency levels declined), leading to a decrease in their overall productivity levels. Concerning the relative position of the frontiers, we concluded that for some regions of the production possibility set there is statistically signi cant evidence that the frontier of 2004 is more productive than the frontier of 2002. Nevertheless, for other input-output mixes the frontiers of 2002 and 2004 are equally productive, such that in those regions the frontiers may crossover

Performance comparison of retailing stores using a Malmquist-type index

This study develops a framework that combines different management science methods to provide insights concerning the performance of retailing stores. First, the framework enables to specify appropriate targets for stores of a retail network using data envelopment analysis. This involves comparing stores within homogenous groups, that is, supermarkets and hypermarkets. Second, the framework compares the overall performance of these two groups. This requires the combined use of a Malmquist-type index and statistical tests. This index is decomposed into sub-indices for comparing the differences between groups in terms of the efficiency spread in each group of stores and the productivity differences between the best-practice frontiers spanned by the benchmark stores from each group. The hypothesis tests are used to verify if the differences between groups captured by the sub-indices are statistically significant

Performance comparison of wind energy conversion system technologies

This paper intends to give some insights on the performance comparison of two main conversion system technologies from a set of wind farms from two major promoters in the Portuguese wind energy sector. Conversion system technologies under analysis are based on the generator type, synchronous and asynchronous, which are the basis of the dominant technological trends in actual market. The performance assessment is accomplished using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) methodology, by computing the Malmquist index for group's comparison. From the obtained results, it is possible to conclude that farms with conversion systems based on synchronous generators have a better performance than the ones using conversion systems based on asynchronous generators. These conclusions may support the decision makers in repowering and overpowering processes.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio