Practitioner Perceptions of the A3 Method for Process Improvement in Health Care

The focus of this article is to present students’ perceptions of the recently developed A3 method, a structured problem-solving approach based on lean concepts and tools that have been adapted to the health care environment. The students were all employees of a large health care provider and were enrolled in a customized health care executive MBA Program. Each student was required to complete an individual A3 Project in order to improve a process at the department for which they worked. At the end of the semester the students presented their A3 projects to their peers who voted on the best projects. A survey measuring perceptions of the A3 method for problem solving in health care was administered and from it we present propositions for A3 implementation. These propositions are applicable both to health care practitioners and to academic researchers

Parcel distribution timetabling problem with incomplete hub network

The aim of parcel distribution timetabling problem is to optimize the movements of the parcels in their journey from their pickup to their delivery. The minimization of the time spent in this journey is a common objective for this problem. This paper provides a comprehensive presentation of this problem emphasizing its practical aspects. We develop a general mixed integer programming formulation that addresses the common case of incomplete hub network where the volume between two hubs is not large enough to justify the use of a dedicated transport. The developed model is illustrated through a real-world case. The obtained solution includes a decrease in the average time spent by the parcels (from pickup to delivery) by 19% in comparison to the existing practiced parcel schedule.This paper was sponsored and fully supported by the Chairman of GSP