Claudia Paciarotti

Implementing lean information management: the case study of an automotive company

Worldwide modern organisation is continuously crossed by a great number of information but frequently information is not accurate, the needed information is not generated or it cannot be easily identified and, more, the information cannot flow through the whole organisation. This paper proposes the application of lean thinking in the field of information management. In the areas of manufacturing and production, the lean thinking is well known but usually the importance of a holistic approach is neglected and the improvement involves only the production and logistic areas and there is not a specific focus on the lean information management. We applied lean thinking to information management in order to improve the performance of an automotive company. We analysed the as-is company condition, we identified the present muda and we introduced the necessary changes. Then, we verified the modification efficiency through the calculation of a performance index. The paper proposes an interesting and exhaustive case of lean information management application and it highlights the possible improvement of such approach. The results of this study are not sector specific: they are not only applicable by other automotive industries, but they can also be extended to many other sectors.

Facility management in the healthcare sector: analysis of the Italian situation

The aim of this paper is to analyse the current situation in the Italian public healthcare sector, with special attention to aspects of facility management, in the light of the reorganisation necessary for the application of decentralisation and ‘de-nationalisation’ policies that have involved hospitals in recent years. We have traced a profile of the situation, for 2004, with regard to facility management procedures and to the maintenance of installations, focusing especially on contractual typologies, the efficiency of the adopted solutions and their economic character. The sample used for this work consisted of 50 medium to large size hospital facilities with fairly homogeneous distribution over the Italian territory. Hospitals, having been transformed into health authorities from public corporations, are faced with a gradual change that should allow them to have modern enterprise features, in which efficiency and effectiveness become a ‘must’ for survival in the health business. To this end it should be normal, particularly in the administrative and maintenance area, to have a change in direction with new management models and the creation of a facility department exclusively dedicated to the supply, management and control of services. The results obtained through this study indicate that these expectations are still a long way from being reached in a satisfactory manner. The territorial structures responsible for supplying the health service are still bound to the past, at least concerning the bureaucratic procedures to follow in relations with the ‘outside world’, at any level.

A revised FMEA application to the quality control management

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to propose a cost-effective, time-saving and easy-to-use failure modes and effects analysis (FMEA) system applied on the quality control of supplied products. The traditional FMEA has been modified and adapted to fit the quality control features and requirements. The paper introduces a new and revised FMEA approach, where the “failure concept” has been modified with “defect concept.” Design/methodology/approach – The typical FMEA parameters have been modified, and a non-linear scale has been introduced to better evaluate the FMEA parameters. In addition, two weight functions have been introduced in the risk priority number (RPN) calculus in order to consider different critical situations previously ignored and the RPN is assigned to several similar products in order to reduce the problem of complexity. Findings – A complete procedure is provided in order to assist managers in deciding on the critical suppliers, the creation of homogeneous families overcome the comple...

The impact of RFID technology in hospital drug management: An economic and qualitative assessment

The successful implementation of any innovation requires an understanding of its benefits and costs. This study examines the changes in costs and benefits associated with technology process innovation adoption as the innovation diffuses across healthcare field. Using RFID as an exemplar technology, the study shows the importance of benefits and costs associated with technological process innovation. The analysed case study provides the order of magnitude of the problems that can be solved with the introduction of the new system and it shows the information provided as output by the informatics system associated. For technology managers in general, the study has identified the profile of costs and benefits associated with technology adoption, and offered some indication of how this profile changes depending on the stage of technology evolution. This study proposed the implementation of a drug management system based on RFID technology. The study also revealed as the adoption of RFID technology allows perfect traceability of the drug throughout the system. In addition, this technology greatly reduces the action of operators in the operations of the management and administration and therefore the occurrence of errors.

A Changeover Time Reduction through an integration of lean practices: a case study from pharmaceutical sector

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to uncover the significance of quick changeovers in the packaging line of a pharmaceutical company. Using an integration of different lean practices, the study aims to reduce the batch change and changeover time up to 50 per cent, increasing overall equipment effectiveness by 25 per cent. Design/methodology/approach – The paper gives setup instructions and guidelines for preparing the standardized setup procedure without ignoring the actual constraints in a pharmaceutical company. It uses a case study to generate an integrated setup reduction approach, utilizing single-minute exchange of die tools (SMED) in combination with suppliers, inputs, process, outputs and customers (SIPOC), Kanban, 5S techniques and Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) indexes to achieve faster setups. Findings – The SMED approach helps the pharmaceutical company to eliminate unwanted activities and to externalize and reduce the internal activities by simplification or standardization. The appl...

Safety Management System in a Clinical Medicine Department: a Case Study

Abstract This paper aims at developing a modellization of the Safety Management System (SMS) for a clinical medicine department using Business Process Reenginerring (BPR) techniques. A framework based on Event-driven Process Chains (EPCs) methodology and Entity-Relationship Model (ERM) is proposed to define and analyze the safety management system. The described system allows the process to be managed via web services. allowing the various stakeholders to have rapid access to archives and documentation and thereby simplifying the management of the safety data which are in common.

A BPR approach to hydrogeological risk management

Every year, landslides and floods cause deaths, missing persons, injured people, evacuees, and homeless people. Serious damages to property and pollution are also produced. Lessons learn from landslides and flood disasters recently occurred show that flood and disaster management should be widely improved. This paper deals the problem of hydrogeological risk management from a logistic and a managerial point of view. The hydrological risk management is studied as an industrial process, and it is modeled by the IDEF0 language. The IDEF0 application provides a clear overview of the system and became a structured base for the re-engineering process. For each function of the process, the inputs, outputs, and necessary controls and resources have been identified. The use of the IDEF0 provides a simple and effective tool for the decision-making process. Starting from a realistic and efficient current state model, the process of re-engineering has been implemented. The main aim of the change introduced in the process is to improve the information management that it is a crucial point of the risk management.

Integration between RCM and RAM: a case study

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to propose a practical method of performing maintenance in the offshore industry where engineers have to manage problems such as the high cost of operations, assuring an high availability of the plant, safety on board and environmental protection. Indeed an efficient maintenance method it is necessary in order to offer methods and criteria to select the rights maintenance strategies keeping in to account the environmental, safety and production constrains. Design/methodology/approach – The paper provides an overview of reliability centered maintenance (RCM) and reliability, availability, maintainability methodologies and an integration of the two methodologies in a particular case study in the oil and gas sector. Findings – This paper suggests an improvement of the well-established RCM methodology applicable to industries with high priority level. It is proposed an integration between a reliability analysis and an availability analysis and an application on the offsh...

The impact of business growth in the operation activities: a case study of aircraft ground handling operations

This work aims at developing a Business Process Re-Engineering (BPR) method for analysing and overcoming the impact of business growth in the operation activities. A framework based on Delphi method, IDEF3 methodology, discrete event simulation and Design of Experiment is presented for predicting future scenarios and analysing the consequences. The case study of an Italian airport, has been analysed in order to explain the proposed approach. In particular, the company that manages the airport aims at increasing the air traffic and it is necessary to assess the impact of this choice on ground handling operations. The BPR procedure proposed in this work allowed the company to analyse the As-Is ground handling processes and to design a To-Be scenarios for improving the service efficiency and quality.

Supply chain integration in an Italian automotive company: the case of a kitting system implementation

An excellent supply chain management is not enough to achieve good performance in a today modern industrial organisation: the integration in supply chain between supplier, assemblers and customers is basic during the production planning and the product development. This paper presents the analysis of an integrated reengineering project for an automotive company that produces luxury cars. The pre-existing materials supply system of an assembly line is substituted with a kitting system. The assembler and the supplier work together, in order to optimise the whole process: the kitting system introduction is match with a complete reorganisation of the supply warehouse for the kits components. The economic and logistical benefit obtained has been analysed. An analysis of the errors committed has been also realised in order to have the possibility to learn from errors. This paper shows the real possible advantages of an effective cooperation between the actors of the supply chain.