Giovanni Mazzuto

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...

Supply chain modelling and managing, using timed coloured Petri nets: a case study

This paper aims at developing a new methodology for designing and managing a supply chain (SC) and, at the same time, for evaluating the performance of every stakeholder involved in a production chain. The methodology proposed has been applied to a footwear supply chain and is based on coloured Petri nets (CPNs). The supply chain analysed in this paper is a complex production system consisting of a network of manufacturers and service suppliers related to logistics systems that provide transportation and storage. The model developed uses coloured, timed Petri nets to represent a supply chain and it is such that resources are the Petri Net (PN) places, the tokens are jobs, orders and/or products, while the colours represent job attributes. These colours are used to encode different data types and values that are attached to tokens. A “coloured token” represents a specific production order or a certain amount of a particular material supplied. Thus, it can be processed in different ways and it can be easily localised within the CPN model. The use of coloured Petri nets allows companies to create a compact representation of states, actions and events of the modelled system. The particular structure of this network allows the designers the easy realisation of a simulator using an “object-oriented”, dedicated programming, which is a useful tool for developing what-if analyses.

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.

Performance analysis of new product development projects: An approach based on value stream mapping

Purpose - – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of technical and management practices of a new product development (NPD) project on the project success in terms of observed value-added time. The authors address the research questions: “How do the product innovation aspects, information process, suppliers integration and project team aspects influence the success of NPD projects in terms of observed value-added time?” Design/methodology/approach - – Specific hypotheses are posed based on literature research and semi-structured interviews with project managers used for the pilot study. In total, 40 projects carried out by multinational corporation, concerning NPD, are analysed, comparing product and project features with results obtained in terms of performance indexes usually used in “Lean Production” sector: “waste time”; and “type of wastes”. Findings - – This research highlighted that “over-processing” is the most important waste made in the projects when the product concept is Completely New. Great support has been found for the hypothesis that a clear definition of products’ concept can reduce waste time. Unexpected result has been obtained analysing “Information process aspects” category where the more frequent use of support systems (i.e. quality function deployment, computer-integrated manufacturing, computer-aided design, etc.) tended to increase waste time. Important connections have also been found between project team aspects and low waste time. Practical implications - – The identification of sources of waste can help managers to assess their current innovation practices, identify gaps between their current practice and best practice, and define action plans to close those gaps. Originality/value - – In literature, researches exploring the effects that both organizational and managerial factors have on value-added has received only scant attention. This study attempts to bridge this gap, and takes a first step to investigate the role of product innovation aspects, information process, supplier integration and project team aspects in “value-added time” in a NPD project.

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...

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.

A Fuzzy Cognitive Maps Tool for Developing a RBI&M Model

A proper maintenance plan is directly related to the definition of critical indexes for ensuring a high level of safety and high level in service quality for all equipments in the plants. The traditional approach, according to risk-based inspection and maintenance (RBI&M), requires that each parameter considered in the definition of critical indexes shall be divided into intervals in order to assign it a score. By the elaboration of these scores, the critical indexes are calculated. However, what are the rules that allow the company the definition of the range and the assignment of the relative score? Are these rules subjective or objectives? Literature in the field highlights that these decisions are often carried out by maintenance managers. In order to overcome this approach, in this paper, a method based on Fuzzy Cognitive Maps (FCMs) is presented. FCMs have been used for structuring and supporting decisional processes. The criticality of equipments is described in terms of concepts affecting its functioning. No ranges or scores are defined, but only structural and functional features are considered in order to define a criticality index. The resulting fuzzy model can be used to analyse, simulate, test the influence of concepts and predict the behaviour of the system. The RBI&M model, proposed in this work, has been analysed through a case study of an Italian refinery Copyright

Application of fuzzy cognitive maps to drug administration risk management.

The management of drug therapy, like many medical processes, has a high complexity level. Many errors occur carrying out drug management activities since many decisions have to be taken by operators and many people are involved. These errors can occur at any stage of the drug management, from the entering into the health unit, up to the medication itself. In order to understand the cognitive mechanisms that influence these errors fuzzy cognitive maps were used in this study. Fuzzy cognitive maps allowed the authors to highlight the cognitive mechanisms that influence human decisions in drug management. Using fuzzy cognitive maps, the main factors that affect predominantly the course of drug therapy have been highlighted, until the final event: the medication itself. The construction of the cognitive map has been used to start a process of awareness that improved the patient safety.

Business process re-engineering of surgical instruments sterilization process: A case study

This work aims at developing a new procedure, based on RFID technology, in order to reduce clinical risk and to streamline surgical instruments sterilization processes. An automatic identification and data storage will allow the hospital to minimize problems connected with bacterial infection, loss of surgical instruments and waste of time due to instruments counting and tracking. This procedure was developed at an Italian hospital of medium size, with particular attention to the processes that are carried out in Sterile Surgical Unit (SSU), in operating theatre and in the business units. The sterilization process of surgical instruments has been analysed as it was always implemented up until the year 2013, identifying any related problems. The process has been then reengineered in order to assess the changes involved and pinpointing further opportunities for improvement. Processes were modelled using the AIO WIN software, which supports the IDEF0 method. The activities, related to different management options, have been analysed and compared in terms of costs and savings.

Robust Multi-Criteria Project Scheduling in Plant Engineering and Construction

In this chapter we consider a real-life problem which consists in scheduling the activities of a project subject to precedence and resource constraints so as to optimize several conflicting goals. The durations of the activities cannot be specified precisely in advance. Rather, we assume that based on the experience with previous projects, the means, the standard deviations, and certain percentiles of the respective probability distributions can be reliably estimated. The algorithm applied to solve this problem relies on goal programming techniques in conjunction with Goldratt’s Critical Chain Project Management (CCPM) method. The algorithm was applied to a case study dealing with the construction of an accommodation module for an oil rig. Goal programming is a multi-objective programming technique which attempts to minimize the deviations to a set of target values for the given objectives in such a way that all operational restrictions of the problem are satisfied. Several solutions can be obtained, and the best solution will depend on the priority associated to each goal. In this work we considered the minimization of the project makespan and the levelling of the project resources as the objectives to be pursued. The results obtained using the proposed algorithm have been compared with classical project management techniques (PERT/CPM) that the company involved in the case study used in many projects.