Teresa Murino

Supply chain performance sustainability through resilience function

Todays business world faces challenges and pressures on an unprecedented scale. Many of these obstacles have the potential to severely affect the continuity of a manufacturing enterprise, in particular, through disruption to the wider supply chain. Indeed, it can be argued that supply chain risk is currently greater now than ever before. Resilience is one of the ways to combat disruptions in the supply chain. In this paper the behavior of a Supply chain is studied using a SD model built with Powersim. The paper describes the process of building the model and utilizes the model to demonstrate the massive improvement that resilience can bring in a manufacturing enterprise. The critical issues and strength points in a supply chain are analyzed, in particular, trying to improve their resilience, a feature that has gained even more importance in recent years.

Improving healthcare using cognitive computing based software: an application in emergency situation

The goal of this paper is to define the platform specifications dealing with medical information sharing both from research viewpoint and in terms of local health care. The purpose of this research work is based on doctor - patient relationships: VDS - Virtual Medical Doctor System. At this stage the platform is only used for scientific purposes. In particular, we assume the integrated design of the platform based on different levels (layers), which may be interconnected through the information flows (or links). The first level (the lower) involves the construction of a VDS platform. Based on this system it is possible to foresee a number of extensions such as social network for scientific research design, and risk analysis tool.

Shared Leadership and Key Innovation Indicators in Six Sigma Projects

This research establishes the relationship(s) that shared leadership has with two performance metrics in Six Sigma healthcare teams: the perceived effectiveness of a team completing assigned project deliverables and satisfying customer requirements. Another primary goal is to comprehend additional factors affecting the three analyzed variables. The study found that the degree of shared leadership displayed at any Six Sigma project phase is dependent on the deliverables complexity and degree of change management complexity. Throughout this research, the role of shared leadership cannot be stressed enough. This variable yield influence and relationships with several factors, including change management and decision-making. In turn, they impact a teams environment and ability to effectively complete a project. Understanding the impact and relationship(s) that shared leadership has on quality improvement projects can provide an organization with several benefits, such as improved ability to complete projects efficiently and with quality. Finally, this study builds practical knowledge by outlining implications to professionals, managers, and teams for decision-making, change management, leadership development, Six Sigma training, and external coaching.

Risk in Supply Networks: The Case of Aeronautical Firms

Companies linked in a modern supply network are affected by tight interdependences which cause remarkable risk levels. This paper suggests a method to select risk factors and sources providing the management with a functional tool to hold in check related risks. Particularly, aeronautical firms are considered in the practical application of the method: some strategic goals of the network are selected and a dashboard of indexes is adopted to establish specific control points. A variation in one, or more, indicator/s will allow to promptly investigate on the interested part of the network which could negatively affect its overall performance.

A System Dynamics Model for Bed Management Strategy in Health Care Units

Hospital overcrowding is a universal problem. Currently, Lean thinking is focused on removing process waste and variation. However, the high level of complexity and uncertainty inherent to healthcare make it incredibly challenging to remove variability and achieve the stable process rates necessary for lean redesign efforts to be effective. In this work, in fact, we proposed the Agile logic, which was developed in manufacturing to optimize product delivery in volatile demand environments with highly variable customer requirements. Agile redesign focuses on increasing system responsiveness to customers through improved resource coordination and flexibility. Furthermore, we propose a new method of bed management through the use of DRGs. System dynamics simulation is used to explore the impact of following an agile redesign approach in healthcare on service access and on diagnostic system and the effect of the Bed Manager application to the hospital.

A strategic - Operative lean integrated model for small companies

The paper is focused on the development of lean methodology in small companies with no previous lean knowledge. The lean integrated model proposed has the aim to link the pillars of lean thinking to an operative view.

Integrating model to support decision making

The aim of the paper is to investigate the integration of different analytical and simulations tools to support people to make decisions, and to show how the relationships among the different methods can be advantageous to solve specific problems. ORM (object - role modeling), PN (Petri Nets) and SD (System Dynamics) have been combined to capture the static and dynamic aspects of system.

Cost estimation in an aeronautical supply chain

The Customer Support in an aeronautical supply chain is the key element, present throughout the cycle life of the aircraft for customer loyalty and ensure a business long term. Every order is different since each customer requires that their aircrafts respect particular specifications, then it is necessary to carry out an estimation cost of spare parts Service each time there is a certain request. At present the calculation process used in order to define The Spare Parts Service is an “Exact Estimation” method, through the OPUS10 Tool, very accurate, but extremely expensive in terms of time and processing time. Since, unfortunately, not all orders come to a successful conclusion, in the first negotiation phase (RFQ) it is possible to use an approximated calculation method allowing a great time and thus costs reduction. This paper goal is to search a mathematical algorithm, in a necessary approximation circle, that can substitute an exact method with a parametric estimation methodology.

Use of the AHP methodology in system dynamics: Modelling and simulation for health technology assessments to determine the correct prosthesis choice for hernia diseases

Health technology assessments (HTAs) are often difficult to conduct because of the decisive procedures of the HTA algorithm, which are often complex and not easy to apply. Thus, their use is not always convenient or possible for the assessment of technical requests requiring a multidisciplinary approach. This paper aims to address this issue through a multi-criteria analysis focusing on the analytic hierarchy process (AHP). This methodology allows the decision maker to analyse and evaluate different alternatives and monitor their impact on different actors during the decision-making process. However, the multi-criteria analysis is implemented through a simulation model to overcome the limitations of the AHP methodology. Simulations help decision-makers to make an appropriate decision and avoid unnecessary and costly attempts. Finally, a decision problem regarding the evaluation of two health technologies, namely, the evaluation of two biological prostheses for incisional infected hernias, will be analysed to assess the effectiveness of the model.

The Simulation of Flow Shop Production System in PTO Environment Through a Matrix Approach in System Dynamics Logic

This paper faces the problem of industrial production optimization through a simulation based approach and in a context of high rigidity production constraints. When an industrial plant is made by several work centers, operating in a typical flow shop configuration, its operation can be seen as a sequence of discrete events, whose optimization can be solved as a scheduling problem. The approach shown in this work is based on a System Dynamics simulation logic. In despite of an apparent greater complexity if compared to traditional discrete event simulation approaches, this logic allows to identify at each instant the position and the confluence of each single order and, moreover, to decide in a dynamic way operations planning at each work center. The simulation approach makes use of matrices to develop the model. In order to evaluate the efficacy of the proposed approach, we have applied it to a case study, considering a flow shop production system in a PTO environment.