Browsing by Author "Foote, Jeffrey Lawrence"
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- ItemPractical buffer sizing techniques under Drum-Buffer-Rope : development of a model and fuzzy logic implementation : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Technology in Manufacturing and Industrial Technology at Massey University(Massey University, 1996) Foote, Jeffrey LawrenceA production buffer is a queue of work waiting in front of a manufacturing work-station for processing. The buffer protects the work-station utilisation from variability in the flow of work from feeding work-stations. Effective buffer management is critical to the smooth flow of work and the maintenance of a predictable output rate. An effective buffer management policy must address three questions that characterise the buffer management problem (BMP): 1. What objective function to use? 2. Where to locate buffers? 3. What is the appropriate buffer sizes? Despite being simple to describe, to date few practical heuristics for buffer management have been developed by researchers. The approach of researchers is to place a buffer of work in front of every work-station, whatever the objective function is being used. The answer to the third issue is then typically found by applying a combinational optimisation technique. The practical benefits of locating buffers throughout a manufacturing facility and the use of complex combinatorial optimisation methods to solve over-stylised problems are questionable. As a consequence of this "academic" approach, research results are rarely used by practitioners who still rely on intuition to solve the BMP. The production application of the Theory of Constraints, Drum-Buffer-Rope (DBR), provides exact answers to the first and second questions. Throughput (or output rate) is adopted as the objective function. Buffers locations are limited in front of the constraint work-station, in assembly areas using constraint processed parts and in the shipping area. Buffer size is a open issue in a DBR implementation and directly influences the time-based competitiveness of a manufacturing facility. Too small a buffer can result in the constraint work-station being starved and due date promises missed; too large a buffer can result in a longer than necessary lead times. Buffer sizing advice is vague and non-specific and relies heavily on managerial understanding and experience. This can reduce the effectiveness of DBR implementations and greatly increases the implementation lead time as intuition rarely guarantees the best possible outcome for a given set of circumstances. In today's competitive and increasing globalised economy, a structured approach that sizes buffers in an effective and implementable manner is likely to yield significant benefits over a traditional DBR implementation. This thesis explores the subject of practical buffer sizing in a DBR environment. A fuzzy logic approach is proposed and used to size buffers in a simulated DBR environment. The effectiveness of the technique is assessed and contrasted with a simple and commonly used buffer sizing heuristic. Simulation results demonstrate that fuzzy logic effectively sizes buffers and is likely to provide a satisfactory answer to the third question of the BMP: what is the appropriate buffer size.
- ItemTowards a systemic understanding of a hospital waiting list : boundaries, meaning and power : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Management Systems at Massey University(Massey University, 2001) Foote, Jeffrey LawrenceHospital waiting lists are a feature of public health care services that result when demand appears to exceed supply, and serve as mechanisms to ration health care resources. While waiting lists are usually conceptualised as rational queues, the dynamics of waiting lists, especially radiology waiting lists, are more complex and still poorly understood. The present study has attempted to better understand a problematic waiting list by adopting a systems approach known as boundary critique. A case study of an ultrasound waiting list was undertaken in which in-depth and semi-structured interviews were conducted with a variety of stakeholders. Viewing the ultrasound waiting list systemically highlighted the role that a radiologist boundary surrounding the detection and confirmation of abnormal pathology played in constructing the ultrasound waiting list as a problem. This boundary was enacted through the process of double scanning, a symbol of radiologist expertise. General practitioners and patients employed a wider boundary, which focused on the management of clinical uncertainty. When the system in focus was widened to include this boundary, the process of double scanning became problematic. Double scanning contributed to the growth of the ultrasound waiting list and exacerbated the difficulty faced by general practitioners and waiting patients in managing diagnostic uncertainty. To manage the tension created between radiologist and general practice boundaries, non-radiologist stakeholders undertook unrecognised and under-valued work that helped maintain the radiologist-centred systems of process and structure. Radiologists also employed a discourse of inappropriateness that downplayed the significance of delayed general practitioner referrals, which served to reinforce the primacy of the radiologist boundary. Conflicting boundaries highlighted that the ultrasound waiting list was managed in a way that did not act in the interests of non-radiologist stakeholders such as general practitioners and waiting patients. Stakeholders proposed a number of interventions to manage the growing ultrasound waiting list. However, these primarily served to further strengthen the radiologist boundary and viewed as such represented a narrow improvement in terms of the interests of non-radiologist stakeholders. The process of boundary critique helped to reframe the ultrasound waiting list in terms of radiologist dominance. Interventions based on the boundary judgements of general practitioners, waiting patients and sonographers were developed. The present study argues that the ultrasound waiting list can be better understood in terms of the role that boundary judgements play in constructing notions such as expertise, illness and appropriateness, which underlie a common-sense understanding of need, demand and supply.