Minimizing total cost in scheduling outpatient appointments

Article Abstract:

The minimization of the idle-time costs involved in appointment scheduling for clinic outpatients is modeled. The objective function involved is the weighted sum of both the medical personnel's and patients' idle time, which, in turn, is dependent on three environmental variables: service time variation, number of patients per session and the probability that the patient does not keep his appointment. Theidentification of a scheduling rule is determined by the values of these factors and the ratio of the idle-time costs of patients to those of the medical personnel. Simulations of 27 combinations of the three determinants areused to evaluate nine scheduling rules in the form of 'efficient frontiers.' The results indicate that such techniques are easily applicable despite environmental factor uncertainties, and that simple Bailey-Welch rules are robust.

Ambulatory care facilities, Medical care utilization, Clinics

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Minimizing the makespan in the 3-machine assembly-type flowshop scheduling problem

Article Abstract:

The minimization of the makespan in the 3-machine assembly-type flowshop scheduling problem is examined. An assembly-type flowshop is a production system in which component parts are fabricated in job shops, from which the components are fed into an assembly line for final assembly operations. Minimizing the makespan or the time used to complete all orders is a strongly NP-complete problem. Special cases solvable in polynomial time are analyzed and their solution algorithms presented. The problem's NP-completeness suggests a branch and bound solution scheme, for which three heuristics are proposed. The error bounds of these heuristics are analyzed. This scheduling problem is strongly NP-complete even in the more realistic multistage systems.

Research, Usage, Production planning, Branch and bound algorithms

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