What’s the longest you’ve ever waited to see a doctor? Hopefully, your answer won’t make us shake our heads and whistle in disbelief. This question has been asked and answered on Quora, Reddit, and across social media to varying degrees of hilarity and horror. Search “making sandwich in waiting room” on Twitter, and you’ll get […]
“Phase 1 cancer studies, which guide dose selection for subsequent studies, are almost 3 times more prevalent than phase 3 studies and have a median study duration considerably longer than 2 years, which constitutes a major component of drug development time.” It takes a long, long time for new cancer treatments to get through the […]
In an article in the Birmingham Medical News, Deborah Flint, director of Performance Engineering at the Kirklin Clinic of UAB Hospital, explained the role that simulation plays in improving patient flow at her facility: “The computer simulation helps evaluate different scenarios we may have identified using Lean Six Sigma. It helps us validate whether a […]
Turns out, one of the best ways to get better at simulation modeling is to give back to your fellow process improvement community members. I recently stumbled on a short post from one of the many “money advice” blogs out there. In it, the author gave an interesting recommendation on how to gain the skills […]
There are some syntax changes in FlexSim 2017. Here’s a quick summary of the important stuff: We’ve made an enormous, comprehensive update to our FlexScript language. All FlexScript in models created prior to FlexSim 2017 will still execute just fine… as long as your script was correct in the first place! Now that you’re aware […]
Why you can save hours on your projects with FlexSim Recently I got to witness a modeling miracle. Like most of our past training courses, the instructor (in this case our training manager Regan Blackett) sat down with one of the attendees to build a model he wanted to start working on. It was a […]
Award-winning health systems find a balance between efficiency and effectiveness Each year since 1993, Truven Health Analytics has investigated thousands of U.S. hospitals for their 100 Top Hospitals® report. The study is well-regarded on social media, it’s been cited in many publications—and my local hospital seems proud enough to be included that they displayed a […]
It’s already used in industry, and it can definitely benefit modelers Have you seen the new commercial for Samsung’s Gear VR? It wasn’t what I’d expect from a virtual reality device—because we barely even saw Samsung’s new virtual reality headset. Instead, the commercial was careful to stay away from the geeky, unwieldy look the technology […]
George Gonzalez-Rivas (Co-Founder, Newmodel Consulting) The great Maimonides famously said that a Doctor should treat the patient, not the disease. But what happens when the real patient is the healthcare process itself, and the cause cannot be traced to trauma or disease or aging? The healthcare community is constantly developing expensive new drugs, fantastic machines, […]
Lou Keller (Lt. Col., U.S. Army Medical Service Corps, Ret.) I was going to write about “distributive healthcare” after a recent HSPI Conference, but got sidetracked by more urgent business. So, although I’m a little late, here are my thoughts! The first day of the conference, I was asked to meet with two members of […]
Sometimes you have to take a leap of faith when taking on a new project. Last year I had the opportunity to develop a FlexSim model of a 1,000,000 square-foot, multi-story distribution center operation. The client wanted a comprehensive model that could emulate all of their major operations. This included areas from receiving, put-away and […]
Lou Keller (Lt. Col., U.S. Army Medical Service Corps, Ret.) Early this week, I was cajoled into reading a study by Booz Allen Hamilton that revealed three important trends in how American consumers feel about healthcare. Know what it revealed? First, that the future of healthcare is uncertain. Second, that cost control is paramount. And […]
Lou Keller (Lt. Col., U.S. Army Medical Service Corps, Ret.) I keep a registry of “buzz words” and their definitions on my laptop, mostly for my own protection. It’s so I don’t look ignorant if one pops up in an email from some colleague asking for my opinion of the latest process improvement technique or […]
Material Handling & Logistics recently ran a piece on the “7 Keys to Inventory Optimization.” The author, supply chain veteran Jeff Primeau, discusses some of the important areas to consider when creating an inventory optimization strategy. He also provides a few words of warning to those companies who dive into optimization without proper planning and […]
Lou Keller (Lt. Col., U.S. Army Medical Service Corps, Ret.) This morning I had the occasion to read a new piece of legislation, titled “The ACO Improvement Act of 2014,” that was introduced barely two weeks ago. I like new stuff, especially new legislation designed to improve old legislation. Seems like there’s been more of […]
LeanCor Supply Chain Group, a thought leader in lean logistics and supply chain, recently released a list of best practices in lean warehousing. In the article, they assert that “lean warehousing is necessary and plays a critical role and must be integrated into the entire supply chain.” Let’s take a look at three of these […]
Backstory It finally happened: the virus outbreak that has changed 80% of the earth’s population into the living dead. But in a twist from mythology, zombies don’t need to feed on brains – they want power! Literally. Mankind has the technology to produce energy cubes, containers that seem to satiate the undead for days. You […]
It would be a bold-faced lie to declare that businesses have only one choice in simulation software. There are dozens of companies that dabble in process simulation software, and they can be large and small, new and well-established. The real difference in simulation software lies in how accurately and quickly you get results, especially in […]