Operational Planning Tool Research Articles

Using ANT to Uncover the Full Potential of an Intelligent Operational Planning and Support Tool (IOPST) for Acute Healthcare Contexts

Based on initial pre-clinical data and results from focus group studies, proof of concept for an intelligent operational planning and support tool (IOPST) for nursing in acute healthcare contexts has been demonstrated. However, moving from a simulated context to a large scale clinical trial brings potential challenges associated with the many complexities and multiple people-technology interactions. To enable an in depth and rich analysis of such a context, it is the contention of this paper that incorporating an Actor-Network Theory (ANT) lens to facilitate analysis will be a prudent option as discussed below.

Supply Chain Network Optimization of the Canadian Forest Products Industry: A Critical Review

The Canadian forest products industry has failed to retain its competitiveness in the global markets because of the under-utilization of its resources. Supply chain optimization models can identify the best possible fibre utilization strategies from multiple options of value creation based on fluctuating market conditions in the forest industries. This paper comprehensively reviews the literature related to supply chain models used both in general and specifically in the forest products industry. The optimization models use information from multiple agents (market demand attributes, flexible wood procurement and manufacturing processes, and resource characteristics), and share this information at each level in the supply chain network. However, the modeling of two-way flow of information (market to forests and vice-versa) for order promising and demand fulfillment through all facilities including manufacturing, processing, raw material procurement and inventory control is missing. The studies that focus on optimization are mostly deterministic in nature and do not account for uncertainty both in supply of raw materials and demand of forest products. Simulation and optimization models have been independently used for supply chain management in the past. The literature lacks an integrated approach that combines simulation and optimization models throughout the supply chain network of the Canadian forest products industry. Further studies should focus on developing simulation-based optimization models that will help in providing an operational planning tool that meets industrial expectations and provides much better solutions than current industrial practice.

Automatic simulation of ship navigation

Automatic simulation programs of ship navigation can be a powerful tool for operational planning and design studies of waterways. In such a simulation system the key tasks of autonomous route-finding and collision-avoidance are performed by the simulation program itself with no or minimum intervention of a human navigator. This is in many ways similar to automatic navigation systems in that they are designed to carry out autonomous navigation safely and efficiently without the need for human intervention or to offer advice to the navigator regarding the best course of action to take in certain situations. There are two key tasks of automatic ship navigation systems: route finding and collision avoidance. This paper presents an effective and practical method for finding safe passage for ships in possible collision situations, based on the potential field method. The general steps of implementing the potential field method applied to automatic ship navigation are described. The algorithm is fairly straightforward to implement, and is shown to be effective in automatic ship handling for ships involved in complex navigation situations.

Environmental knowledge and operational effectiveness at the NATO Undersea Research Centre.

One of the primary areas of research at the NATO Undersea Research Centre (NURC) is environmental knowledge and operational effectiveness. The objective of this work is to provide environmental information in support of maritime operations from the planning stages through to real‐time decision making. Generically, this is accomplished by parametrizing the environment according to need and providing the best knowledge available for each parameter including uncertainty. In practice, the environment is measured using a variety of mobile and remote sensors, including AUVs, with the aim of improving high‐resolution models of the oceanographic environment. In turn, these models and measurements are used as input for operational planning and prediction tools. This talk will describe recent and upcoming experimental work at the NURC designed to test these concepts and their application to acoustic based planning and prediction tools. The goal is to demonstrate the use of these concepts to improve prediction capabilities for transmission loss and signal excess in an operational area.

Effect of controlled traffic on field efficiency

Two machinery operations in two different fields were monitored and analysed. The operations involved slurry applications carried out by machinery systems involving an application unit (AU) and a refilling unit (RU). The application systems consisted of an un-controlled traffic farming (UCTF) system and the controlled traffic farming (CTF) system. The results of the experimental operation were used to estimate the operational parameters of the modelled field efficiency. In the one case, the operation was simulated following the CTF system while in the other case it followed the UCTF system. The results show that the implementation of the CTF system rather than the UCTF system significantly increases the in-field transport distance travelled by the AU. The reduction in-field efficiency, in terms of transport distance, ranged from 4.68% to 7.41%. In addition to the analysis of the observed and simulated field traffic patterns, the value of the applied simulation model as a tactical and operational planning tool was also demonstrated. It was possible to evaluate different user configurations in terms of work pattern, machine dimension, and location of the RU in the field and to estimate the effect on the field efficiency.

Academic libraries as learning organisations

This paper highlights some of the deficiencies with Higher Education (HE) planning paradigms and then describes the Holon Framework as an HE planning approach that overcomes some of the deficiencies. The paper outlines some key features from the literature of organisational learning and explores how the Holon Framework facilitates both single and double-loop organisational learning. The paper then describes how the Holon Framework can be used as a strategic and operational planning tool with academic libraries and how the more conventional library operational research models can be included in a structured double loop learning process.

An integrated simulation-optimization framework for the operational planning of seaport container terminals

In this article the operational planning of seaport container terminals is considered by defining a suitable integrated framework in which simulation and optimization interact. The proposed tool is a simulation environment (implemented by using the Arena software) representing the dynamics of a container terminal. When the system faces some particular conditions (critical events), an optimization procedure integrated in the simulation tool is called. This means that the simulation is paused, an optimization problem is solved and the relative solution is an input for the simulation environment where some system parameters are modified (generally, the handling rates of some resources are changed). For this reason, in the present article we consider two modelling and planning levels about container terminals. The simulation framework, based on an appropriate discrete-event model, represents the dynamic behaviour of the terminal, thus it needs to be quite detailed and it is used as an operational planning tool. On the other hand, the optimization approach is devised in order to define some system parameters such as the resource handling rates; in this sense, it can be considered as a tool for tactical planning. The optimization procedure is based on an aggregate representation of the terminal where the dynamics is modelled by means of discrete-time equations.

Imputation of Ramp Flow Data for Freeway Traffic Simulation

The Tools for Operational Planning is a suite of tools that uses the link–node cell transmission model for macroscopic freeway traffic simulations for specifying operational strategies such as ramp metering and demand and incident management. Traffic flow and occupancy data from loop detectors are used for calibrating these models and specifying the inputs to the simulation. Flow data from ramps, however, are often found to be missing or incorrect. This paper elaborates an imputation procedure used to determine these ramp flows. This automated imputation procedure is based on an adaptive identification technique that attempts to minimize the error between the simulated and the measured densities. Simulation results using the imputed flow data indicate good conformation with loop detector measurements.

Large-Scale Dispensing for Emergency Response to Bioterrorism and Infectious-Disease Outbreak

We describe RealOpt©, a simulation and decision-support system for planning large-scale emergency dispensing clinics to respond to biological threats and infectious-disease outbreaks. The system allows public-health administrators to investigate clinic-design and staffing scenarios quickly. The system incorporates efficient optimization technology seamlessly interfaced with a simulation module. The simulation studies we present explore facility-layout and staffing scenarios for an actual anthrax-emergency drill, and we discuss post-event analysis. Using our staff allocation and assignments for the exercise, DeKalb County achieved the highest throughput among all counties that simultaneously conducted the same scale of anthrax drill at various locations. Its labor usage was at or below that of the other counties. The external evaluators commented that DeKalb produced the most efficient floor plan (with no path crossing), the most cost-effective dispensing (lowest labor and throughput value), and the smoothest operations (shortest average wait time, average queue length, and equalized utilization rate). The study proves that even without historical data, the use of our system enables emergency personnel to plan ahead and be able to estimate required labor resources accurately. The exercise also revealed many areas that need attention during the operations planning and design of dispensing centers. A real-time decision-support system is, therefore, viable through careful design of a stand-alone simulator, coupled with powerful and tailored optimization solvers. The system facilitates analysis of “what-if” scenarios, and serves as an invaluable tool for operational planning and dynamic, on-the-fly reconfigurations of large-scale emergency dispensing clinics. It also allows performing “virtual field exercises” on the decision-support system, offering insight into operations flow and bottlenecks when mass dispensing is required for a region with a large population. Working with emergency-response departments, we will perform additional tuning and development of the system to address different biological attacks and infectious-disease outbreaks, and to ensure its practicality and usability.

Decision support system for mass dispensing of medications for infectious disease outbreaks and bioterrorist attacks

A simulation and decision support system, RealOpt©, for planning large-scale emergency dispensing clinics to respond to biological threats and infectious disease outbreaks is described. The system allows public health administrators to investigate clinic design and staffing scenarios quickly. RealOpt© incorporates efficient optimization technology seamlessly interfaced with a simulation module. The system's correctness and computational advantage are validated via comparisons against simulation runs of the same model developed on a commercial system. Simulation studies to explore facility layout and staffing scenarios for smallpox vaccination and for an actual anthrax-treatment dispensing exercise and post event analysis are presented. The system produces results consistent with the model built on the commercial system, but requires only a fraction of the computational time. Each smallpox scenario runs within 1 CPU minute on RealOpt©, versus run times of over 5–10 h on the commercial system. The system's fast computational time enables its use in large-scale studies, in particular an anthrax response planning exercise involving a county with 864,000 households. The computational effort required for this exercise was roughly 30 min for all scenarios considered, demonstrating that RealOpt© offers a very promising avenue for pursuing a comprehensive investigation involving a more diverse set of scenarios, and justifying work towards development of a robust system that can be widely deployed for use by state, local, and tribal health practitioners. Using our staff allocation and assignments for the Anthrax field exercise, DeKalb county achieved the highest throughput among all counties that simultaneously conducted the same scale of Anthrax exercise at various locations, with labor usage at or below the other counties. Indeed, DeKalb exceeded the targeted number of households, and it processed 50% more individuals compared to the second place county. None of the other counties achieved the targeted number of households. The external evaluators commented that DeKalb produced the most efficient floor plan (with no path crossing), the most cost-effective dispensing (lowest labor/throughput value), and the smoothest operations (shortest average wait time, average queue length, equalized utilization rate). The study proves that even without historical data, using our system one can plan ahead and be able to wisely estimate the required labor resources. The exercise also revealed many areas that need attention during the operations planning and design of dispensing centers. The type of disaster being confronted (e.g., biological attack, infectious disease outbreak, or a natural disaster) also dictates different design considerations with respect to the dispensing clinic, facility locations, dispensing and backup strategies, and level of security protection. Depending on the situation, backup plans will be different, and the level of security and military personnel, as well as the number of healthcare workers required, will vary. In summary, the study shows that a real-time decision support system is viable through careful design of a stand-alone simulator coupled with powerful tailor-designed optimization solvers. The flexibility of performing empirical tests quickly means the system is amenable for use in training and preparation, and for strategic planning before and during an emergency situation. The system facilitates analysis of “what-if'' scenarios, and serves as an invaluable tool for operational planning and dynamic on-the-fly reconfigurations of large-scale emergency dispensing clinics. It also allows for “virtual field exercises” to be performed on the decision support system, offering insight into operations flow and bottlenecks when mass dispensing is required for a region with a large population. The system, designed in modular form with a flexible implementation, enables future expansion and modification regarding emergency center design with respect to treatment for different biological threats or disease outbreaks. Working with emergency response departments, further fine-tuning and development of the system will be made to address different biological attacks and infectious disease outbreaks, and to ensure its practicality and usability.

Implementation of an automated operation planning and optimum operation sequencing and tool selection algorithms

Low volume and high product mix characterize a job shop manufacturing. The CAM software in generating NC programs needs to reduce dependence on human judgment in operation planning in order to be used in low repetitive and high product mix production environments. In this research, a procedure for extracting machining methods for automated operation planning is proposed. Furthermore, an optimum operation sequencing and tool selection algorithm is developed for a CAM system. Practical examples have been provided and comparisons made with a known algorithm. Results indicate that the algorithms proposed in this research establish automated operation planning with reduced dependence on human judgment. They achieved considerable flexibility and adaptability, allowing users to implement particular manufacturing knowledge of both their own and resources available at individual shop sites.

Green and Red: Enemies or Allies? The Utrecht Experience with Green Structure Planning

A case study of Utrecht demonstrates the application of Green Structure Plans in the Netherlands. At first the city's green areas department used strategic green structure planning as a defensive tool, but this had a limited impact. Operational planning tools were more successful in creating an important role for green areas in the city. Recently, however, green structure planning has re-emerged, not as a defensive sectoral instrument but as a tool for integrated strategies for red and green.

Applied Maintenance and Logistics Options in the Warfighters 21

ABSTRACTAs the current review of Department of Defense (DOD) structures, capabilities, and plans are coming to completion and moving into implementation phases, a focus to maintain is the delivery of mission capabilities for the front line warfighters. The mission capabilities packages are supported by the material, and also by the materiel support process, which includes not only the hardware, but more importantly the people, training, maintenance and support, and the doctrine, concepts of operations, tactics, techniques, and procedures for the material.Following an updated discussion on operational engineering, this paper expands the authors’ concept of operational engineering, to several applied logistics options and discussions in support of rapid decisive operations. It finishes with an introductory discussion of a logistics commander operational planning tool, which potentially can support and enable generation of rapid decisive operations. This tool could assist combatant commanders and their warfighters to operate inside the decision cycle of opponents on the front lines.Further, the concepts addressed align with the Quadrennial Defense Review 2001 task: to “Provide sufficient mobility, including airlift, sealift, prepositioning, basing infrastructure, alternative points of debarkation, and new logistical concepts of operations, to conduct expeditionary operations in distant theaters against adversaries armed with weapons of mass destruction and other means to deny access to U.S. forces” [emphasis added](QDR 2001).

Voltage stability analysis on the NGC system

The reactive power requirements on the National Grid Company (NGC) system have risen as a result of increased power flows and the shorter timescale on which power stations are commissioned and withdrawn from service. Power transfers across internal system boundaries are found in some cases to be determined by voltage limits and the need to avoid voltage collapse, rather than thermal capability of the transmission plant. Analytical techniques for voltage stability analyses have been under investigation with the ultimate objective of providing better tools for operational planning and operation. This paper describes the development of a method for voltage stability analysis using improved sensitivity techniques to rapidly calculate the transfer limit of any defined boundary. This is extended to include the modelling of synchronous compensators and static var compensators (SVCs), as well as on-load tap changers. Extensive testings of the algorithm are carried out on the NGC test systems.

Virtual Project Management: Tools and the Trade

This paper investigates the broad subject of project management organizations as they enter a new era of organizational arrangements. Practitioners and academics often refer to these arrangements as globally dispersed or as virtual project enterprises. This paper focuses on four related areas of virtual project organizations and their project teams. The paper presents a brief history about approaches to project management theory and practice and defines virtual project organizations. The paper addresses challenges concerning communication and technology for virtual project organizations. The paper then summarizes four key organizational structures that form the basis of project-based organizations. This context is necessary in showing why some of the problems in understanding organizational structures are related to how well this information is communicated through models. An evolution of management approaches necessitates a modification in the types of project management models and communication tools. The paper introduces a new model that is capable of educating practitioners about the importance of focusing on people-centered project management tools for virtual project organizations. The final section of the paper examines one strategic and operational planning and communication tool: the roundtable road-mapping method. The tool is simple yet it is important in understanding the level of personal involvement that may be required for successful communication and planning in nontraditional virtual project structures. The following paper is the winner of the 1997 International Student Paper Award. Sponsored by the PMI Educational Foundation, the International Student Paper Award recognizes excellence in student development of original concepts in project management. Mrs. Guss was presented the award at PMI '97 in Chicago, Illinois.

Development of Quality Management at the Medical Products Agency in Sweden

In order to develop the Medical Products Agency (MPA) as a highly competent drug regulatory agency, different kinds of quality systems have been studied such as ISO 9000 and the Swedish Quality Award, as well as various systems for total quality management. The decision has been made not to follow one single system but to choose the best and most important parts from each of several systems. One management tool for operational planning and controlling has already been implemented. This system includes 10 steps: analysis of the environment, intention, strategies, short- and long-term objectives, activities, personnel analysis, development plans, organization, and reports.Continuous quality improvement requires that different categories of managers and personnel interact and integrate their knowledge and experiences. To achieve this, the MPA has started continuous education programs for the entire staff concerning MPA's objectives and priorities and ways of responding to customers' needs. The education prog...

Intelsat planning and modelling software in support of IDR

AbstractIn order to plan for and integrate intermediate data rate (IDR) carriers into the INTELSAT newtork, while achieving quality service with efficient use of resources, operational planning tools and transmission system models are necessary. These computer software tools and models, which have evolved and grown in parallel with the INTELSAT network, comprise numerous applications on various types of computers, including mainframe, mini and personal computer systems. This paper presents an overview of the major planning and modelling software models used at INTELSAT in support of the use of IDR digital carriers within the INTELSAT system.

Information systems planning: Lessons from strategic planning

IS planning has changed considerably since its inception as an operational planning tool, expanding its scope to address key business objectives and forging a link with strategic business planning. A great deal of attention is currently focused on identifying and developing strategic information systems. Strategic planning has also become more broadly-focused over time, as simple forecasting techniques have been replaced by a variety of adaptive approaches that emphasize industry structure analysis and environmental dynamics. However, strategic planning has come under fire recently for failing to live up to its promises. As these two disciplines become more closely aligned, IS planners can learn from the experiences of strategic planners and, hopefully, avoid a similar crisis of confidence.

Nursing Classification System

This article demonstrates the usefulness of the Nursing Classification System (NCS) as an operational planning and control tool. Inherent in the NCS is sensitivity both to the quality of nursing care standards and to the variability in patient acuity levels. Consequently, the NCS provides a more effective basis for setting and monitoring productivity objectives in nursing service areas than cruder measures, such as full-time equivalents per patient day. Here the authors introduce and illustrate the concept of workload indexing, a means by which the NCS assists in defining staffing needs and monitoring workload and performance. The nursing administrator will gain insight into a simple and economical method of fiscal accountability for the personnel budget.

Operational planning for pumped storage power station using heuristic techniques

A computer algorithm is described that coordinates, economically, the operation of a large pumped storage scheme with an existing thermal generation system. It uses heuristic techniques to establish a system model for operation, based largely on the manual merit order method, and in incorporates several operating constraints, including generator maximum and minimum generation levels, minimum shutdown times and loading and unloading rates. Designed specifically as an operational planning tool, the algorithm produces a unit commitment and load schedule for every half-hour interval of any load curve supplied. By costing this schedule with and without the pumped storage scheme, a pumping cost is obtained that can then be compared with other methods of frequency control. Finally, by extending the schedule to include hydrogeneration, the economic benefit of using the scheme in this mode may also be evaluated.