posted on 2018-01-08, 16:11authored byStewart Robinson, Claire Worthington, Nicola Burgess, Zoe J. Radnor
Is it possible for discrete-event simulation to be used in a facilitated workshop environment? Over the last decade there have been various attempts to use simulation in this way, but we argue here that none have been successful in achieving a fully facilitated mode where the model is both developed and used in the workshop. We attempt to use a discrete-event simulation in a facilitated mode as part of a lean improvement workshop in a hospital setting. The model was successfully developed and used within the 3 day period of the workshop. Although the intervention was successful, we still had to build the model in the ‘back-office’, meaning that a fully facilitated mode was not achieved. The paper concludes by discussing how fully facilitated modelling with discrete-event simulation might be made possible; the answer is more about changing mind-sets than about technological challenge.
Funding
The financial support of the Strategic Lean Implementation Methodology (SLIM) project (www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/wbs/projects/slim) is acknowledged. SLIM was funded by the Warwick Innovative Manufacturing Research Centre (EPSRC Grant reference EP/G049971/1).
History
Citation
European Journal of Operational Research, 2014, 234 (1), pp. 231-240 (10)
Author affiliation
/Organisation/COLLEGE OF SOCIAL SCIENCES, ARTS AND HUMANITIES/School of Business