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Patients' satisfaction with an appointment system when they attempt to book a nonurgent appointment is affected by their ability to book with a doctor of choice and to book an [...]

Appointment scheduling systems are used by primary and specialty care clinics to manage access to service providers, as well as by hospitals to schedule elective surgeries. Many factors affect the performance of appointment systems including arrival and service time variability, patient and provider preferences, available information technology and the experience level of the scheduling staff. In addition, a critical bottleneck lies in the application of Industrial Engineering and Operations Research (IE/OR) techniques. The most common types of health care delivery systems are described in this article with particular attention on the factors that make appointment scheduling challenging. For each environment relevant decisions ranging from a set of rules that guide schedulers to real-time responses to deviations from plans are described. A road map of the state of the art in the design of appointment management systems is provided and future opportunities for novel applications of IE/OR models are identified. Keywords: Appointment scheduling, health care operations management, access rules, 1. Introduction The health care industry represents approximately 15% of the gross domestic product of the United States. Health care expenditures are growing at a rate such that the amount [...]

We consider a cargo booking problem on a single-leg flight with the goal of maximizing expected contribution. Each piece of cargo is endowed with a random volume and a random [...]

A study uses game theory to examine the supply chain management between the manufacturer and supplier of electronic goods. The inventory management techniques of the supplier are discussed.

Consider two markets of different sizes but similar costs and fare structure. All other things being equal, is an airline's expected revenue larger in the market with larger demand? If [...]

Integrated Steel Manufacturers (ISMs) perform all of the steps necessary to convert iron ore into finished products. As a result they are characterized by high capital expenditures and long cycle times. The custom nature of finished products and significant demand uncertainty explains why ISMs typically produce to order. However, recent increased competition from low cost mini-mills is causing some ISMs to compete by serving the needs of higher-paying customers who want exotic products, and faster and reliable deliveries. Consequently, ISMs are exploring the option of satisfying a portion of their demand by converting strategically placed semi-finished inventory into finished products, which helps to reduce both the time between order receipt and order dispatch, and its variability. In this study we propose a two-stage stochastic integer programming model that can be used to choose the semi-finished products that should be made to stock, and their target inventory levels. Properties of this model are exploited to develop a fast heuristic applicable to large-scale instances of the problem encountered in industry. Numerical experiments are used to validate the heuristic, and examples based on data from a particular ISM are used to illustrate important managerial insights., 1. Introduction Industries in which products are highly customized tend to operate primarily according to a Make-To-Order (MTO) policy. However, it is frequently the case that some proportion of the [...]

Merger and acquisition activity has increased sharply in the last decade. It seems useful to have models that can help senior managers of bidder firms make informed decisions about the amount of premium, over the target's share prices prevailing prior to merger announcement, that can be justified on the basis of operational synergies. The goal of this article is to capture important parameters from the production side that have a bearing on the valuation of the target's shares. We show that the production characteristics of both the bidder and the target matter in a significant way. For example, if the bidder and target operate in independent markets, the bidder has flexible production facilities but the target's production facilities are inflexible, then an increase in the bidder's demand can make the target less attractive and lower the value of operational synergy., 1. Introduction Merger and acquisition (M&A) activity has increased significantly since the early 1990s. The worldwide dollar value of M&A (1) in 1998 was 50% higher than in 1997, and [...]