Application of Fuzzy Optimization to Production-Distribution Planning in Supply Chain Management

A production-distribution model has been developed that not only allocates the limited available resources and equipment to produce the products over the time periods, but also determines the economical distributors for dispatching the products to the distribution centers or retailers. The model minimizes production, inventory holding, backordering, and transportation cost while considering the time value of money. Since uncertainty is an inevitable issue of any real-world production system, then to provide a realistic model, the concept of fuzzy sets has been applied in the proposed mathematical modeling. To illustrate and show the feasibility and validity of the model, a real case analysis, which is pertaining to a mineral water bottling production factory, has been used. The case has been solved using a three-step solution approach developed in this study. The results show the feasibility and validity of the mathematical model, and also the solution procedure

Incident Reporting in Mashhad Hospitals

Objectives: In this study, our aim was to evaluate and classify the voluntary error reports in the hospitals of Mashhad University of Medical Sciences. Patients have the right to receive health care in accordance to the best standards. Health care carries a risk of harm for patient safety, and with respect to today’s stressful systems with a large number of patients, it would be inevitable. The meaning of risk management is to predict adverse events and reduce their occurrence.Materials and Methods: A voluntary medical error reporting form was designed and approved by the clinical governance team of Mashhad Medical University. They were then distributed inside hospitals in the way in which everyone (health providers and patients) could access them easily. The forms were collected and classified monthly in all wards. Classification was performed on the base of type, outcome and reporter. Data gathering took place from spring to autumn 2012. The data was analyzed by the SPSS software. Results: 2500 errors were extracted from 1000 voluntary error reporting forms of the 12 hospitals of Mashhad Medical University. The most frequent error type was treatment errors (36%) related to drug administration, standard procedures and surgical events. Conclusions: Error reporting as a basic activity has an important role in discovering pitfalls of the health care system. To promote the reporting culture, its non punitive base must become clear for all professors and staff members, because this kind of reporting could lead to fewer medical errors and higher staff awareness about probable errors