Date of Award

2011

Publisher

North Dakota State University

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Awarded

Master of Science (MS)

Program

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

Department

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

College

Engineering

Faculty Advisor

Zhang, Jun

Description

This study develops a method to determine the most efficient scheduling model for a specific clinic setting. The appointment scheduling system assigns clinics' timeslots to incoming requests. There are three major scheduling models: centralized scheduling model (CSM), decentralized scheduling model (DSM) and hybrid scheduling model (HSM). In order to schedule multiple appointments, CSM involves one scheduler, DSM involves all the schedulers of individual clinics and HSM combines CSM and DSM. Clinic settings are different in terms of important factors such as randomness of appointment arrival and proportion of multiple appointments. Scheduling systems operate inefficiently if there is not an appropriate match between scheduling models and clinic settings to provide balance between indicators of efficiency. A procedure is developed to determine the most efficient scheduling model by the integrated contribution of simulation and Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). A case study serves as a guide to use and as proof for the validity of the developed procedure.

Rights

NDSU policy 190.6.2

Rights Link

https://www.ndsu.edu/fileadmin/policy/190.pdf

Handle Identifier

https://hdl.handle.net/10365/33468

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