Jim SinurI call this one “real time resource management”. One of the challenges, for organizations, going forward is how to dynamically balance resources for client satisfaction and optimization. This innovative use of simulation and “the internet of things” together really points to one of the future directions of the intelligent business process management suite (iBPMS). This one is all about managing surgeries and leveraging the right resources at the right time. I found this one fascinating.
![MP900313990[1]](http://blogs.gartner.com/jim_sinur/files/2012/01/MP9003139901.jpg)
Managing the Surgical Theaters:
The first step in this intelligent operation revolves around looking forward to the scheduled surgical procedures for the coming day. The first step is to use simulation to schedule the surgical theaters and to make sure the right resources are in the surgical theaters at the precise moment they are needed. Patients and doctors are the primary scheduling components, but there are specialty nurses, attendants and workers that need to be scheduled in sequence. Surgical theaters need to be prepared for each medical procedure and different procedures require different equipment and different sub-procedures. Early every day a simulation is run with resulting charts to show the optimal sequence and overlaps in a time line fashion.
Managing the People Involved:
Each patient, doctor and worker has there individual time line with each staging area and surgical theater shown as a “going in” plan for every individual possible. If everything goes to plan the resulting simulation is the guide for optimal resource utilization with minimal impact on the patient while being cognizant of leveraging the rarest skills the best way for any given day.
Managing the Dynamic Surgical Procedures:
What make this IBO better than those I have seen in the past in the surgical management process is the ability to tag every person with a tracking device to watch the actual movement and completion points (milestones) with visible tracking on top of the original plan. So the state of the patient, doctors, nurses and support staff is know in “real time”. If something happens that takes the plan in an unexpected direction (longer procedure; patient reaction, worker delays and equipment issues), the plan can be re-simulated based on the complications/deviations and project a new plan in “near real time”.
Net; Net:
This results in a safer and better experience for the patient in tandem with dynamic resource scheduling. Going forward each piece of equipment and it’s state will be known to predict potential unexpected/undesired states. For instance each scalpel will be tracked and it’s state of sterilization and factored into the original plan as well as the “real time” adjustments.
The above success story has been summarized and made anonymous to get the essence of the success documented quickly. The source of this success story is a technology provider named Bosch/Inubit.
Category: Applications BPM Business Process Improvement Business Rules Challenges Cloud EA ERP Green IT Governance Innovation Optimization Simulation Strategic Planning Success Technology Visibility Tags: BPM, business, Business Process Improvement, Business Rules, Decision Management, events, Green, Optimization, Process Improvement, Process Management, Simulation, symposium
8 responses so far ↓
1 Curtis Michelson January 10, 2012 at 4:54 pm
Jim, I’m enjoying these success snippets.
In this particular example, I’m curious about the basic economics here. Did deploying iBPMS cost 1 million dollars, and did the improved use of resources and customer experience justify the expense of the system? i.e., what’s the ROI picture here?
I’m not saying I’m skeptical, but having worked in the healthcare vertical and seen so much money thrown at so many problems, to only achieve marginal improvements, it does give me pause to read a success story in this sector, and makes me wonder whether we’re hitting a point of diminishing returns in some of these cases.
Thanks.
2 Jim Sinur January 10, 2012 at 5:17 pm
It is my understanding that the level of savings was sufficient to encourage other projects.
3 Success Snippet: Intelligent Business Operations « Smart International Business January 10, 2012 at 11:32 pm
[...] Success Snippet: Intelligent Business Operations Comments [...]
4 Shalin Shah January 11, 2012 at 3:15 pm
Great post, Jim!
Here’s how I believe IBO can help surgical theaters:
1.) Decision-makers would be able to quickly perform forensic analysis by viewing the right information in the simplest format through powerful Web 2.0-rich dashboards.
2.) Decision-makers would be able to instantaneously analyze thousands of events-per-second from structured and unstructured data feeds and other sources to detect any risk patterns via a Complex-Event Processing engine.
3.) Decision-makers would have the ability to define and manage rules, apply these rules to specific events, and ultimately take automated action according to these defined rules, all through a BPM Suite. Warning messages, such as low scalpel supply, would be automated, resources (e.g., Doctors and nurses) would be managed in real-time, and any provisioning needs would be predicted ahead-of-time.
5 Sharad January 13, 2012 at 7:49 am
Jim,
Interesting post, but I think it is a little futuristic like the \refrigerators\ that we were promised would order milk for us when the inventory levels were low- when Java was introduced to this world somwhere over a decade ago.
You wrote: \What make this IBO better than those I have seen in the past in the surgical management process is the ability to tag every person with a tracking device to watch the actual movement and completion points (milestones) with visible tracking on top of the original plan.\
The problem with such a tracking system is that it has to \learn,\ \remember\ and \compensate\ for individual styles of conducting operations. It is then getting into the realm of AI, at which point one starts wondering whether regular companies would begin investing in such complex apps. I am reminded of the complxe, mathematical models that western experts of Industrial and Production Engineering built to model operations from the 40s to the 70s, but which were swept aside by the simple techniques of the Toyota Production System and Agile.
There are far too many variables that need watching. Having seen how industries have treated MRP-based planning, I am not sure they would be patient enough to model all of it unless those are automatically collected. I think we seriously need a reality check on this one.
6 Jim Sinur January 13, 2012 at 9:27 am
Thanks for your comments on complexity. This is in production and running just fine adapting to different doctors with different styles. This is no more complex than the online engine management systems on those Toyotas and they seem to be doing fine.
7 Success Snippet: Intelligent Business Operations; Leveraging the iBPMS for Mass Personalization January 23, 2012 at 2:53 pm
[...] how linking an iBPMS to the “internet of things” through visible and intelligent tagging . See http://blogs.gartner.com/jim_sinur/2012/01/10/success-snippet-intelligent-business-operations/   This time I want to share a story about configuration and personalization. The industry [...]
8 Success Snippet: Intelligent Business Operations; Leveraging the iBPMS for Mass Personalization January 24, 2012 at 11:27 am
[...] how linking an iBPMS to the “internet of things” through visible and intelligent tagging . See http://blogs.gartner.com/jim_sinur/2012/01/10/success-snippet-intelligent-business-operations/ This time I want to share a story about configuration and personalization. The industry is [...]