Scheduling staff shifts is a difficult task. In organizations that work on Sundays, and/or on public holidays, and/or during night hours, scheduling shifts accurately and efficiently is a time consuming job, and it also exposes employers to the risk of excessive overtime costs and poor distribution of workload among employees. In order to be efficient, anyone who has the task of planning the activities of an organization must learn to perform two activities that are interconnected but distinct: first, he must learn to represent the data specific to his organization’s problem in an organized manner, ideally resolving the matter manually, with pen and paper; then, he must learn to use a software dedicated to the problem of shift scheduling. This book teaches how to address the problem of allocating tasks systematically, and also teaches how to use a dedicated software program to achieve this purpose without wasting time with repetitive tasks in search of the best organizational solution, operations that can be performed by a computer. Thus, in this book we will first discuss the data analysis of the problem that needs to be addressed before making use of any software tool. We will then proceed by giving examples and referring to one of the most efficient and cheap software solutions available on the market: ZonaTEAM, produced by Zonabit Sistemi. Attentive readers of this book will become experts in planning, and will acquire the ability to plan with full and rational use of available human resources, saving in overtime costs, all the while providing fair treatment of employees.

A MUST-HAVE, PRACTICAL GUIDE THAT CONNECTS SCHEDULING AND CONSTRUCTION PROJECT MANAGEMENT In A Contractor’s Guide to Planning, Scheduling, and Control, an experienced construction professional delivers a unique and effective approach to the planning and scheduling responsibilities of a construction project manager, superintendent, or jobsite scheduler. The author describes the complete scheduling cycle, from preconstruction and scheduling through controls and closeout, from the perspective of real-world general contractors and scheduling professionals. Filled with tools and strategies that actually help contractors build projects, and light on academic jargon and terminology that’s not used in the field, the book includes examples of real craft workers and subcontractors, like electricians, carpenters, and drywallers, to highlight the concepts discussed within. Finally, an extensive appendix rounds out the book with references to additional resources for the reader. This comprehensive guide includes: Thorough introductions to construction contracting, lean construction planning, subcontractor management, and more A comprehensive exploration of a commercial case study that’s considered in each chapter, connecting critical topics with a consistent through line End-of-chapter review questions and applied exercises Access to a companion website that includes additional resources and, for instructors, solutions, additional case studies, sample estimates, and sample schedules Perfect for upper-level undergraduate students in construction management and construction engineering programs, A Contractor’s Guide to Planning, Scheduling, and Control is also an irreplaceable reference for general contractors and construction project management professionals.

This book offers a comprehensive reference guide to operations research theory and applications in health care systems. It provides readers with all the necessary tools for solving health care problems. The respective chapters, written by prominent researchers, explain a wealth of both basic and advanced concepts of operations research for the management of operating rooms, intensive care units, supply chain, emergency medical service, human resources, lean health care, and procurement. To foster a better understanding, the chapters include relevant examples or case studies. Taken together, they form an excellent reference guide for researchers, lecturers and postgraduate students pursuing research on health care management problems. The book presents a dynamic snapshot on the field that is expected to stimulate new directions and stimulate new ideas and developments.

Commercial advanced planning and scheduling (APS) systems have been around for about 25 years and have seen widespread adoption in a variety of companies. The promises made by APS system implementations are high, and at the same time, APS projects are complex, costly, and carry a significant risk of failure. There is a great need for guidance on how to successfully implement APS systems, which is why this book was written. In this book, we aim to discuss all facets of APS implementation, from theoretical background to definition, vendor selection, system design and the implementation process. In addition, this book helps readers understand how the underlying concepts were formed, why a concept will work in practice, and when it will not. The contents of this book are based on many years of academic research and APS implementation experience. It draws together theory and practice in production control and explains how theories can be applied to support planning and scheduling processes in practice. This book will help anyone involved in APS implementations to achieve success: human planners generate better plans than before, using the APS.

This book contains a series of papers that were presented during the Sixth IEA International Symposium on Human Factors in Organizational Design and Management (ODAM '98). The Symposium was sponsored jointly by the International Ergonomics Society, the Dutch Ergonomics Society, NIA TNO and The Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment. These experiences include new ideas, research results, tools, and applications of human-organization interface technology to improving work systems. New technology, changing work force demographics, changing attitudes and values about work and what constitutes real quality of work life, have heightened the need for a true systems approach to optimizing the interfaces between humans, technology and organizational structures and processes. Growing world competition, and the related need to make organizations more productive and efficient, have further intensified this need to improve work systems. This need is reflected in the rapid development of macroergonomics methods and applications since the first of these ODAM Symposia in 1984. What then was recognized by only a few researchers and practitioners has now become a widely accepted part of the human factors/ergonomics discipline. As demonstrated by the papers contained herein, application of macroergonomics is having a very real positive impact on sociotechnical systems internationally. Included in this volume are a broad selection of papers on theory, methodology, tools, research findings, and case studies from leading professionals throughout the world. This volume thus provides the reader with some of the latest developments in human-organization interface technology. Collectively, these papers should provide the reader with a good conceptual understanding of the ergonomic approach to work system design, and of its tremendous potential for improving work systems and the human condition in all cultures.

It is clear that the development of large software systems is an extremely complex activity, which is full of various opportunities to introduce errors. Software engineering is the discipline that provides methods to handle this complexity and enables us to produce reliable software systems with maximum productivity. An Integrated Approach to Software Engineering is different from other approaches because the various topics are not covered in isolation. A running case study is employed throughout the book, illustrating the different activity of software development on a single project. This work is important and instructive because it not only teaches the principles of software engineering, but also applies them to a software development project such that all aspects of development can be clearly seen on a project.

In a joint effort between the National Academy of Engineering and the Institute of Medicine, this books attempts to bridge the knowledge/awareness divide separating health care professionals from their potential partners in systems engineering and related disciplines. The goal of this partnership is to transform the U.S. health care sector from an underperforming conglomerate of independent entities (individual practitioners, small group practices, clinics, hospitals, pharmacies, community health centers et. al.) into a high performance "system" in which every participating unit recognizes its dependence and influence on every other unit. By providing both a framework and action plan for a systems approach to health care delivery based on a partnership between engineers and health care professionals, Building a Better Delivery System describes opportunities and challenges to harness the power of systems-engineering tools, information technologies and complementary knowledge in social sciences, cognitive sciences and business/management to advance the U.S. health care system.