| Because bio-medical equipment is a necessity for the effective care of patients in an acute care setting, hospitals must purchase and manage equipment carefully. Often the case that exists in hospitals today is that equipment is not managed effectively. This results in many problems including the gathering or "hoarding" of equipment by clinicians so that equipment is always available for use. It also creates several other problems such as under utilization, improper maintenance and cleaning, and lost equipment.;'Design for Six Sigma' (DFSS) is a problem solving methodology often used for product or service development. It is an effective way of creating a process that is focused around customer needs. Recently, as many other industrial engineering principles have migrated to healthcare, DFSS is being used to design processes in healthcare.;This research is in accordance with a healthcare system based in Marlton, New Jersey, who seeks to create an equipment depot that addresses equipment management problems. DFSS is chosen as a tool to create this process. Because the application of DFSS is scarce in healthcare, this research seeks to show the effectiveness of this methodology for developing processes in healthcare. In addition to the use of DFSS, simulation is used as a main component in the methodology.;Proper process variables are determined for the new equipment depot using Design for Six Sigma and simulation in order to meet the customer's requirements for lead time. The z-score for the proposed design achieves a value of 6.12. According to this result, 4 deliveries per year will be outside the customer's specification limits. This is an acceptable number of late deliveries by the standards of DFSS. |
