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This study explores healthcare operations management core challenges, a literature review was conducted by reading numerous secondary data sources, including government papers, industry reports, and scholarly literature. The findings were ten key challenges that are typically encountered by stakeholders in healthcare operations management. Those are resource allocation, cost control, patient flow and waiting times, data management and technology integration, regulatory compliance and quality assurance, staffing and workforce management, supply chain management, patient engagement and satisfaction, emergency preparedness and disaster management, encouraging a culture of innovation and continuous improvement. The results provide a significant contribution to the body of information already in existence by illuminating the recognized difficulties highlighting their complexities if not mitigated. The research question that this study aims to answer is “what is the most critical challenge faced in healthcare operations management”, based on the outcomes of the research, the relative weight of each challenge might change depending on the particular objectives and difficulties that a healthcare organization faces. Making it critical for them to take a balanced strategy that takes these aspects' interactions into account. In hospital operations management, a holistic approach that incorporates these variables is frequently the most successful technique. Prioritizing one area above others may not result in ideal outcomes thus, no one challenge can be considered more critical than the other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The hyperloop is an upcoming transportation technology promising to revolutionize the way people and cargo are transported, given the shear speed advantage that a hyperloop pod can travel in as compared to that of any other current land-based transportation mode. Using secondary sources to theoretically examine the effects of the hyperloop on existing supply chains, further point estimates are obtained surrounding different variables of the hyperloop such as its speed, carry capacity, and launch rate. A preliminary investigation is then conducted in the context of northern Germany, where 19,360,000 tons of cargo were transported in 2013 using trucks. As such, a mirrored hyperloop-based supply chain is modelled, simulated, and compared to that of the control, using Arena. It is estimated that the hyperloop could have transported 8% more cargo within the same time period, where it is seen that 26% more hyperloop pods are dispatched when compared to trucks, as per the simulation output. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Happiness is a form of social capital, that aids in increasing the tangible benefits for the society. The countries rich in social capital (Human development Index) are less likely to spend their budget on hospitals, prisons, depressions and rehabilitation center. Recently, a greater amount of attention has been given to the 'Subjective Happiness' by academia and economists, that considers it as an essential variable for the welfare, economic and a guide for policy. The construct of the 'Subjective Happiness' Index can be used to develop a system to flourish a society. Over the years, the importance of the construct has been adopted in a number of fields and sectors in a society, of which education is a significant contributor to ensure a sustainable success. This study, therefore, intents to adopt an exploratory approach to understand the concept of Happiness as a construct and define a set of underpinning criteria that makes a 'Subjective Happiness' Index. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In today's world, data communication and execution- whether online or offline- became essential in all business fields. Considering the case of offline execution, data files are collected in groups called input batches and processed using available resources to get the required aggregated output in the form of "output batch", this process is called Data Batching. In most applications of batch processing, the target is to execute required tasks within specified time frame while fulfilling all predecessors' requirements and constraints set by the client using minimum resources. The data batch process terms and conditions are stated in the contract between service provider and the client - Known as Service Level Agreement (SLA). In this work we present an algorithm to minimize the total cost of data batch processing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work we developed a mathematical model to study the problem of capacitated lot sizing. The problem under study is concerned with multi-period planning and scheduling for a company that runs multiple plants to produce multiple grades of product. The company owns multiple warehouses and the raw material needed for production is provided by different suppliers. There is a setup cost for switching the production between the different product grades and the setup cost is sequence dependent. The problem under study is in the petrochemical manufacturing field. When different grades are produced in a petrochemical facility, a non-prime material is formed, this material depends on the production sequence of the differ grades. The model will answer questions related to supplier selection for raw material, production plan for each plant, inventory levels of the different grades at each plant, and warehouse selection to satisfy demand. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]