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Long used to shipping their lumber at globally competitive prices, rather than having to go out and aggressively sell it, Canadian producers are wondering what else they can do in [...]

With housing starts in the US -Canada's major market - struggling to teach 585,000 units this year, compared with more than two million at the market peak in 2005, Canada's [...]

Fundamental structural shifts in the North American timber industry could have far-reaching effects around the world. These changes have been pushed into the background by the recent global and US [...]

Strongly rising prices for coniferous sawnwood (softwood lumber) in North America and export sales to China are a convincing indicator of some very important fundamental supply-side structural changes taking place [...]

The forest products industry of British Columbia is facing a shortage of timber supply as a result of environmental regulations and public attitudes against harvesting of natural-growth forests. The situation, however, can be remedied by improved utilization and enhanced forest management which would guarantee the reservation of a greater area of the forests for the industry. Furthermore, various sectors are uniting to create a strategic plan for the industry. However, if these actions do not prove to be successful, the province's forest products industry may lose ground in the global market., The company executive was explaining to a visiting group of European foresters the problems faced today by British Columbia's forest sector. Wilderness preservation, parks, and other set-asides, he explained, are [...]

Twenty-two patients with Herpes Simplex were treated with Betadine (povidone iodine) Antiseptic Paint and seven with 5% idoxuridine in dimethyl sulphoxide, also one patient with bilateral lesions was treated with the two solutions, one on each side.The povidone iodine alcohol solution appeared to be at least as effective as the idoxuridine with minimal side-effects (some stinging in two patients). Good results were also obtained with this solution in twelve patients with Herpes Zoster.

The article focuses on the that benefit from linear improvement methods, the core patient care functions of diagnosing, selecting treatments and providing bedside care are resistant to deterministic improvement approaches. It mentions that nurses provide care in chaotic environments taking care of multiple patients; and also mentions that medical informatics systems are moving beyond mindless and burdensome alerts.

The article shares the experience of a young engineering colleague in the steel industry, who described his benchmarking visit to another facility and observed differences in process, and that he was frustrated that engineers at the other facility cannot explain why they selected specific parameters and procedures.

The article offers information on the increasing role of the industrial engineers in healthcare system. It discusses that U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimated the percentage of employees employed in healthcare in the U.S. It mentions the skills industrial engineers to negotiate the social complexity of healthcare organizations.

The article discusses the author's insights on inpatient length of stay ( LOS) in the hospital. He suggests that nurses and physicians must understand the LOS methods for improving quality and flow apply to patient care. The author discusses some steps in creating the LOS awareness as LOS could be determined by a patient's unique condition and recuperative capacity.

The article offers the author's insights on the discrete event simulation (DES) used in healthcare. Topics mentioned include the several DES topics used in modeling healthcare operations including outpatient clinic flow, emergency department flow, and intensive care, the contribution of medical center chief of staff William Cahill on the development of DES, and the importance of DES in terms of medical quality and patient safety.

The article offers the information on the Problem-solving in healthcare. It mentions about the Japan, they adopted a train solution that ranges from ubiquitous intracity commuter trains to intercity Shinkansen bullet trains, and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality found that inpatients admitted to U.S. hospitals.

The article offers the author's insights regarding mass customization and feedforward in the healthcare industry, with particular focus on the manufacturing system by vehicle manufacturer Volvo. Topics include the adoption of industrial and systems engineering (ISE) process management tools and methods by healthcare systems, lack of control systems in healthcare, and precision medicine.

The article focuses on medical doctor Robert Jesse had challenged Veterans Engineering Resource Centers (VERC) to develop operations analytics method to ensure quality of health care. Topics discussed include competing performance measures established by the government agencies, statistical process control (SPC) which is not part of clinical training and business process management in healthcare.

A personal narrative is presented which explores the author's experience introducing lean management to the Veterans Health Administration and discovered that not all lean methods can fit into patient care.

The article focuses on the challenge posed to the application of systems engineering reliability methods to healthcare. Topics discussed include an overview of systems engineering reliability methods, the stochastic nature of disease, the clinicians' adoption of the human error perspective of these systems.

The article offers the author's insights on the importance of considering tribalism in improving healthcare organizations. Topics discussed include the association between the personal responsibility and the professional culture of physicians, the role of nurses in the context of physician patient-care work, and the role of administrators in improving the delivery of health care.

The article presents the views of Peter Woodbridge, the Managing Director (MD) at the New Mexico VA Health Care System. Topics include the lack of standard operating procedure manuals in patient care services, how he transformed two poorly performing Veterans Health Administration (VHA) medical centers and managing patient flow in emergency departments.