文档介绍：Computers & Industrial Engineering 41 =2001) 309±333
ate/dsw
Multi-objective analysis of hospital delivery systems
Manuel D. Rossettia,*, Francesco Selandarib
aDepartment of Industrial Engineering, Room 4207 Bell Engineering Center, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville,
AR 72701, USA
bPolytechnic of Milan, Via Giulio Uberti, 12, 20129 Milano, Italy
Accepted 30 July 2001
Abstract
Automation introduction in hospital applications has e increasingly important in recent years. Delivery,
transportation and distribution services are examples of critical operations that can be automated. This paper
examines clinical laboratory and pharmacy deliveries in middle to large size hospitals, in order to evaluate whether
or not a ¯eet of mobile robots can replace a traditional human-based delivery system. plexity of the
problem derives from its multi-objective character, since several, often contrasting factors must be taken under
consideration. The problem mon characteristics with transportation system design and automation intro-
duction evaluation in manufacturing. The Analytic Hierarchy Process was used to build a decision problem that
synthesized economic and technical performance as well as social, human and environmental factors. The tech-
nical performance measures were assessed puter simulation. This research provides a methodology to
approach automation introduction evaluation in a hospital environment. The ®nal results enable a better under-
standing of the delivery and transportation requirements of middle to large size hospitals and how a ¯eet of mobile
robots can meet these requirements. We applied our methodology to the University of Virginia Health Science
Center. We show with a high overall con®dence that a ¯eet of mobile robots can achieve better ®nal results than a
human-based transportation system according to a representative preference structure formulated by a hospital
manager. An ANOVA analysis indicates that the ®nal results w