Assessment and prioritisation of Healthcare 4.0 implementation in hospitals using Quality Function Deployment

Abstract

This study proposes a problem-oriented methodology, using the algebraic operations proposed in the Quality Function Deployment's house-of-quality, to prioritise the integration of Industry 4.0 (I4.0) technologies in hospitals, allowing us to account for both the importance of healthcare value chain problems and the current level of adoption of I4.0 technologies. The proposed method combines different techniques that aimed at assessing the maturity of organisations regarding specific issues and indicating improvement opportunities. Our propositions are illustrated through two case studies carried out in a large Brazilian public hospital and in a private hospital in India, allowing a comparative analysis in which we identify similarities and divergences in improvement priorities in each institution. Findings indicate that the proposed method supports the systemic integration of I4.0 technologies into healthcare organisations regardless hospital ownership, as digital applications are ranked according to their potential to solve the problems prioritised by managers from both case studies. Digital integration in healthcare organisations has been restricted to specific sectors, departments, treatment or processes. Due to high complexity of hospitals, most of these initiatives have fallen short on results, frustrating managers’ efforts. Thus, our method provides hospitals’ managers, authorities, and governments guidelines to prioritise the digitisation of healthcare organisations.

KEYWORDS:

• Healthcare 4.0
• reverse QFD
• healthcare operations management
• supply chain
• roadmap

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Guilherme Luz Tortorella

Guilherme Luz Tortorella is Associate Professor of the Department of Systems and Production Engineering of the Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Brazil. He is the Head of Research of the Productivity and Continous Improvement Lab and the Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Lean Systems. He is one of the founders of the Brazilian Conference on Lean Systems and has more than 18 years with practical and academic experience with manufacturing and operations management.

Flavio Sanson Fogliatto

Flavio S. Fogliatto holds a Full Professor position in the IE Dept of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. He received his PhD in Industrial & Systems Engineering from Rutgers University, USA. Prof. Fogliatto specialises in the research areas of Quality Engineering, Operations Research, and Healthcare Analytics. His work has been published in Chemometrics, PP&C, Computers & Industrial Engineering, International Journal of Production Research and International Journal of Production Economics, among others.

Vijaya Sunder M

Vijaya Sunder M currently works at the Indian School of Business as Assistant Professor of Operations Management. Previously, he was the Head of Business Process Excellence at the World Bank Group. He holds a PhD in Operational Excellence from the Department of Management Studies, Indian Institute of Technology Madras. Vijaya does research in Lean Six Sigma, quality management, operational excellence, strategy & operations, and organisation capabilities.

Alejandro Mac Cawley Vergara

Alejandro F. Mac Cawley is an Associate Professor with a joint appointment in the Industrial and Systems Engineering Department and the Agricultural Economics Department at Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile (PUC) in Santiago, Chile. His research interests focus on the application of OR techniques to natural resource-based systems and healthcare with a focus on supply chain coordination, production planning, lean production, industry 4.0, scheduling, decision support systems and reliability.

Roberto Vassolo

Roberto Vassolo is Full Professor of the IAE Business School at the Universidad Austral, Argentina, and Visiting Profess oat the Department of Industrial Engineering and Systemes at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. His main research field has been Strategic Management in High Uncertainty contexts, Strategy under the Business Cycle, Competitive Dynamics in Natural Resource Industries, and Adaptation of Organisational Routines.