• Korean Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
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• v.5 no.5 s.21
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• pp.101-108
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• 2004

A construction process consists of value adding activities and non-value adding activities, necessary or unnecessary. If construction personnel can eliminate inefficient and/or unnecessary activities within the process, they may have a great opportunity to improve their construction process. The Product Process Analysis (PPA) technique, which was developed in the manufacturing industry, can be applied for identifying wastes in the construction process and ultimately improving the process itself. It provides useful tools, such as a process chart worksheet and flow diagram, for mapping the flow of construction activities with predetermined standardized symbols. These tools make people understand the flow of activities more easily, identify value adding/non-value adding activities within the process, and areas where the process can be improved. The example applications of PPA are demonstrated in the paper through the case studies implemented on the construction process of structural steel. The results of case studies indicate that PPA technique was effective at identifying and removing wastes in the steel construction process. It is also found that PPA technique is more effective for improving highly repetitive construction processes.

• Quality Improvement in Health Care
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.106-116
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• 2000

Background : Severance Hospital is an university hospital which has 1,580 beds. A LAN system was installed in the Medical Record Department in 1992 and discharge abstract data have been added to the discharge abstract database(DB) The previous work flow in the Medical Record Department had 5 levels: 1) chart collection from wards, 2) assembling, 3) abstracting data from medical record on worksheet by 2 RRAs, 4) checking deficiencies and coding diagnosis and procedures by 4 RRAs, 5) inputting the data into the discharge abstract data base by 1 RRA. The average processing time took 19.3 days from the patient discharge date. It had the production of monthly statistical report delayed. Besides, it caused the users in the hospital to complain. Methods : A CQI team was organized to find a way to shorten the processing time less than 10 days. The team identified the factors making the processing time long and integrated three levels from the 3rd level into one. Each of 7 RRAs performed the integrated level on her workstation instead of taking one of three separate levels. The comparison of processing time before and after the changes was made with 3'846 discharges of April, 1999 and 4,189 discharges of August, 1999. Results : The average processing time was shortened from 19.3 days to 8.7 days. Especially the integrated level took only 3.6 days, compared with 12.3 days before the change. The percentage of finishing up the whole processing within 10 days from discharge was increased up to 77.6%, which was 2.4% before the integration. The prevalence of error in data input was not increased in the new method. Conclusions : The integrated processing method has the following advantages: 1) the expedition of production of monthly statistical report, 2) the increase of utilizing rate of dischare abstract data by Billing Dept, Emergency Room, QI Dept., etc., 3) the improvement of intradepartmental work follow, 4) the enhancement of medical record quality by checking the deficiencies earlier than before.