Robust Scheduler Example Scheduling Two Surgical ...

Robust Scheduler Example Scheduling Two Surgical Session at Xiasha Hospital Xiasha Hospital has two 4 hour sessions on Monday, both from 8:30am12:30pm. They have four surgeries they want to perform, two O10 procedures and two O2 procedures. Using Robust Scheduler the booking clerk has first uploaded data from 1000 previous surgeries at Hubin and Xiasha Hospitals. In order to schedule the O10 and O2 procedures they first use Robust Scheduler look at histograms of previous procedure durations. The O10 duration histogram looks like:

The O2 duration histogram looks like:

The O2 procedure takes longer on average and is more variable too, but both the O10 and O2 procedures can sometimes take 2 hours or more, so the 4 procedures will need to be split with 2 in each theatre. It is easier to do the same procedure in the same theatre, so the booking clerk uses Robust Scheduler to plot the two theatre timetables if one theatre does both O10 procedures and the other does both O2 procedures. When doing both O10 procedures, the likely finish time is 12:18pm (within the planned session), but if both procedures go long the session may have almost 7 hours overtime.

When doing both O2 procedures, the likely finish time is 12:39pm (just over the planned session end), but if both procedures go long the session will only have 2 hours overtime. Hence, planning the same procedure in the same theatre works

badly for O10 and OK for O2.

The booking clerk then examines what might happen if different procedures are performed in the same theatre. They try O10 followed by O2 and O2 followed by O10.

In both cases the likely finish time is 12:29 (just within the planned session time) and if things go late then there may be 4 ¼ hours overtime. The two options are: 1) O10 & O10 – likely on time, 7 hours over time + O2 & O2 – likely a little late, 2 hours over time = worst case 9 hours total/7 hours max overtime with one theatre likely to run over; 2) O10 & O2 – 4 ¼ hours overtime + O10 & O2 – likely (just) on time, 4 ¼ hours overtime = worst case 8 ½ hours total/4 ½ hours max overtime with both theatres likely to finish just on time. After using Robust Scheduler the booking clerk decides to use option 2 and split the procedures between the theatres thus ensuring both theatre teams have equitable shifts and both are likely to finish on time.