Purpose – In a context of international economic crisis the improvement in the efficiency and productivity of public services is seen as a way to maintain high-quality levels at lower costs. Increased productivity can be promoted through benchmarking exercises, where key performance indicators (KPIs), individually or aggregated, are used to compare health units. The purpose of this paper is to describe a benchmarking platform, called Hospital Benchmarking (HOBE), where hospital’s services are used as the unit of analysis. Design/methodology/approach – HOBE platform includes a set of managerial indicators through which hospital services’ are compared. The platform also benchmarks services through aggregate service indicators, and provides an aggregate measure of hospital’s performance based on a composite indicator of the service’s performances. These aggregate indicators were obtained through data envelopment analysis (DEA). Findings – Some results are presented for Portuguese hospitals for the trial years of 2008 and 2009, for which data is publicly available. Details for the service-level analysis are provided for a sample hospital, as well as details on the aggregate performance resulting from services performances. Practical implications – HOBE’s features and outcomes show that the platform can be used to guide management actions and to support the design of health policies by administrative authorities, provided that good quality and timely data are available, and that hospitals are involved in the design of the KPIs. Originality/value – The platform is innovative in the sense that it bases its analysis on hospital’s services, which are in general more comparable among hospitals than indicators of hospital overall performance. In addition, it makes use of DEA to aggregate performance indicators, allowing for user choice in the inputs and outputs to be aggregated, and it proposes a novel model to aggregate service’s efficiencies into a single measure of hospital performance.

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RESUMOEste artigo tem como objetivo demonstrar como a modelagem e simulação de eventos discretos pode auxiliar ao dimensionamento das baias de carregamento de combustíveis claros em uma base de distribuição. A pesquisa foi realizada em uma base específica na cidade do Rio de Janeiro e buscou entender os critérios de alocação da infraestrutura operacional para atendimento à demanda do mercado. O trabalho se baseou em metodologia de estudo de caso, com coleta de dados dos tempos das etapas do processo de carregamento e da frequência de chegada dos caminhões tanque, através de sistema de gestão próprio da empresa, para identificar a melhor configuração da utilização dos recursos através da análise de cenários. Um dimensionamento adequado da capacidade de abastecimento gera menores filas na base, redução dos custos logísticos e evita a ruptura de estoque, gerando melhor nível de serviço ao motorista, que reduz seu tempo de permanência na base. ABSTRACTThis paper aims to demonstrate how the modeling and simulation of discrete events can aid in the design of clear fuel loading bays in a distribution base. The research was carried out in a specific base in the city of São Paulo and sought to understand the criteria of allocation of the operational infrastructure to meet market demand. The work was based on a case study methodology, with data collection of the stages of the loading process and the frequency of arrival of tank trucks, through a company's own management system, to identify the best configuration of resource utilization through the analysis of scenarios. Proper sizing of the filling capacity generates lower queues at the base, reduces logistics costs and avoids stock breakdown, generating a better level of service to the driver that reduces the time spent at the base.

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