Flow-Shop Scheduling Problem Applied to the Planning of Repair and Maintenance of Electromedical Equipment in the Hospital Industry

Abstract

In the literature, several approaches have been proposed to integrate and optimize product supply and construction processes associated with demand management. However, in Industry 4.0, there needs to be more studies related to applying techniques that directly affect the programming and reprogramming process that integrates the industries at the operational level. This document proposes a flow-shop scheduling procedure to address the problem of planning the repair of medical equipment in public hospitals whose main objective is to eliminate downtime and minimize total production time. The research stems from the practical problem of responding to clinical users who make use of critical equipment, such as mechanical respirators, due to COVID-19, and the limited quantity of this equipment, which makes it necessary to have repair planning processes that seek to keep the equipment in operation for the most extended amount of time. The novelty of this study is that it was applied to a critical and real problem in the industry with a high economic and social impact, which has not been explored previously. The results show improvements in the overall planning and execution of electro-medical equipment repair. Several improvements to the applied methods were identified as future work, such as the need to consider work interruptions and psychosocial effects on workers due to the stricter planning of execution times.