On the road to automated production workflows in the back end of line

Tabbone, Gilles; Egodage, Kokila; Schulz, Kristian; Garetto, Anthony

doi:10.1117/12.2326908

Cited by 1 publication

(5 citation statements)

References 1 publication

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“…Many examples from the literature focused on automated workflows at a single organization or across an enterprise, but not across an entire industry. 18,20,22,58,86,97,121 For widespread gains within the health care delivery system, it is important that automation efforts can scale across health care, and lessons learned from the development of health information exchanges may offer some insights on what may and may not work in trying to make industrywide gains on automation in health care. 122 Some industries, such as manufacturing and finance, have experienced widespread gains through automation, following collective efforts to address common needs.…”

Section: Opportunities and Considerations For Health Care Deliverymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Aviation has invested in automation for decades, using it across operations in everything from scheduling and managing flights and crews to flying an aircraft. Automation has facilitated manufacturing advances in production scheduling, assembly line, 22 robotics, 23 24 25 and quality control. 22 26 In finance, many banking processes are automated to benefit institutions and customers.…”

Section: Background and Significancementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Automation has facilitated manufacturing advances in production scheduling, assembly line, 22 robotics, 23 24 25 and quality control. 22 26 In finance, many banking processes are automated to benefit institutions and customers. 27 Several of these industries have had automation in place longer and gone through more advancement, as compared with health care.…”

Section: Background and Significancementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Reasons for not achieving those goals include selection of processes that are not suitable for automation, such as those listed in Table 3 , selection of technology not suitable for the workflow, a lack of suitable available technology, or use of available technology that is improperly applied. In addition, insufficient understanding and response to organizational aspects of implementation can lead to unmet automation goals, 9 such as stakeholder concerns about losing the ability to interact with or access decision-making authority 22 62 63 64 65 66 67 and worries related to the impact on quality, safety, privacy, and security. 48 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 …”

Section: Workflow Automation Approaches Across Industriesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, in a semi-conductor manufacturing plant, workflows across the production line were reviewed to determine which could be fully automated, semi-automated, or should remain manual. 22 Workflows that were fully automated were typically simple parts assembly; workflows that were partially automated involved initial assembly with human finishing and initial quality assurance; and workflows that remained manual involved review of items identified as having possible defects from a quality assurance review. Similarly, additional examples of fully automated workflows in other industries found in the literature include labor allocation in a distribution center based on volumes, 50 robotic process automation to address routine workflows in an office with repetitive business tasks, 35 and water treatments that were automatically tracked and adjusted based on changes in salination level.…”

Section: Workflow Automation Approaches Across Industriesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Identifying Opportunities for Workflow Automation in Health Care: Lessons Learned from Other Industries

2021

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Background Workflow automation, which involves identifying sequences of tasks that can be streamlined by using technology and modern computing, offers opportunities to address the United States health care system's challenges with quality, safety, and efficiency. Other industries have successfully implemented workflow automation to address these concerns, and lessons learned from those experiences may inform its application in health care. Objective Our aim was to identify and synthesize (1) current approaches in workflow automation across industries, (2) opportunities for applying workflow automation in health care, and (3) considerations for designing and implementing workflow automation that may be relevant to health care. Methods We conducted a targeted review of peer-reviewed and gray literature on automation approaches. We identified relevant databases and terms to conduct the searches across sources and reviewed abstracts to identify 123 relevant articles across 11 disciplines. Results Workflow automation is used across industries such as finance, manufacturing, and travel to increase efficiency, productivity, and quality. We found automation ranged from low to full automation, and this variation was associated with task and technology characteristics. The level of automation is linked to how well a task is defined, whether a task is repetitive, the degree of human intervention and decision-making required, and the sophistication of available technology. We found that identifying automation goals and assessing whether those goals were reached was critical, and ongoing monitoring and improvement would help to ensure successful automation. Conclusion Use of workflow automation in other industries can inform automating health care workflows by considering the critical role of people, process, and technology in design, testing, implementation, use, and ongoing monitoring of automated workflows. Insights gained from other industries will inform an interdisciplinary effort by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology to outline priorities for advancing health care workflow automation.

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