Alternative Inventory Control Methods for Use in Managing Medical Supply Inventory

摘要

The purpose of this thesis was to examine the characteristics of demand for medical supplies in Air Force medical treatment facilities in an effort to improve inventory control. One method proposed to improve system performance was use of a more sophisticated forecasting technique than the 12 month moving average currently used in forecasting demand for economic order quantity computations. This would better match supply to demand. The research also examined whether: 1) major workload measures were highly correlated to medical supply usage; 2) there were demand patterns for major stock classes which were common to all facilities; and 3) whether differences in medical treatment facilities affected inventory performance measures to the extent that a service-wide model should not be used. Workload and medical supply demand data were collected from 13 facilities and analyzed. When workload and supply expenditure data were tested for correlation, the findings indicated little or no relationship. Plotting the data from each facility revealed that both a trend and seasonality were common. It was also shown that grouping the data according to facility category; clinics, hospitals, and regional hospitals/medical centers, reduced the within group variance of the data. (kr)