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Scheduling the production of perishable patient-specific medication : Research of Mathematics

Slager, J. (2022) Scheduling the production of perishable patient-specific medication : Research of Mathematics.

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Abstract:In this research thesis, we investigate how to improve the production planning of perishable patient-specific medication at the pharmacy department of Ziekenhuisgroep Twente (ZGT). Each medication type uses a different type of raw material, which is stored in vials. Any remaining raw material after opening a vial is considered as spillage. Preparing medication of the same type at the same time (clustering) may reduce this spillage. In addition, a medical appointment may be cancelled, resulting in disposal of produced medication. Currently, the pharmacy department prepares medication one day before the patient's appointment and uses clustering. The pharmacy department wants to know at the start of the day which patients' medication should be prepared such that the spillage and disposal costs are minimal. We develop a Markov Decision Process to model this scheduling problem, and we use Approximate Dynamic Programming with the post-decision state variable and basis functions to find an approximate solution. The computational results show that a myopic policy, which we also developed, performs best in our research. This myopic policy postpones the production until the patient actually requires the medication now. If production of a certain medication type must take place, the policy says to produce medication of the same type for patients that do not require the medication now. This myopic policy provides a practical decision rule for the pharmacy department of ZGT.
Item Type:Essay (Master)
Faculty:BMS: Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences
Subject:31 mathematics
Programme:Mathematics Education MSc (68516)
Link to this item:https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/90573
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