So What Club

Making operations better, and planning for what can go wrong

A hospital in Abu Dhabi where patients wait to go home

The prompt

A private hospital in Abu Dhabi has 200 beds, 90 percent full on average. Patients stay 5 days on average, but half a day of that is waiting to go home. They wait for the discharge letter, for medicines to take home, or for transport. Planning discharges the day before cuts the average stay to 4.5 days. Patients are on a waiting list, and each extra admission earns AED 3,000 of contribution. What is this worth? (Fictional hospital, illustrative figures.)

Before you reveal anything, plan your own structure and first move on paper. Then reveal one part at a time and compare.

Clarifying questions, with the interviewer's answers

Next case

Read the next worked case the same way: plan your own answer first, then reveal one part at a time.

Next case: An appliance maker in Ohio: more inspectors, or fewer defects?The lesson: Lean basics as economics: waste, flow, and the hidden cost of inventory
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