Pharmacy Layout Design Based on SIPOC and Functional Handoffs
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Session
Potpourri
Author
Valentine Boving
Senior Quality Engineer
U.T.M.D. Anderson Cancer Center
Description
The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center's Central Pharmacy experiences excessive traffic in a confined space. A planned doubling of space offered the opportunity to design an optimal layout. Through defined processes of functional areas, SIPOCs, relationship Diagrams, and Spaghetti Maps we designed an efficient layout that simplifies traffic.
Abstract
The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center's Central Pharmacy will more than double its space to 20,368 sf starting in August 2010. This includes 6,750 sf for Investigational Drugs, Financial Procurement, and Executive Offices, not part of this presentation. Two current concerns were traffic flow and confined spaces. To achieve an optimal, layout design, our approach was to " Define processes in each functional area: Order entry, Unit Dose Areas 1 & 2, Robot, IV Room, Inventory Control, Vault, and Manufacturing. " Develop SIPOCs for each functional area. " Create Relationship Diagrams among the functional areas. " Design future layout (in expanded space) based on SIPOC and Relationship Diagram. " Draw Spaghetti Map of activity in current, future layouts. Findings, Lessons Learned: " Most traffic was between the two Unit Dose areas (420 trips per day), located at opposite sides of the pharmacy. This was eliminated in the new design by increasing local storage space and consolidating the two areas. All traffic to and from Inventory Control was eliminated because of ample area storage. " The new pharmacy layout will eliminate 6.12mi from daily internal traffic and save 1.95hr.