A Right to Housing

This chapter considers the structural effect on the system of duties that would come with recognizing a human right to housing. If there is such a right, there is pressure on the interpretation of a property system to support hybrid moral value connecting possession and the conditions of moral status. An extended example shows how, as a system constraint, the right requires a division of moral labor between individuals and public institutions, juridical and ethical duties, especially when there are natural or social crises around housing. The arguments around a right to housing are then extended to the conditions of refugees, asylum seekers, and stateless persons. The claim in innate right to be somewhere implies that wherever such persons present themselves counts as a moral port of entry to temporary residence and subsequent patriation that all states have a duty to support.

In a high volume orthopaedic unit, managing natural variability and utilising the theory of constraints improves surgical throughput.

Introduction This project involved hip and knee replacement patients at the Royal Bournemouth Hospital. Throughput of surgical cases is determined by the number of operations you can perform each day and the number of beds available for patients following surgery. Modelling using length of stay data indicated that we had enough beds and so we used the Theory of Constraints (TOC) to optimise surgical throughput. The TOC process is outlined below. Intervention Put simply, the system was required to complete 1350 joint replacements per year through 2 operating theatres. Having established this, we identified the system constraint using TOC methodology. The constraint is the element of the system that prevented additional throughput from occurring. Our analysis revealed that the constraint in our setting was the surgeon. We then designed an operating template that subordinated everything to the constraint. A staggered operating model in which the surgeon moved between two operating theatres to perform 6 hip and knee replacements in succession each day was introduced. Results The model has been used in over 2000 patients, and 28 different surgeons and 48 anaesthetists have worked within the model. We found that for all surgeons this has improved their productivity, as well as reducing the variability in the time required to complete each individual case. The staggered model and predictable nature of the model has also had benefits to the nursing and rehabilitation staff on the ward. Admissions to theatre and returns from theatre are now equally staggered throughout the day. This smoothing of flow is a central principle of lean and has made the delivery of care much easier on the ward and requires less staff. Key message The TOC is a useful model for analysing complex systems where one step determines the rate of the process. Within our context the constraint was the surgeon. By subordinating all processes to utilise the surgeons time maximally we optimised surgical throughput.

The Seven Focusing Steps of the Theory of Constraints (DRAFT)

The theory of constraints has the potential to increase throughput significantly, using existing resources. It consists of seven focusing steps that, when applied, can create extra capacity in operating rooms, emergency departments, imaging services, labs, and so on. The seven steps are simple, intuitive, and easy to implement. This chapter discusses the first three steps of the theory of constraints: determining the system’s goal, establishing global performance measures, and identifying the system constraint. Tools are provided for identifying bottlenecks and determining measures of performance for the system. It also introduces the cost-utilization diagram that provides managers with a full-system view.

Constraint Management in a Bottleneck Environment (DRAFT)

This chapter introduces steps 4 through 7 of the theory of constraints—that, respectively, decide how to exploit and utilize the constraint, subordinate the system to the constraint, elevate and break the constraint, and do not let inertia become the system constraint. The chapter shows how to achieve more using the existing resources by focusing on the bottleneck. For example, reducing waste (“garbage time”) of the bottleneck can quite quickly increase the system’s throughput. The subordination of the rest of the system to the bottleneck is then discussed. For this purpose, the scheduling mechanism of drum–buffer–rope can be implemented in some areas of healthcare systems, like operating rooms, leading to increased throughput and reduction of waiting times as well as improved clinical quality.

Mobility and Kinematic Analysis of Foldable Plate Structures Based on Rigid Origami

As one new type of deployable structures, foldable plate structures based on origami are more and more widely used in aviation and building structures in recent years. The mobility and kinematic paths of foldable origami structures are studied in this paper. Different constraints including the rigid plate, spherical joints, and the boundary conditions of linkages were first used to generate the system constraint equations. Then, the degree-of-freedom (DOF) of the foldable plate structures was calculated from the dimension of null space of the Jacobian matrix, which is the derivative of the constraint equations with respect to time. Furthermore, the redundant constraints were found by using this method, and multiple kinematic paths existing in origami structures were studied by obtaining all the solutions of constraint equations. Different solutions represent different kinematic configurations. The DOF and kinematic paths of a Miura-ori and a rigid deployable antenna were also investigated in detail.

Mobility and Kinematic Paths of Foldable Origami Structures

As one new type of deployable structures, foldable plate structures based on origami are more and more widely used in aviation and building structures in recent years. The mobility and kinematic paths of foldable origami structures are studied in this paper. Different constraints including the rigid plate, pin joints and the boundary conditions of linkages were firstly used to generate the system constraint equations. Then the degree of freedom (DOF) of the foldable plate structures was calculated from the dimension of null space of the Jacobian matrix, which is the derivative of the constraint equations with respect to time. Furthermore, the redundant constraints were found by using this method and multiple kinematic paths existing in origami structures were studied by obtaining all solutions of constraint equations. Different solutions represent different kinematic configurations. The degree of freedom and kinematic paths of a Miura-ori and a rigid deployable antenna were also investigated in details.