The Eastern Shore Hospital has encountered a problem in bed turn around time (i.e.. the time taken to discharge a patient from a bed and admit a new patient). This, in turn, has caused delays in the hospital operating room, resulting in physician and patient dissatisfaction. The hospital initiated a Six Sigma project to resolve the problem, initially focusing on one surgical nursing unit, which had almost 3000 patients in one year. The Six Sigma DMAIC process employed by the project team included the following project activities, activity times, and precedence relationships.

Construct the network for this project. Determine the earliest and latest activity times and the criticalpath.

Time Estimates (days) Activity Predecessor a m h Activity Description Establish turnaround target time Measure process, define a, C defects 3 9 14 Cause & effect diagram turnaround time) fStatistical analysis of variables (identify variables that effect 46 10 g Analyze possible solutions h Identify solution approach Improve process c, d, f 10 14 20 15 23 30 jMonitor and control process k Apply improved process a Develop process map with SPC 12 18 25 across hospital 4 7 10 VoC survey of RNs 6 12 15