Supply chain outlook: The timing of the slowdown
The rapid spread of the Covid-19 virus is already having a huge impact on the global economy, which is rippling around the world via the long supply chains of major industries.
The INFORMS Analytics+ Conference showcased how companies are turning advanced analytics and AI into measurable operational results
In most emergency departments, beds are a hot commodity. But some patients don’t actually need a bed for their treatment – and accurately identifying those people is a low-lift but effective way to increase efficiency without sacrificing care quality, finds a study recently published in the journal Management Science.
The researchers developed a simple decision tree, informed by mathematical and machine learning models, to help staff decide whether a patient truly needs a bed or can be routed to a “vertical processing pathway” – that is, an area where they can be treated sitting up. Many hospitals already have such an area but don’t necessarily have a systematic way to decide which patients are treated there.
American teenagers start their school day too early.
Medical experts have been clear for years: sleep cycle changes during puberty make it hard for teenagers to learn in the early morning. Later school start times have been linked to better sleep, improved mental health, stronger academic performance and even safer driving.
Most school district leaders know about this problem and care about fixing it. But changing the schedule can feel operationally impossible.
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The rapid spread of the Covid-19 virus is already having a huge impact on the global economy, which is rippling around the world via the long supply chains of major industries.
We live in a time of unprecedented access to information. And in this era of sheltering-in-place around the nation and the globe, the desire for news may be higher than ever—at least for some people. But do we really want all this information, all the time? Some may indeed prefer to think happier thoughts and maintain an (overly) optimistic outlook about the health threat we face. On the other hand, others may prefer not to know what the swings in the market are doing to their retirement savings.
Social distancing is working, but timing and discipline are everything. Those are the takeaways of new research emerging into the effectiveness of mitigation measures aimed at the spreading novel coronavirus that demonstrates communities that acted more quickly and aggressively had better results than those that implemented partial, or gradual measures.
Santa Clara County, for example, imposed social-distancing restrictions starting on Feb. 10. A shelter-in-place order was implemented on March 17. By contrast Miami-Dade County waited until March 12 before it issued a state of emergency.
The people living in communities hardest hit by the coronavirus tend to be low-income, elderly, and those with underlying health issues. Recent data revealed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows that older folks are by far the most vulnerable, accounting for 80% of fatal cases in China and the U.S.

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