Diagnostic Instrument Maintenance Timing Around Operator Activity
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Solution Overview
Problem
Point of care diagnostic instruments experience reduced availability due to maintenance activities, which impact clinical decision-making and patient care, as these activities often coincide with instrument usage, increasing perceived downtime despite minimal actual time impact when performed during non-usage periods.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a method that detects activity proximity to diagnostic instruments to determine usage probability, scheduling maintenance processes to avoid conflicts with instrument usage, thereby minimizing perceived downtime by postponing or interrupting maintenance during high-usage periods and staggering maintenance across a network of instruments.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If maintenance activities are performed regularly to ensure instrument reliability, then instrument reliability is improved, but instrument availability deteriorates due to conflicts with usage periods
Solution Approach 1:
The maintenance scheduling system dynamically adjusts maintenance timing based on real-time detection of instrument usage patterns. The system transitions from static predetermined scheduling to dynamic adaptive scheduling, where maintenance activities are postponed or interrupted based on detected usage probability, thereby resolving the contradiction between maintaining reliability and maximizing availability
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements feedback loops where usage detection signals continuously inform maintenance scheduling decisions. The processor monitors usage patterns and feeds this information back to the maintenance scheduling mechanism, enabling real-time adjustments that prevent maintenance conflicts with actual usage, thus maintaining both reliability and availability
2Reliability
If maintenance frequency is increased to improve instrument readiness, then instrument readiness is improved, but perceived availability deteriorates due to more frequent interruptions of usage
Solution Approach 1:
The system dynamically adapts maintenance frequency and timing based on actual usage patterns rather than applying fixed schedules. By detecting when the instrument is actually being used versus when it is idle, the system performs maintenance more frequently during low-usage periods while avoiding interruptions during high-usage periods, thus improving readiness without negatively impacting perceived availability
Solution Approach 2:
The system changes the timing parameter of maintenance activities based on detected usage probability. Instead of maintaining constant maintenance intervals, the system adjusts maintenance timing parameters dynamically according to usage patterns, performing maintenance during low-probability usage windows and skipping or postponing during high-probability windows, thereby resolving the contradiction between readiness and perceived availability
Data Source
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AI summary
Disclosed herein is a computer implemented method of operating a diagnostic instrument such that maintenance processes do not conflict with operator activity, wherein a maintenance process conflicts with operator activity if the probability of use of the diagnostic instrument is above a usage probability threshold, the probability of use of the diagnostic instrument having been determined based on detected presence and/or movement of an operator in the proximity of the diagnostic instrument and/or operation of the diagnostic instrument.