Demand and capacity management (DCM) is widely researched in operational management, e.g. in sales and operations planning (Thomé, 2012). Interest and use of DCM rapidly spreading in Sweden’s public healthcare sector (Myrberg et al., 2024), supported by the Swedish National Board of Health and Welfare, and in other developed countries (see e.g. Lilly et al., 2024). Naturally, interest in predicting, planning, and managing demand gained increased attention following the covid-19 pandemic (see e.g. Lorenzen and Schwartz, 2021). Prior studies in DCM have focused on specific patient journey aspects (Allder et al., 2010), various planning levels (Larsson and Fredriksson, 2019), and conceptual frameworks (Visser et al., 2001) however, interest is now expanding across healthcare levels.

On the demand side, aging populations resulting in a rise in multi-morbidity and people with chronic diseases pose significant challenges (Briggs et al., 2018; Rijken et al., 2017), while on the capacity side, staffing, beds, and financial constraints are major concerns (Rosenbäck and Svensson, 2023). Research indicates that even small-scale DCM implementations in healthcare can lead to significant improvements in less mature organizations (Plantin and Johansson, 2012) for example to increase access and improve patient flow effectiveness, lower costs and improve quality. 

Multiple definitions of production planning exist in healthcare, and no universally accepted definition exists. Instead, terms such as “capacity planning” or “capacity planning and control” are used (Slack et al., 2010). In this paper, demand and capacity management (DCM) is defined as the overarching concept, covering the process from strategic planning to daily operations. 

Efforts to synthesize current research on DCM in healthcare are limited and some notable exceptions focus on a narrow scope, such as emergency departments (McCaughey et al., 2015) or the covid-19 pandemic (Klein et al., 2022). Unlike previous reviews, this study has an integrated approach, considering demand and capacity management as two interdependent concepts. The purpose of this paper is twofold. Firstly, to investigate the current state of DCM in healthcare and to theoretically identify improvement initiatives to deal with capacity problems. Secondly, to present healthcare managers´ views of the implementation of DCM in a Swedish context and present some suggestions, from a practical point of view, of how the work with DCM can be improved.

A system, named Reflex, for handling reflection documents is presented. Writing a reflection document is a mandatory last step when carrying out Master’s or Bachelor’s theses within all education programs at the Faculty of Science and Engineering at Linköping University. In the reflection document the students are expected to reflect on both the thesis work and the outcome of the entire education program. The reflection is structured according to the four sections of the CDIO Syllabus plus additional aspects around the process of the thesis work and the program as a whole. Reflection documents have been used for more than ten years, but via the introduction of Reflex in 2023 the process is entirely electronic and all texts from the reflections are stored in a searchable database. This enables efficient and systematic analyses of the texts, which can be used for evaluations of entire programs as well as selected aspects. Two examples of such analyses are presented in the paper. In addition, the thesis work process is presented, together with a description of how the system Reflex works. 

A system, named Reflex, for handling reflection documents is presented. Writing a reflection document is a mandatory last step when carrying out Master’s or Bachelor’s theses within all education programs at the Faculty of Science and Engineering at Linköping University. In the reflection document the students are expected to reflect on both the thesis work and the outcome of the entire education program. The reflection is structured according to the four sections of the CDIO Syllabus plus additional aspects around the process of the thesis work and the program as a whole. Reflection documents have been used for more than ten years, but via the introduction of Reflex in 2023 the process is entirely electronic and all texts from the reflections are stored in a searchable database. This enables efficient and systematic analyses of the texts, which can be used for evaluations of entire programs as well as selected aspects. Two examples of such analyses are presented in the paper. In addition, the thesis work process is presented, together with a description of how the system Reflex works.  

Vid Linköpings universitet (LiU) har en översyn av matematikkurserna för trecivilingenjörsprogram (Maskinteknik, Design och produktutveckling samt Energi-miljömanagement)genomförts för att se hur matematikundervisningen kan anpassas tillprogrammens specifika behov. Denna översyn motiveras av att gemensamma kurser föralla civilingenjörsprogram kan leda till genomströmningsproblem och ett kursinnehållsom blir en kompromiss snarare än anpassat för varje program.Metoden innefattade en granskning av sex gemensamma matematikkurser och 80efterföljande teknikkurser. Examinatorer för dessa teknikkurser fick notera vilka av 35specifika matematikområden som används för antingen konceptuell förståelse ellerpraktisk problemlösning. Analysen visade att vissa matematikkurser redan var välanpassade till programmens behov och därför lämnades oförändrade. Däremot visadedet sig att delar av kurserna Envariabelanalys 2 och Flervariabelanalys antingenanvändes sällan eller inte alls i efterföljande kurser, eller bara krävdes för konceptuellförståelse.Som ett resultat av översynen har två nya, anpassade matematikkurser skapats. I denya kurserna flyttas fokus till de delar av innehållet som är viktiga för praktiskproblemlösning i de efterföljande teknikkurserna. Vissa av de moment som endast ärviktiga för konceptuell förståelse examineras nu genom digitala, automaträttadeinlämningsuppgifter i stället för genom den traditionella skriftliga tentamen. Dettaupplägg syftar till att göra tentamen mer robust och låta studenterna arbeta kontinuerligtmed kursmaterialet. Ändringarna i examinationen förväntas bidra till en bättregenomströmning och det finns också förhoppningar om att den genomförda översynenkan bidra till en ökad motivation hos studenterna, då kursinnehållet ligger i linje med denmatematik som studenterna kommer att använda i efterföljande teknikkurser. Dettaarbete visar att en nära dialog mellan matematiklärare och programledning kan leda tillen mer effektiv och ändamålsenlig ingenjörsutbildning.

This paper address challenges and pitfalls associated with BDA in operations management that increase the risk of tampering. i.e. actions taken by misinterpreted data that worsen rather than improve performance. Through a rapid literature review, the paper identifies pitfalls in data management, data analysis, and decision-making. Findings reveal an overrepresentation of reported challenges on data management, with significantly less attention given to the subsequent stages of data analysis and decision-making. This paper suggest that more research is needed on how users interact with data, how dashboards and BI tools affect decision-making, and what organisational conditions contribute to tampering in BDA.

Digitalisation influences most, if not all, areas of quality management (QM). The influence of digitalisationincludes e.g. digitalised quality management systems, digitalised customer feedback, and changing roles ofQM practitioners. However, still there are few papers focusing on how digitalisation changes QM practitioners’hands-on practices and activities. The purpose of this paper is to identify digital practices and tools supportiveof quality improvements, to further the understanding of quality practitioners’ present and future competenceneeds. The study has a qualitative inductive approach based on a layered data collection, including a pre-survey, interviews, diaries, and a workshop. The result shows that quality practitioners mainly working at anoperational level focus on competences and practices related to interpersonal relations or hands-on methods,while practitioners working mainly on a strategic level work more with practices related to overall managementof the firm or introduction of new concepts. Simplified, the operational practitioners work with ‘traditionalquality work’ such as translation of customer needs and data analysis, while the strategic work to show howquality work can support organisations’ digitisation overall, e.g. by new methods, processes, and valuepropositions. In contrast to other studies exploring digitalisation initiatives and processes on an organisationallevel, this paper contributes with practitioners’ perception of how digitalisation affects their everyday practicealongside concrete examples of tools and competences used in their daily work. Further, the dual nature ofdigitalisation, serving as both a facilitator for simplifying practices and a challenge to quality practitioner’srole and position per se is described.

Universities search for ways to prepare full-time students for real worklife challenges, but also for ways to offer practitioners life-long learning (LLL) opportunities. This paper presents a live-case model integrating full-time engineering students and LLL students from healthcare in a case model focusing learnings for both groups. The small-scale live-case model offers a resource-efficient learning activity for both traditional courses and LLL courses. The unique characteristics is that the model is strongly delineate in time (duration: one week), and that it focuses not only the students' but also the practitioners’ learning.

A model of live-cases is developed for educational collaboration and workintegrated learning. The model can be implemented in existing university education and lifelong learning (LLL) courses and allows engineering students and LLL students from healthcare to work together on a real-life problem. The small-scale live-case model is resource-efficient as it is strongly delineated in time (duration: one week), further it is unique in focusing not only the students' but also the practitioners’ learning. 

I detta projekt utvecklas en live-case-modell som stödjer utbildningssamverkan och arbetsintegrerat lärande inom ramen för existerande universitetsutbildning och kurser för livslångt lärande (LLL). I denna modell får ingenjörsstudenter och LLL-studenter från vården arbeta tillsammans med ett verkligt problem från LLL-studenternas organisation. Den småskaliga live-case-modellen är resurseffektiv eftersom den är starkt avgränsad i tid (varaktighet: en vecka), dessutom är den unik då den inte bara fokuserar ingenjörsstudenternas, utan även praktikernas (LLL-studenternas), lärande. 

Quality management focuses on improvements aimed at enhancing the value createdfor various stakeholders. However, actions taken in response to a perceived problemsometimes lead to an inferior result rather than an improvement. Such actions havebeen denoted tampering. As an example, natural variation might unnecessarily beperceived as a problem, where the best way to handle that ‘problem’ would be to notact at all. However, for someone trained in quality management and striving forimprovement, doing nothing might be more challenging than acting. The researchquestion studied in this paper is: How do emotional, motivational and cognitivemechanisms influence tampering in problem-solving situations? Through interviewswith 17 respondents, 33 tampering situations were identified and analysed. Thefindings describe emotional, motivational and cognitive mechanisms that leadindividuals to take actions leading to tampering. Some examples of thesemechanisms are fear of the consequences of not acting, feelings of guilt if not actingto resolve a problem, and taking actions based on experiences of past problemsolving. To counteract this, it is advised to set aside time for reflections beforestarting problem-solving and to establish an environment encouraging of reflections.

Purpose How do organisations know which problems are worthy of their attention? Despite good intentions, many attempts to solve problems fail. One reason for this failure might be because of attempts to solve non-problems or to solve problems with insufficient means, a concept proposed by Deming as tampering. The purpose of this paper is to suggest a definition of tampering, outline what is currently known about possible practical implications of tampering and to suggest how to extend this knowledge by proposing an agenda for future research. Design/methodology/approach To fulfil the purpose, a narrative literature review was conducted. Findings Through this review, common aspects of what constitutes tampering are identified and the following definition is proposed: Tampering is a response to a perceived problem in the form of an action that is not directed at the fundamental cause of the problem, which leads to a deterioration of the process or the process output. In addition, recommendations are generated regarding how tampering manifests itself in practice and why tampering occurs. These recommendations could be studied in future research. Originality/value To the best of the authors knowledge, this is the first paper that suggests a revitalisation of tampering. The results presented in this paper form the basis for continued studies on how tampering in organisations can be understood, managed and prevented.