Identify an appropriate experimental unit and the required replication of units for a test for each the following scenarios.

Specify any other assumptions you need to make: LO4 Scenario A: Supply Chain Improvement. The supply chain manager is interested in reducing stock-outs on the floor for critical items. He would like to test changes to the stocking levels and well as the use of automated stocking units on the seven in-patient units.

Stock-outs currently averaged 1.3% for the 80 items on the critical list. Total requests for these items are about 300 per day.

Scenario B: Improvements in the Call Center. The 30 clinics in the organization wanted the call center (where appointments were currently being made) to play a stronger role in reducing no-shows.

The center proposed to run a study to determine the effect of a computer (vs. person) making reminder calls and the best lead time and time of day to make the reminder call. No-shows currently averaged 15% for all the clinics. The number of appointments per day ranged from 20 to 80 for the 30 clinics.

Scenario C: Improving Clinical Asthma Care. The associates in a family practice wish to reduce emergency department visits and hospitalizations for their asthma patients. The clinic currently has about 600 asthma patients in their registry, with about 90% of the patients under 20 years of age. There are three physicians and one physician’s assistant who care for these patients.

The clinic team is aware of the guidelines of good asthma care, but with their hectic schedules, they were not always able to complete all their tasks during both sick and well visits. They want to plan a study to determine the effect of using a structured encounter form for visits to the clinic. They were concerned that it would be difficult to control variables, such as, patients (comorbidities, age, culture and language, severity, frequency of visits) and environmental factors in patients’ homes and work.