Hey Reader,

I remember talking to a CIO about our asset tracking solution and I listed all the amazing features. He looked me dead in the eye and said, "but does it work"? I was somewhat unsurprised, but I appreciated the candor. There is a lot to unpack with those three words; "does it work?

🤔 What are we doing here?

• Customers who purchase location-based services expect a lot from these systems.
• Location services have amazing features, but are we asking them to do the right things?
• Hoarding is a problem but "everywhere" location tracking is not practical.

🔨 To whack a mole or not to whack a mole

• Central Equipment wants to find hoarded IV Pumps with the new RTLS.
• Do we send techs out to hunt for pumps?
• Unless we fix the hoarding this is a game of whack-a-mole.
• Maybe we can stop the hoarding?

⏸️ Pause for the cause

• Putting a pump in the pickup location means I might not get a replacement.
• Nurses need to trust they can get a pump when they need one.
• Build that trust and they will stop the hoarding.
• Even state of the art PAR stocking won't work without trusting the process.

🕵️‍♂️ Just the facts

• Focus on the nominal flow.
• Track the pumps into and out of the pickup location.
• Track the pumps into and out of the stock locations.
• Now it is in the data and it is fraction of the cost of the finding hidden pumps.
• Track and trace and we know if the flow is working.

🎯 Blame it on the data

• Part of the problem or part of the solution?
• It's about the data, so show the data.
• Show that the nurses are getting their pumps.
• Get the virtuous cycle started.

❓But does it work?

• Think workflows first.
• Minimal infrastructure, maximum useful data.
• RTLS likes being part of the workflow solution.
• It does work!

➡️ What's next?

• ​Digital twin doesn't know about "asset tracking".
• It has agents that are workflows, and those agents have sensors that find things.
• "Close-the-loop" with a nursing agent and CE agent
• Agents can work together.

⬆️ It's about outcomes

• ​Digital twin is about outcomes measured with great precision.
• Start with the nominal then fix the anomalies.
• The digital twin can help find the cause of the issue.
• It all starts with a model. Let’s build one together!
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Until next week,

Paul E Zieske ​Location Based Services Consulting ​​​