1. Seattle Children’s Hospital Specimen Transportation
Final Report
Zachary Eley
Cindy Hadiputra
Sean Nguyen
Paul Ueng
Elfira Wahono
June 9th, 2015

2. Table of Contents
I. Executive Summary………………………………………………………………………..2
II. Introduction………………………………………………………………………………....3-9
A. Background…………………………………………………………………………3-4
B. Goals and Objectives……………………………………………………………...4-5
C. Current Conditions…………………………………………………………………...
1. Routing………………………………………………………………………...
a) Workflow Analysis…………………………………………………..
b) Routing Optimization……………………………………………...
2. Tracking……………………………………………………………………...
a) Drop Off Log………………………………………………………..
b) Tracking Optimization…………………………………………….
III. Solutions………………………………………………………………………………....
A. Routing………………………………………………………………………………....
1. Route4Me……………………………………………………………………
2. Routist…………………………………………………………………………
B. Tracking………………………………………………………………………………....
1. ASAP……………………………………………………………………
2. RedBeam……………………………………………………………………
3. IntelliTrack……………………………………………………………………
4. Google Form……………………………………………………………
C. Trade Studies……………………………………………………………………
IV. Final Recommendations……………………………………………………………………...
A. Routing………………………………………………………………………………….
B. Tracking………………………………………………………………………………...
C. Integration………………………………………………………………………………
V. Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………………..
A. Reflection……………………………………………………………………………….
VI. Appendix………………………………………………………………………………………...
1

3. I. Executive Summary
Seattle Children’s Hospital currently contracts third-party couriers to deliver specimen to their
lab. UW Medical Center, on the other hand, employs its own couriers. Given the proximity of the
two, SCH and UWMC have been undergoing talks of integrating the courier system, having SCH
use the employed couriers at UWMC. In doing so, costs for both institutions would decrease,
however, because the tracking measures of the UWMC couriers are subpar and the routing of
couriers is suboptimal, namely, couriers are consistently working overtime because of it,
integration cannot move forward. Thusly, our project has determined alternatives to improve the
routing and tracking to improve the current system; as a result, integration can become viable
and both institutions can benefit. Using a trade study, we determined the best alternative for
routing to be Route4Me and the best alternative for tracking to be ASAP Systems Asset
Tracking. With the help of these two software, we are confident that the integration of both
institution’s courier system is practical and will benefit greatly.
2

4. II. Introduction
A. Background
Due to the fact that Seattle Children’s Hospital is the leading hospital in pediatrics in the
Pacific Northwest, they have more specialized equipment and knowledge for pediatric
care. Seattle Children’s Clinical Laboratory performs more than 600 unique tests and
processes around 2,000 specimens daily. Close partner, University of Washington
Medical Center (UWMC), performs more than 1,800 unique tests and processes 11,000
specimens daily. For specimens that SCH cannot test, more than half is sent to UWMC,
and conversely, UWMC sends a small portion of their specimens for testing at SCH. Both
labs service a number of institutions, with a significant number of mutual clients.
Currently, UWMC and SCH have their own defined transportation services; UWMC
employs personal couriers while SCH employs third-party services that transport
specimens for them. This leads to some degree of redundancy, as specimens are received
and picked up from similarly located institutions for both labs. It also increases the
amount of revenue required to transport specimen, as they are each paying for their own
system.
With the close nature of the two labs, UWMC occasionally transports specimens destined
for SCH using their own couriers as a courtesy. This leads to confusion from clients,
mistakenly assuming that UWMC and SCH are one system. Additionally, SCH cannot
anticipate the arrival of the specimens that UWMC couriers deliver for institutions. This
extra hand-off is subject to errors and risks in misplacing or mishandling the specimens.
For UWMC, as the specimens are en-route to the labs, they are not currently being
tracked adequately. This leads to the inability to pinpoint where a specimen may have
“failed” (mishandled or misplaced). For SCH, the drop-off logs they have couriers fill out
when delivering specimens are not being monitored for completion, cancelling out the
point of the drop-off log. Our project is focused on attempting to consolidate both SCH
and UWMC courier routes and designing a superior system to track pre-test specimen, as
3

5. well as identifying procedural improvements to ultimately improve the quality of care
patients receive.
B. Goals and Objectives
The goals of our project are to integrate the SCH and UWMC with specimen transport.
UWMC already has a robust delivery system and provides courtesy deliveries to SCH.
The communication between SCH and UWMC is very informal and both laboratories
would benefit from more organized communication. We also aim to improve the
specimen tracking measures for both Seattle Children’s Hospital and UW Medical
Center. The manual systems in place are prone to human error and a more automatized,
paperless system would prove beneficial. Finally, to provide a flexible and scalable
system to efficiently modify routes would significantly improve the ease of use and
efficiency of the department.
C. Current Conditions
Currently, SCH and UWMC do not have a formal relationship. They each have separate
entities to transport specimen; SCH employs a third-party courier service, while UWMC
employs their own personal couriers. However, because of the close nature of the labs
and having an overlap of clients, some institutions that are serviced mistaken the two labs
as one. In this project, we divided the problem to 2 categories which are routing and
tracking.
1. Routing
a) Workflow Analysis
As stated before, UWMC has a personal courier to deliver and pick up the
specimens. After we did the ride-alongs with the couriers, we analyzed their
current workflow as can be seen below in Figure 1,
4

6. Figure 1: Current Workflow
Based on Figure 1, a circle indicates the start and end position while the red flag
indicate a place for improvement. While the red flag means that there is a place
for improvement. Mainly the place for improvement is under the driving time and
records the specimens, because oftentimes the driver has to work overtime to
make the delivery on time. During the ride-along, we also realized that there is no
standardized procedure on how to record the number of specimens that the courier
picked up. Some driver just count the bag and record it while other drivers count
the specimens in each bag and record it, which lead to confusion. Through the
recommendations made in this project, we believe that it will aid in removing the
non-value added steps and ease the work required of the couriers.
b) Routing Optimization
UWMC has 10 routes that are very packed and as a result, they are working
overtime or have to cut their break time most days of the week. If UWMC needs
5

7. to add more institutions, they have to manually check with google maps to know
which route is available. Therefore, if UWMC wants to add more SCH branch to
their routes system, it is very hard to know which route suits the best for that said
location. In addition, employees cannot to manipulate the current system, and
adjust existing routes easily without manually checking it with the google maps.
2. Tracking
a) Drop-Off Log
In SCH, there is a specimen tracking method that needs to be filled by the courier
and lab staff whenever there is a delivery or a pick-up, called the Drop-Off Log.
Below is an example of the drop-off log to keep track of how many specimens
that are dropped off internally nor externally,
Figure 2: Drop-Off Log
6

8. However, the drop-off log was also being used as a pick-up log and by looking at
the form, SCH cannot specify whether a delivery is for drop off or pick up. In
addition, the right part of the form was always empty because most of the lab
staffs did not filled in the form. The Lab Staffs are supposed to check the
conditions of the specimen, based from the temperature, but most of the time they
just left it blank. Therefore, we conducted a questionnaire for the lab staff
regarding the Drop-Off Log. When we did the questionnaire, most of the staff
stated that they do not see the purpose of filling the drop-off log, do not clearly
understand the way to use it, or because they were too busy to fill out the form. It
is also unclear on who was in charge on filling out the drop-off log. Based from
the feedback that we got, we make some things clearer and created a new log
which we renamed as the Hand Off Log.
Figure 3: Hand-Off Log
7

9. With the Hand-Off log, we make the time section clearer, specify whether the
delivery is drop off or pick up with the number of specimens or packages, and
states the where-to location. We also crammed the lab staffs use to only 2
columns to make it easier for the lab staff to understand. After we implemented it,
most of the feedback that we got was positive with lab staff noting that it was a
definite improvement over the former log. In addition, there was a significant
improvement in terms of lab staff usage which can be seen in Figure 4 below.
Figure 4: Chart of Specimen Hand-Off Log Usage
Based on the chart above, the left part indicates the percentage of the courier’s
usage of the drop off log and the right part is the SCH lab staff usage. As it seen
on the chart, there is a substantial improvement in the SCH lab staff usage from
15.71% to 81.82% and the improvement in the contracted driver’s usage from
95.71% to 99.00%.
8

10. b) Tracking Optimization
While with UWMC courier, they manually track how many specimens come from
an institution and place them in a temperature-appropriate storage area
accordingly on the road. This method is prone to human error and there is no
official documentation on the defect rate that they had before. Both this and
hand-off log methods of tracking deliveries do not remedy the “hope-handoff”
situation, where one hopes that the specimen is successfully delivered to the
correct location.
III. Initial Alternatives
A. Routing
The routing alternative comes up from the idea where we want a system which can help
UWMC to have system where a staff can easily modify overall routes and add in a new
location to one of their routes. In addition, we also want a system which can ensure that
overtime work will be kept at minimum by reducing the driving time. After we did some
reseach on a routing software, we found lots of alternative which may be applicable.
Therefore, we decided to eliminate alternatives which doesn’t have these abilities: reduce
driving time of routes (most of them reduce the distance, not driving time), provide
optimization of multiple routes at once, has a great user interface, update existing route,
and add more stops to a routes. After eliminating all incapable alternative, we finally
came up with two routing software alternatives, Route4Me and Routist.
1. Route4Me
Route4Me is a commercial route planner software which are able to optimize a route
by reducing the total driving time or total distance, and even both. In order to get the
optimized routes, A user just need to type, copy-and-paste, or upload their customer
address list to the software, hit the plan route button on the screen, and wait for
seconds to let the software generate the optimized routes.
9

11. Figure 5: Route4Me Interface
In addition to this, Route4Me also has numerous great features which will be beneficial
for UWMC:
● Time Window - Some customers may have prefered time range for their specimen
to be picked up or delivered. In this case, we can specify the time window for one,
or even all, destination based on their prefered time.
● Route update - As the pattern of traffic are keep changing, the optimized route of
today might be different from yesterday. Therefore, this software will help
ensuring that the route is always updated with the optimized one.
● No training required - The software is very easy to use as it is designed to be
intuitive and user-friendly. However, in case a user still need some help, a
knowledge base and e-mail, live-chat, or phone support are provided for free.
● Team routing optimization- Instead of planning the route of each driver
separately, the software can create all optimized routes for the drivers at once.
10

12. This can be done by upload depots, addresses, and driver’s data to the software
and hit the plan route button.
● No special hardware to purchase or install - Route4Me is web based. Therefore,
no server or upgrades required to use the software. In additional, ​Route4Me also
works on the iPhone, iPad, Android, Google Chrome, Internet Explorer, Firefox,
and Safari.
● Driver tracking - Driver location and speed of driving can be tracked if the drivers
use the Route4Me apps in their iPhone/iPad/Android phone.
● Modify or add destination - Route4Me allow user to add more destination or
change the destination order anytime. If the drivers use the Route4Me apps in
their phone, a notification and updated route will appear in their phone screen.
● Syncs to iPhone, iPad, or Android - The mobile route planning apps feature
real-time synchronization of all of your routes and customer addresses, written
notes & photos at each stop, sign-on-glass verification, route progress & location
tracking, and more.
● Statistic of driving times, fuel usage, and mileage - Get the access to detailed
mileage, route manifest, and fuel cost analytics data . In addition to detailed
driving costs, each address on a route can capture extended information such as
revenue, cost, and service-time.
● Picture, video, notes, and other attachment - If the drivers use Route4Me apps in
their phone, they will be able to mark if they have visited or departed from a
destination location. Then, they will also able to attach notes, video, picture, or
signature on any stop of the routes.
2. Routist
Routist is a web-based route planner. It provides an easy to use interface that allows
for easy route modification. Start by uploading a client list and customizing the
individual drivers. To plan a new route, choose a driver and select a list of locations
for them to visit from the client list or add new locations manually. Modify the time
11

13. required at each location (service time) then add any additional time window
constraints to individual locations and click optimize. Routist will use its algorithms
to attempt to optimize the route. After the route is optimized it is still customizable.
Just adjust the sequence manually to fix any minute details and Routist will update
the travel plan accordingly.
Figure 6: Routist Interface
Routist Features
● Import data - Routist makes it easy to import an Excel or CSV files containing
client and location data.
● Web-based service - Routist is entirely web based a method of accessing the
website so no additional hardware or installations are needed.
● Time window - Specify a specific time range in which a location needs to be
visited. Routist will take this into account when optimizing routes.
12

14. ● Multi-vehicle routing and scheduling - Capable of distributing locations among
multiple vehicles.
● Smartphone app - An application is available for smartphones to connect with
drivers to provide updates and route adjustments.
● Adjustable service times - Time required at each location can be modified
● Vehicle list - Maintain a list of drivers with customizable work hours, break
times, capacity, and regions of operation.
● Route statistics - Routist provides a variety of statistics for each vehicle assigned
to a route including mileage, fuel usage, driving time, total time, and a Gantt chart
for each driver.
B. Tracking
After conducting the ride alongs with the UWMC couriers it was observed that the entire
work process is manual. Whenever a courier would walk into a clinic, they would count
each specimen one by one and then log that into the paper sheets. There was truly no way
to concretely know if a specimen had gone from its origin to its destination, which was
something they noted as a hope handoff in that they hoped that a specimen would go
from point A to point B. Due to this, we felt that their work could be streamlined through
some sort of automated software which would reduce manual labor, provide stable
tracking measures and, in turn, reduce the chance of human error. In addition, the
UWMC had no true statistics of defect rates (e.g. lost specimens, or mislabeled
specimens), therefore we felt that a software was also necessary in order to log daily
specimen data and statistics into an automated database which would completely remove
the manual measures currently being taken. The four softwares we examined -- ASAP
Systems, RedBeam, IntelliTrack, and Google Form -- are each discussed in further detail
below.
1. ASAP Systems
13

15. ASAP Systems provides solutions for inventory management as well as asset
tracking. For our purposes, the asset tracking system was considered as it provided a
solution to locate assets that were off-site. ASAP has worked with a variety of
industries, including Medical Supplies Inventory, Emergency Medical Services, and
Warehouse Management Systems. Given the past experience, we were confident that
ASAP had a product that could mesh well with specimen tracking.
Some features that ASAP boast are the ability to design and print custom barcode
labels. Some design options that can ease in clarity are to include a logo of the
institution on the barcode and color-coding a receive and deliver barcode. The
information provided by the barcode can also be customized so that assets can be
batched or uniquely identified. The barcode generator is pictured below in Figure 7.
The description of the stock items in the figure, such as yellow oxide, are to be
ignored due to the fact that we received a pre-populated database. It is easy to see that
these descriptors could be reworked to be tailored to our specific problem. Another
feature of the ASAP Systems Asset Tracking software is the capability to rename data
fields, allowing for greater compatibility with the system that we had in mind already.
Figure 7: ASAP Systems Barcode Generator
14

16. With this system feeding into a database, the metrics that were unknown before can
now be quantified. Metrics that can be now tracked include, but are not limited to, the
average number of each temperature of specimen that is picked up a day, the average
amount of specimen picked up a day, and most importantly, the number of specimens
that do not reach its intended location. These metrics can then be monitored via a
configured report that can be configured to fit your needs and are pictured below in
Figure 8.
Figure 8: ASAP Systems Inventory Metrics
2. RedBeam
RedBeam is a barcode-based tracking solutions software which goal is to make an
organization become more productive. Currently, there are 4 types of tracking
software that they are trying to sell. However, the most suitable and applicable for
UWMC and SCH is RedBeam Asset Tracking. Based on what is stated on their
website, RedBeam Asset Tracking is ideal for organization who want to increase
accountability and minimize the cost associated to lost items by tracking product
samples using comprehensive circulating inventory tracking and barcode scanners
connected to a PC workstation (standard edition) or to a mobile computers (mobile
edition).
15

17. With RedBeam Asset Tracking, tracking numerous of specimens can be done easily
by capturing all necessary information about the samples including sample ID,
location, time, and more using the barcode scanner. In addition, the sample records
can be updated simply by choosing the fields the user want to update and sync it to
the mobile computer. An example of this can be seen in Figure 9 below.
Figure 9: RedBeam Specimen Identification
In order to add more sample data into the system (check in), the driver can just simply
scan the location ID, destination ID, and the sample ID (Room Temperature, Frozen,
or Refrigerated). Then, if the driver has arrived in other stop and want to check out
the sample, the driver just need to scan the location ID and the sample ID. Here, if the
driver misses some samples to be checked out, the system will give a warning so that
the driver will not need to revisit the place again.
3. IntelliTrack
16

18. IntelliTrack is a well established inventory management company, offering nearly a
dozen different products to tailor to various industries in the working field. The
particular product that applied to our problem was IntelliTrack Package Track.
With Package Track, similar to RedBeam and ASAP, the pickup process goes from a
manual procedure to an automated one through the use of barcodes and a barcode
scanner. The barcode scanner simultaneously serves as the data log which records the
number of items scanned in at a particular destination. Once a courier collects all the
needed data from a destination they simply upload all of this data to the database
through either a wi-fi, bluetooth, or USB connection. A screenshot of the software is
pictured below in Figure 10.
Figure 10: IntelliTrack Package Track Home Page
4. Google Form
Google Form is a free-to-use application that can be used to track specimen
quantities. It is not an inventory tracking software per se, however, it can be
17

19. configured for that use. We have mocked a Google Form for our use, as seen in
Figure 11. The form is easy to read and use, however, it requires a smart phone and
an Internet connection or data. The point of this alternative is to provide a solution
that is cheap and transitions the courier system off of paper and into an online
database format. This way, data can also be extracted rather than filed away.
Figure 11: Google Form Interface
The Google Form automatically feeds into a Google Spreadsheet. A sample of the
Spreadsheet can be seen in Figure 12. The information that is recorded is the time of
entry, the location the courier is at, and the amount of specimens that were picked up.
This is all of the information that is currently being recorded manually.
18

20. Figure 12: Google Spreadsheet
C. Trade Studies
In order to determine the optimal alternative, we created a list of criteria, based on
feedback from representatives from both SCH and UWMC, to compare the different
types of software on similar grounds. We scored each option, on a scale of 1-10, based on
how well it met the criteria. A score of 10 denotes the option highly satisfied the criteria,
while a score of 1 means it failed to meet the criteria. Each criteria was then weighted
based on its importance. Each category was also given a weight. With these scores we
can rank the alternatives based on how well they satisfy the objectives. The trade studies
can be seen below in Figure 13 for routing and Figure 14 for tracking.
Figure 13: Routing Trade Study
19

21. Aside from cost, Route4Me out scored Routist in every category. Routist’s optimization
results were not as consistent nor as effective as the those from Route4Me. With route
optimization being the most important category, this is detrimental to Routist’s score.
Routist provides a good interface and layout, however, Route4Me has a more intuitive
design. Route4Me’s customer service includes online chat support that is very fast and
helpful compared to Routist which relies on a slower, ticket-based system. After
thoroughly examining both softwares, we have concluded that Route4Me is the best
choice moving forward and will provide the greatest aid in the optimization process of
the courier routing systems as a whole.
Figure 14: Tracking Trade Study
IntelliTrack, ASAP, and RedBeam all have similar features and applications to track
specimens. The deciding factor among these products was the price. ASAP offers a much
cheaper alternative in the form of a smartphone app. This would require upgrading to
smartphones and purchasing an auxiliary scanning device as a phone’s camera is often
20

22. too slow and unreliable, but this option is still significantly less expensive. Another key
characteristic that set ASAP apart from the other products is its modern interface and a
generally higher level of technology compared to the other softwares. This will provide
the software with greater relevance and adaptability in the long run. Google Form is a
decent alternative to move toward digital documents but lacks the tracking capabilities of
the other options. With tracking measures comprising the largest portion of the score,
Google Forms falls short. Google Forms is free to use, however this option would also
require upgrading to smartphones to utilize it.
IV. Final Recommendations
A. Routing
Our final recommendation for the routing software is Route4Me. In addition to scoring
higher on the trade study, we felt that Route4Me was simply more intuitive overall and
stood head and shoulders above Routist in terms of accomplishing the project goals. We
performed an extensive number of trials to gauge Route4Me’s performance and
capability including creating current route models, optimized route models, as well as
performing a real driving simulation with Route4Me.
● Route4Me Modeling
In order to know how far Route4Me can reduce the driving time of a courier, we had
compared the optimized route driving time and current route driving time and calculate
for its percentage difference.The timing on the route sheet given by UWMC has a
different standard from UWMC. In addition, the time difference between each specified
arrival time is actually the total time of service and driving. Therefore, we could not
compare the timing in the route sheet with what we got in Route4Me. Just to be fair, we
finally decided to create both current and optimized model in Route4Me and compared
them.
21

23. The first step we need to take to create the route model is creating an excel spreadsheet
based on the the template provided by Route4Me and fill in the information given by
UWMC on the suitable cell. Next, we click on “plan a new route” button and specify the
route name, time, and how we want our new route to be optimized. At this point, we can
choose whether we want to optimize it based on distance, time, or time and traffic. In
addition, we can also choose to not optimize it and let the model created based on the
natural sequence of the previously made excel spreadsheet. After specifying all
information needed, we have to upload the previously made excel spreadsheet in “csv”
file and click on “plan route” button. After waiting for less than 3 seconds, we then has to
validate the address and the column title of the spreadsheet. Once this step is taken, we
just need to wait for another 5 seconds to get the new route based on our preference.
The table below show the comparison of the current model and alternative model as well
as its improvement percentage. For this the alternative model, we used the “optimized by
time” setting and assume all the “on call” stop is going to be visited. As you can see on
the table below, some of the driving distance of the alternative route are higher than the
current one yet none of them has negative percentage improvement in terms of driving
time. For Saturday route, even the driving time is not reduced, yet the total distance of the
route is reduced by almost 7%. For Wenatchee route, there is no change made by
Route4Me as there are only 2 stops beside UWMC and the current route may have
already be the most optimal one.
Route Driving Time
(Minutes)
Driving
Distance(miles)
Driving Time
Improvement
Percentage
Distance
Improvement
Percentage
Current Alter-
native
Current Alter-
native
AM/PM 234 218 115.5 109.47 6.84% 5.22%
Bellingham 283 282 221.31 222.73 0.35% -0.64%
Central 249 222 115.18 113.11 10.84% 1.80%
22

24. Evening
North
214 211 107.82 104.65 1.40% 2.94%
Evening
South
212 210 105.36 109.35 0.94% -3.79%
Olympia 355 325 275 294 8.45% -6.91%
Saturday 198 198 175.85 174.61 0.00% 0.71%
Wenatchee 402 402 403.21 403.21 0.00% 0.00%
In fact, the percentage of improvement shows above is actually keep changing from day
to day. During our trial, we often saw some changes of the sequence of the stops, total
distance, and driving time from day to day. Therefore, we believe that the opportunity to
reduce the driving time is not limited to at max 10.84%. As what is claimed in Route4Me
website, their software can reduce the driving time to 35%. Therefore, we believe that if
we use the software and know really well how to use all features on the Route4Me
software, UWMC route model can also be improved significantly.
● Driving Simulation
Beside knowing how well Route4Me can reduce the driving time, we also want to
validate the software by going through a driving simulation. Because of our limited time,
our simulation only consists of Seattle Children’s Hospital, UW Neighborhood Clinic
Ravenna, Hall Health Clinic, and our depot, UWMC. At first, we created a trial route in
Route4Me with those address as our locations, and once we optimized the route from our
computer, one of our member will open the application through her smartphone and
proceed as the courier. When the courier selects a route, they will have a display that
pops up on their phone which can be seen in Figure 15 below.
23

25. Figure 15 : Route4Me Application
Then, the courier can set the GPS on the smartphone for each of the location that needs to
be visited which can be seen in Figure 16 below.
24

26. Figure 16: Route4Me GPS
Once the courier starts driving to each location, the other member can monitor the
location, the time, and the speed of the driver from the computer which can be seen in
Figure 17 below.
Figure 17: Real Time Tracking from the Client’s Computer
25

27. After the driver arrives at the location and is ready to depart to the next destination, they
can update the status of the current route with the application and signify whether or not
they have visited or departed from that location. This can be seen in Figure 18 below.
Figure 18: Current Status of the Courier
When the driver has updated their current status of the route, there is a pop-up
notification on the client’s computer which alerts the client of when a driver has reached
a particular destination. This can be seen in Figure 19 below.
26

28. Figure 19: Notification on The Client’s Computer
In addition, if the client suddenly changes the destination on the current route, the driver
will also get a notification saying that the route is updated. When the route is finished, the
progress on the computer will display as 100%.
● Timing Validation
The table below show the driving time of the route we used for our driving simulation
based on Route4Me, Google Maps, and our driving simulation. Just to control the data,
we would like to minimize the effect of traffic jam in certain time and other unpredictable
events. Therefore, we set the departure time for Route4Me, Google Maps, and our
driving simulation to be the same.
Route Driving Time (minutes) Route4Me
Percentage of
Actual Time
Route4Me
Driving Time
Falls Within
Google Range?
Route4Me Google Maps Actual
UWMC-SCH 7 7-12 9 66.70% Yes
SCH-UWNC
Ravenna
8 6-9 10 80% Yes
27

29. UWNC Ravenna
- Hall Health
Clinic
5 5-8 5 100% Yes
Hall Health
Clinic - UWMC
6 5-8 10 60% Yes
As you can see on the graph, the Route4Me Percentage of actual time is quite off.
However, as we only do a single measurement, we can’t really conclude anything from
this data. Instead, we also want to compare the Route4Me timing with Google Maps
timing. Based on our research, Google Maps timing prediction is credible as this range of
timing given by Google Maps are generated from variety things including speed limit,
recommended speeds, historical average speed data over certain time of period, actual
travel times from previous users, and real-time traffic information. In addition, we also
have confirmed that the predict of Google Maps is actually match to our actual driving
time during the simulation. As what is shown in the table above, the Route4Me timing is
actually also match to Google Maps timing. Therefore, we can be confident that the
Route4Me estimation driving time is accurate or credible.
B. Tracking
Our final recommendation for the tracking software is ASAP Systems. As noted in the
trade study section, ASAP boasts a more modern interface which will provide it with
greater relevance in the long run as compared to IntelliTrack and RedBeam. In addition,
ASAP is simply higher tech than the other softwares. Notably, there was a feature on
ASAP which would alert the client if the number of items scanned in at the origin did not
match the number of items scanned out at the destination. This feature essentially
eliminates the current “hope handoff” measures put into place as it provides a definitive
way of identifying a specimen has indeed gone from point A to point B.
With these softwares it is noted that we did not get to trial the actual barcode scanning
hardware as they were not able to provide a demo of the scanners to students. If UWMC
28

30. and SCH do indeed decide to implement this software, a trial run must be conducted to
determine the flexibility and applicability of the hardware and determine if that change is
beneficial or detrimental to the couriers.
C. Integration
The integration was done manually through the usage of Google Maps. Using Google
Maps, we mapped all of the UWMC courier routes in addition to mapping all of the SCH
clinics. The routes were color coded in order to distinguish them amongst one another.
Figure 14, pictured below, provides a visual of what the map looked like. In this figure
we used the AM/PM courier route, which are the red pins, and the different SCH
locations which are the black pins on the map.
Figure 20: UWMC Map Route
29

31. After mapping all of the destinations, we identified which Seattle Children’s Hospital
branches are close to at least one of the stops in the route or within the way from one stop
to other stop. After identifying which branch was close to which stop, we then used
Google Maps to estimate the distance and driving time between the two locations. The
table below shows the driving time from Seattle Children’s location to one of the nearest
stops in a particular route. The table is color coded where green is for additional 1 to 3
minutes driving, yellow for additional 4 to 9 minutes driving, and red is for additional 10
to 15 minutes driving from the SCH location to one of its nearest stop in the route. The
blank or white cells in the table show that there is no stop in the route that is close enough
to the particular SCH location.
Figure 21: Integration From To Table
The integration table provides a simple and clarifying visual of where SCH locations can be
integrated into. Combining the integration table with Route4Me will provide UWMC with the
tools necessary to find the optimal location of where to place the SCH locations into the current
routes.
30

32. V. Conclusion
Based off of the trade studies and the thorough analysis and examination we have conducted
on each software, we believe that the implementation of Route4Me and ASAP Systems will
provide SCH and UWMC with benefits that will last long term and will bolster both courier
systems in their entirety. The benefits and potential outcomes with Route4Me, the integration
of courier routes, and ASAP Systems include:
● Reduced courier driving time by 3.60% overall (~ 79 minutes)
● Reduced time to modify existing courier routes
● Eliminated manual processes for adding and organizing the locations in each route
● Reduced courier overtime work
● Reduced gas costs
● Reduced third party courier costs
● Real time GPS tracking of couriers
● Reduction of redundant drop-off and pick-up locations for UWMC and SCH couriers
● Reduced chance of human error through reduction of required manual labor
● Have official documentation to keep track of the defect rate (e.g. specimens that are lost,
or stored at the wrong temperature) and other important metrics
● Eliminated manual methods for counting and recording the number of specimens during
pick-ups and the creation of an automated database of specimen statistics
A. Reflection
If we were to do this project again, we would want to have had a better understanding of
money so that we could provide SCH and UWMC with a concrete estimate of how much
they could potentially be saving through the implementation of the softwares we have
recommended. Given the complexity of the situation, however, we completely
understand the difficulty of providing such numbers.
31

33. All in all, this has been a great project and an incredible six months of real world
industrial engineering experience. We would like to thank​:​ Lisa Wick, Carol Maseo,
Professor Christina Mastrangelo, the Industrial and Systems Engineering Department at
the University of Washington, Seattle Children’s Hospital, and UW Medical Center for
making this project possible and for their contributions to the success of this project.
VI. Appendix A
Figure A.1*: ASAP Systems Price Quote With Smartphone Application
32

34. Figure A.2*: ASAP Price Quote With Barcode Scanners
* It is noted that the price is stated with the inclusion of only one smartphone application and one
barcode scanner. Therefore, to get a more accurate quote we multiplied these numbers by 10 to
accommodate for each of the couriers which brings the totals for the smartphone and barcode
quotes to $7,939.00 and $21,820.00 respectively.
33

35. Figure A.3**: Route4Me Pricing
** The most applicable pricing structure for UWMC’s current situation would be the business
plan at $499 per month.
34