Information Technology ‐ Continuous Improvement

(Lean in an Hour) CSU AOA Conference Presentation

Eric Olsen

13Jan14

01

What is Lean?

Maintaining or increasing value

while reducing waste by

involving associates in problem solving.

Eric Olsen – Cal Poly 4 - 2

Maintaining or increasing value

Eric Olsen – Cal Poly 4- 3

VALUE

Time

Quality

Cost

Through the Eyes of the Customer

reducing waste

Eric Olsen – Cal Poly 4- 4

Eric Olsen – Cal Poly Industrial Technology

2

Flow Charting – For Value

The Any Process Lead Time Model

Examples of Office Process Waste

• Too many signature levels

• Unclear job descriptions

• Obsolete databases/files/folders

• Purchase orders not matching quotation

• Errors – typo’s, misspelling, wrong data

• Waiting – for information, at meetings, etc.

• Poor office layout

• Unnecessary E-mails

Eric Olsen – Cal Poly 4- 5

- Lean Office Series: Lean office Value Streams – (Factory Strategies Group LLC, 2009)

involving associates in problem solving

Standard Work and Kaizen

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Impro

vem

ent

Time

“Cowboy Kaizen”

K

K

K

SW

SW

SW

The ITS Connection

Use Kaizen Events to clean up and simplify the work flow BEFORE you automate.

Advantages

• Less to automate

• Better understanding of customer value

• Better understanding of the process

• Better communication between process partners.

• Ultimately – less work, faster response, better quality.

Eric Olsen – Cal Poly 7

What is a Kaizen Event?

• Select a process to be improved.

• Get a sponsor.

• Gather a cross-functional/cross-level team of people involved in the process.

• Meet for a specified, “short” period of time.

• Learn, see, understand, plan, and act… TOGETHER.

• Present results and plans to upper management.

• Celebrate!

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What does a Kaizen Event look like?

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Define the VALUE!

What does a Kaizen Event look like?

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Analyze the current PROCESS!

What does a Kaizen Event look like?

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Understand TOGETHER!

What does a Kaizen Event look like?

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Plan

TOGETHER!

Practical Problem Solving

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Cal Poly Kaizen History

17 Incident Response Process - 2014

16 Authentication Request Process

- 2013

15 Employee Intake Process - 2013

14 Helical Sale to Order Process

- 2013

13 SLO County GSA Customer

Service Process - 2013

12 SLO County Facility Services

Maintenance Work Order

Process - 2012

11 SLO County Parks & Recreation

Reservation Process - 2011

10 2nd Floor Admin Layout - 2011

9 Lecturer and TA Appointment

Process - 2011

8 Course Approval Process - 2011

7 HR Staffing Process - 2011

6 Voler Pack and Ship Process - 2010

5 Commencement Budgeting

Process -2010

4 Course Substitution Process - 2010

3 Academic Program Review Process

- 2010

2 Cash Gift Process - 2009

1 Grant Contracting Process - 2009

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Building an electronic

approval form

Cal Poly State University

By Darren Kraken

Application Integration Supervisor

An adventure in going paperless for

temporary faculty appointments

[Note: One of three presentations

taken from “Lean Information

Technology” Lean Leadership Forum

Dec13]

Background:

• Temporary faculty contracts are

renewed each quarter

• 80-85% of all academic

appointments (300+/term)

Goal: To improve the process by which the university hires temporary faculty and teaching associates.

Once there was paper . . .

AP101 HR Form E

Payroll Hiree Provost Academic Personnel Dean

Dept

Coordinator

Dept Chair

College Analyst

Offer Letter

o Academic Personnel

o Payroll

o College/Department Users

o Information Services

o Human Resources

o Lean Business Process

Consultant – Eric Olsen

18

Kaizen

December 12, 2013 Lean Information Technology

o 58 steps

o 62 days to process hire

o Players

• Hiring Department

• College / Dean

• Academic Personnel

• Provost

19

Process defined

December 12, 2013 Lean Information Technology

• 14 verification steps out of the 58

• Sneakernet used to route forms

• Departments overwhelmed with

paperwork

• Rework required due to data entry

errors

• Many electronic systems didn’t talk

20

Issues

December 12, 2013 Lean Information Technology

Background:

• Temporary faculty contracts are

renewed each quarter

• 80-85% of all academic

appointments (300+/term)

Process Improvement

eAP101 eliminates

paper!

Eliminate unneeded validation

steps

Consistent process across

campus

Standardized Offer Letters

ITS, Academic Personnel, HR,

Payroll, College Analysts

Gather requirements

2% problem

Phased approach

Standardize offer letter

Time to build an electronic workflow . . .

All we need is a few signatures, right?

• Additional workflow API for group

routing and security

• Creation of 130+ new groups

• eAP101 portlet

• Generating tiff files of completed

eAP101 and offer letter

• Importing tiff files into payroll’s

ImageNow system

23

Implementation

December 12, 2013 Lean Information Technology

Transparent electronic routing and

signatures

No more manually copying data

Users are notified if contract data

changes during routing

Reduces need to batch appointments

Reduced errors by 35%

Return rate now < 2%

Success!

Results

Average time to process • 62 days to 15 days

• 90% complete in 20 days

• Fastest = 10.5 hours

58 steps -> 40 steps

Offer letter automatically generated • Postage cost eliminated

Continuous Improvement

• Periodically meet with stakeholders

to discuss future improvements

• Dashboard to be developed for better

metrics

• Process and technical improvements

addressed periodically

• 4-5 enhancements per quarter

15 mods YTD

Recommendations for Success

1. Develop and operational strategy around what’s most important.

2. Get leadership buy-in [but don’t wait].

3. Use kaizen events to cleanup and tee-up processes for automation.

4. Automate sparingly.

5. Learn by doing and repeat.

6. Celebrate often.

Eric Olsen – Cal Poly 27

Eric Olsen – Cal Poly 28

Eric Olsen, PhD Cal Poly - Orfalea College of Business - Industrial Technology

Bldg: 03 Rm: 435, 1 Grand Ave, San Luis Obispo, CA 93407-0383

office: 805 756-1754 cell: 805 602-0228 e-mail: eolsen@calpoly.edu

webpage: www.cob.calpoly.edu/faculty/eric-olsen/

Central Coast Lean - www.cob.calpoly.edu/centralcoastlean/

Building a local community of lean practice across business, education, nonprofits, and government.

Eric Olsen – Cal Poly 29

ALeanerFutureApplyandexpandleaninyourorganization

http://www.cob.calpoly.edu/centralcoastlean/summit/

Thursday, February 20, for Pre-Summit Workshop and/or

Friday, February 21 for the Summit At Cal Poly