Evaluating Methods of Change Nancy Kress Head, Bookstacks Department University of Chicago Library

The Challenge Users expect books to be on the shelf at all times Bookstacks Mission: The Stacks Department serves library patrons through quick, accurate re-shelving of library materials. Yearly goals for the Bookstacks Department are set to reduce turnaround time. A big push to do this came after the results from LibQual+ in 2004 when there were numerous comments from users complaining that it took too long for books to get back to the shelf.

Methodologies for Change 2003 - present Process mapping 2003-2005 Continuous process improvement 2004-present Lean Manufacturing present Introduced to process mapping and continuous process improvement via UC Graham school course. Process mapping is a powerful yet straightforward tool that allows an organization to effectively analyze processes, rapidly identify weaknesses, and curtail inefficiency. Recently learned about lean manufacturing from a site visit to our library binder in August of 2005.

What wasn’t solved? Peak book returns 4 quarterly due dates Normal weekly book returns avg. 8,000 Peak weekly returns avg. 35,000 What we continued to struggle with – trying to get quick turnaround during the peak return periods. Problems with finding Reserve material, high use books – backlogs created that took weeks to re-shelve. Our FY 2005/2006 goal is 24-48 hours at all times, including peak return periods.

Best Practice Models Other Libraries Similar process organizations U.S. Post Office Library Bindery We looked for organizations who had expertise in processes similar to our own. We looked for service industries that experienced seasonal peaks, with little or no control over the amount of materials coming in. Other libraries had solved the problem through rolling due dates – something we didn’t move to, as the quarterly due date is seen as facilitating the type of research done at University of Chicago. The best we came up with was the Post Office – and in Chicago it’s not a good model! We realized our library binder was most similar, We sometimes sent larger shipments yet the turnaround was always the same. We have a good relationship with them as one of their largest customers.

Heckman Plant Tour View lean manufacturing process Improve Bookstacks efficiencies at Regenstein The bindery management asked to bring statistics showing the numbers for the amount of books we handle weekly. They walked us through the binding process, illustrating where they made improvements using lean manufacturing principles. Afterwards we had a discussion about how lean principles could help us at our library.

What is “Lean Manufacturing?” Lean manufacturing is aimed at elimination of waste Organize processes to add value to the customer Deliver goods “just-in-time” Service organizations also using lean Terminology introduced at MIT in 1987. Because you need less of every input to create value for customers, it was called “lean.” Born to describe what was happening at Toyota. Lean production is aimed at the elimination of waste in every area of production including customer relations, product design, supplier networks and factory management. Its goal is to incorporate less human effort, less inventory, less time to develop products, and less space to become highly responsive to customer demand while producing top quality products in the most efficient and economical manner possible.

History of Lean “The Machine That Changed the World” Toyota auto manufacturing “Value chain” 1990 best seller “The Machine That Changed the World” chronicling automobile manufacturing from mass production to lean production – the story of how Toyota grew into a large company. History of lean – 1990’s Toyota automobile manufacturing in Japan. Concept of the “value chain”: all the actions required to bring a product (in our case books) through the main flows essential to every product, from customer demand (book on shelf) back through the point books enter the department to be processed. Recently these principles are being applied to service – see “Lean, Green Service” reference. Keys are speed and quality – which matched our mission.

Basic Lean Principles Add nothing but value Do it right the first time Eliminate “muda” – waste Do it right the first time People doing the work add value Team oriented Deliver on demand “Pull” instead of push Add value: If something does not add value, it is waste Ex: putting books in exact order before they get to the shelf adds no value to the library user. Do it right: Workers become responsible for the product and to troubleshoot problems as they occur. People: Transfer the maximum number of tasks and responsibilities to the workers actually adding value (the shelvers and check-in staffs)  Upgrade skills through training     Form teams that design their own processes and address problems Deliver on demand: Idea that things are pulled through a process rather than push it into inventory. Ex: checking in books to build lines of bookcarts waiting to be shelved. Instead of batch and queue (full 6-shelf bookcarts in a long line), shelve a little bit at a time at the last possible moment.

Lean learned from Heckman Key Principle #1: Pull… …means work isn’t done until a downstream process requires it Make only what the next process needs – when it needs it Continuous work flow is fundamental to lean production. The work is pulled from the end rather than pushed through from the front. We try to link all the steps of the process of getting books from check-in to the shelf in a smooth flow to get books back faster. The student shelvers coming in decide how much work goes out. Immediate shelving was born – once staff started thinking about the process starting at the ending point. Think of Immediate Shelving as a sort of "self-service" cart-assignment process. Here's how it works: (next slide)

“Pull” becomes “Immediate Shelving” The Process: Only full shelves pulled to cart One shelf = 30 minutes The Immediate Shelving Process-- 1. Find the floor with the fullest shelves [or take from shelves as directed by Leads or Collections Maintenance Team members] and build yourself a cart, loading books on in the order they appear on the preshelving shelves. That is, they will be in rough call number order, not exact call number order. 2. Take as many books as you can reasonably shelve in the time you have, estimating 30 minutes per shelf. E.g. if your shift is 2 hours long, you might take 3 shelves (an hour an a half of shelving, and time left over to build the cart, bring it back, and so on).

Lean learned from Heckman Key Principle #2: Batching Key to rapid delivery is small batch sizes We knew from prior process mapping that bookcart lines were a frustration for users. If we batched work according to the time a student had, we reduced the amount of work – and the work was done FASTER! 30 minutes per bookcart shelf.

“The Goal” by Eliyahu M. Goldratt & Jeff Cox “This book is about progress. It’s about the creation and acceptance of improvements – change for the better.” From the cover of the 1986 edition. A novel written to explain (what were at the time in 1984) new principles in manufacturing. The managers at Heckman recommended this book. They also had gone through some value stream mapping – similar to process mapping – for lean. Using these principles they cut turnaround time on all materials in half.

More from “The Goal”… What is the Bookstacks Department’s ONE goal? Quick, accurate reshelving All books on the shelf in correct order, ALL THE TIME There is only one goal, for each business, no matter what the business. From our mission: “quick, accurate re-shelving” What is highest value to the users – books on the shelf (where they expect them) and in correct call number order.

Books WAITING to be shelved Are we meeting the Goal? Throughput Books coming IN Inventory Books WAITING to be shelved Operational Expense Payroll COST Throughput the rate that books go through the process from the point they enter the department to when they are back on the shelf in correct order. Inventory books sitting in pre-shelving and on bookcarts waiting to be shelved. Operational expense cost of staff – the only cost I need to be concerned with. Of course computers for checkin, bookcarts, office supplies are cost but I needed a simple measurement. Measurements we adopted: to see if we were meeting the goal. Books coming in Circ. Returns, new acquisitions, pick-ups, misc. Books in “inventory” books in pre-shelving, and on bookcarts – anything not on the shelf in the bookstacks Payroll cost for non-management anyone directly handling the books. I do help out to test the process from time to time though.

Our Challenge for Lean Peak Book Returns 4 Quarterly Due Dates Normal weekly returns: 6,000 Peak returns: 35,000 Due date falls on the Friday of the first week of each academic quarter. We experience the highest returns during the first and second week. Overdue notices go out during second week which may account for the high numbers of returns then.

Brainstorming Session Book knowledge can only go so far… Best way to learn is by DOING Begin where the greatest need exists I had accumulated a lot of literature on lean – now it was time to test it out. I was attracted to lean because I’d read that it was possible to make dramatic changes to an area in a short space of time. I was frustrated that process mapping hadn’t solved our peak return problems. During the peak returns we get as many as 40,000 books per week, just when our student staffs are busiest. Staffing falls to half it’s normal numbers – especially during first week as students are still sampling and selecting classes.

Creating “level pull” “Level pull” is basically a replenishment model Replenish Bookstacks shelves Create a “level” daily schedule of work Use inventory to buffer against large swings in work Inventory is held; depletion of that inventory is a signal for replenishment. We were working on what I called a reverse inventory – as we were replenishing the bookstacks from what came into the Bookstacks Department. The basic objectives of pull systems as they relate to our situation are: Improve material flow, on-time delivery, reduce inventories and lead times

Keys to level pull Create inventory Organize how inventory is stored “supermarket” Organize how inventory is stored Consolidate similar types It would be impossible to immediately shelve everything coming in during peak return periods. We would never have enough staff. An inventory can help buffer against large swings in materials. Had to decide what gets held and what gets shelved.                                                      “supermarket” used when a continuous flow isn’t possible. The example in the lean literature is processing one piece at a time – imagine shelving each book one at a time from check-in to the shelf. We shelve over 500,000 pieces a year. How inventory is stored and organized        Consolidate standard types Held the oversize, other collections, (CJK), Preservation, dissertations, government documents. Easy, visual sorting. What would be immediately shelved would be high use LC collections in the general stacks. Whatever pre-shelving areas filled up fastest to 80% and beyond.

Optimize the Bottlenecks Reduce batch sizes Eliminate uneven amounts of work Put the best people on the bottlenecks They set the pace Optimize the bottlenecks high use materials; where pre-shelving fills up fastest. Reduce batches to speed up books going through the bottlenecks Put best people on the bottlenecks to set the pace for everything else Reduce batch sizes Eliminate uneven amounts of work done ½ finished carts, or carts with 10 books – so frustrating!     Situation easier to monitor when you can see it as compared to books are piled up everywhere.       Send out small batches of books if bottlenecks don’t have time to build, everything else can keep moving. What we don’t want is for work to stop – then it piles up.

The Lean Solution OLD NEW Bottlenecks go to overflow shelving Only non-bottlenecks go to overflow No “immediate shelving” Bottlenecks are “immediate shelving” Everything goes through same process 2 processes – bottleneck and non

Future Outcomes? GOAL: measurable results VALUE: high use books are on shelf GOAL: measurable results improved turnaround over last peak from prior year. VALUE: high use books on shelf set up a tracking sheet of known high use LC blocks. Collection Maintenance Team would check off which LC block whenever cart was sent. Hypothesis is that more carts for high use areas would be sent. At peak return, what adds value for patrons is different than non-peak. Looking for high use books recently returned. Also includes books coming off reserve. Look for a change in the 3 measurements from peak to peak

Actual Outcomes Winter 2005 Winter 2006 Reserve books turnaround 4 days Reserve books turnaround 2 days Search requests found in pre-shelving: 14% Search requests found in pre-shelving: 7% High use books stored in overflow unavailable to users High use books carted, sent to stacks available to users We implemented pull and smaller batch sizes during the past quarter – January to March 2006. The biggest test is our peak return period – which began last week and continues this week. So far it’s working! Reserve: at the end of each quarter, the books on reserve are sent back to the stacks. We reduced batch sizes from 6 shelf to 4 shelf bookcarts. The number of books was about the same. Search requests: our goal now is to have the pre-shelving area empty at the end of the working day.

Future Goals Bionic Bookstacks Better Stronger Faster Continue to reduce turnaround time.

Exercise: Identifying Waste What activities add no value to library users? Pass out “Waste Category” sheets for exercise. Ask each person to try one or two. Ask 5 whys – don’t stop at less than 5!

Waste Categories Overproducing Inventory Waiting Extra Processing Correction Excess Motion Transportation Underutilized People Overproducing: Create more work than needed at a point in time. Producing more, sooner, or faster than is required by the next process. Ex: all incoming books handled the same way, regardless of whether they are high use or not Inventory: Any form of batching Ex: any books held in pre-shelving where users cannot access them Waiting: People’s time is wasted when they have to wait for an item or information they require Ex: Bottlenecks in pre-shelving, assignments for student shelvers (vs. white board) Extra Processing: Any step in the process that does not add value as perceived by the customer. Ex: Due date slips Correction: Any form of defect Ex: Books returned in wrong bin – may cause fines Excess Motion: Arrangement of machines, materials and people are sub optimized, causing people to move further than necessary. Ex: Check-in bins are one floor away from check-in machines. Transportation: Movement of physical materials handled by carts, conveyers, etc. Ex: Transit books are processed far from door to department and have to be wheeled around Underutilized People: People’s abilities, not their time Ex: Student staff not cross-trained for every duty

References Goldratt, E. M. & Cox, J. (1992). The goal: A process of ongoing improvement 2nd rev. ed.). Great Barrington, MA: North River Press. Keyte, B., & Locher, D. (2004) The complete lean enterprise: Value stream mapping for administrative and office processes. New York: Productivity Press. Madison, D. (2005). Process mapping, process improvement, and process management: A practical guide for enhancing work and information flow. Chico, Calif: Paton Press. Nalicheri, N., Baily, C., & Cade, S. The lean, green service machine. http://www.strategy-business.com/ Poppendick, M. (2002). Principles of lean thinking. http://www.poppendieck.com/papers/LeanThinking.pdf Rother, M., Shook, J., & Lean Enterprise Institute. (2003). Learning to see: Value stream mapping to create value and eliminate muda (Version 1.3 ed.). Brookline, MA: Lean Enterprise Institute.