Quality Improvement Teams - Analyze and Improve Process

Flow in Your Library

Jim Backus, Trustee Wisconsin Valley Library Service

Garrett Erickson - Support Service Manager Marathon County Public Library

Rebecca Lemons – Clerical Assistant Marathon County Public Library

Former director envisioned extreme budget shortfalls in the future due to changing economic, political and demographic conditions

Director’s Vision

Director’s Vision: The organization

must become more relevant to the community

must become more nimble and adaptable must find alternative sources of revenue must become more operationally efficient must track more useful data for decision-

makers

Director creates QPI Team in August of 2005

QPI Purpose:

To create a structure to collect data that identify areas of weakness for the improvement of the organization

QPI Intended Results – The organization will:

Create a culture of improvement Have the tools for evaluating processes Have a procedure for recommending areas that

need improvement for the management team Have a foundation of data for decision making Be able to create quick fixes

MCPL Internal Structure

9 locations with Wausau location being the headquarters

3 Teams (Customer Services, Support Services and Administration)

53 FTEs, 65 Total employees 3 Managers that supervise employees

Choosing members (5-6 people)

Members chosen from each of the 3 teams Members chosen from different levels of the

organizational hierarchy Mandatory member from branch locations Analytical/system thinkers needed Change agents

QPI Team Ground Rules:

1. Be punctual

2. Be respectful of each other

3. We are all equals

4. What is said in the "room" stays in the "room"

QPI Team Ground Rules:

5. All members participate.

6. Be open to learning and improvement.

7. Be supportive of each other.

8. Its ok to disagree but not to be disagreeable.

QPI Team Ground Rules:

9. Meeting dates will be set at the end of each meeting.

10. Committee tasks will be rotated. (I.E. meeting facilitation, reports, etc.)

11. Progress reports to staff will be published as needed.

QPI process of studying processes

1. Director/Team choose area of study

2. Team identifies the problems

3. Team devises methods to study problem

QPI process of studying processes

4. Team studies problem and conducts surveys when necessary

5. Team compiles the data

6. Team submits white paper to director

Tools

“The Memory Jogger – A Pocket Guide of Tools for Continuous Improvement”

Examples of techniques Fish bone (Cause and Effect) diagram Flow chart Force field analysis

Tools

Many surveys, both paper and electronic; staff and customers. Whenever a service was affected, we asked the public for input.

Tools – White Paper to summarize

Title/Date/Members Pertinent history of issue(s) Data Collection/Presentation Alternative Solutions Recommended Solution Questions that remain Follow up study dates/Other

recommendations

Examples of processes studied

Holds shelf

Materials processing

Technical training

Timing the entire Support Services “assembly line” process

Examples – Holds (not picked up)

Identified problems using Fishbone Diagram

Documented the process using Flow Charts

Profiled customers who did not pick up holds

Calculated staff time to determine an actual cost to providing this service

Why Customers Are Not PickingUp Their Holds

PROCEDURES

PEOPLE POLICIES

Why Customers Are Not Picking Up Their Holds

11/30/05

10 days notice >too short or

long ?

Use mailers as last resort

Human error - Didn’t get message

Customer hung up on machine

Staff/customer didn’t know about vacation suspension

Can’t find on shelf >font, signage, ID #

Trouble with location on shelves > too high/low

Delivery = M-Th at Branches don’t work for them

Mechanical error >Didn’t get message

Not all prefixes entered > cell phone & long distance

Tele circ >Couldn’t hear or understand

Cell phone malfunction

Answering machine malfunction

US mail sort or delivery problem

Would like improved pick up or parking area >Drive up

TECHNOLOGY

System customers not on tele circ

Limit of 25 items per customer

No policy on repercussions for not

picking up items

On vacation/resent 2nd time but rec’d too late

Customer went to wrong library

Customer chose not to pick up

Sample of customers taken from expired holds list (11/29–12/6) - 271 Customers

By notification type Sample Sample Total MCPL CustomersCustomers Percentage Customers Percentage

Telecirc notification 198 73% 27,957 79%Email notification 63 23% 4,390 12%

USPS mail notification 10 4% 3,203 9%Total TC, email, mail 271 100% 35,550 100%

By Location Sample Sample Total MCPL CustomersAthens 11 4% 2,206 4%Edgar 3 1% 2,059 3%Hatley 9 3% 2,418 4%Marathon 21 8% 2,662 4%Mosinee 11 4% 2,882 5%Rothschild 40 15% 8,690 14%Spencer 4 1% 2,157 3%Stratford 2 1% 2,500 4%Wausau 170 63% 36,269 59%Total 271 100% 61,843 100%

Sample of customers taken from expired holds list (11/29–12/6) - 271 Customers

By number of expired holds# of expired holds # of persons # of Expired Holds Percentage

1 210 210 44%2 28 56 12%3 10 30 6%4 6 24 5%

5+ 17 159 33%Totals 271 479 100%

By Gender Sample Sample Total MCPL CustomersGender Customers Percentage Customers Percentage

Male 61 23% 180,468 26%Female 210 77% 522,006 74%

By age

Year of BirthTotal by decade % of total persons

1900-1909 0 0%1910-1919 0 0%1920-1929 7 3%1930-1939 12 4%1940-1949 21 8%1950-1959 43 16%1960-1969 54 20%1670-1979 38 14%1980-1989 38 14%1990-1999 54 20%2000-2005 4 1%Totals 271 100%

Quality & Process Improvement Summary – November, 2005 In September, 2005 we did an exploratory survey to determine why customers were not picking up their items on the hold shelf. The main reasons they gave were Forgot to pick up No time to pick up Didn’t get the info to pick up In our September survey, we identified our major problem as customers not picking up holds. This lead us to examine the process flow, cost of expired holds and duplicate pulling of materials. Here are the results from the staff time study with some of the amounts rounded off:

1. An estimated 86,736 annual requests cost $52,008 per year or $.60 per request 2. Customers not picking up their items total a cost of $8,339 per year

An estimated 11,336 expired holds are pulled from the shelves at a cost of $8,339 per year or about $.74 per pull

3. Duplicate pulling of items total a cost of $1,942 per year An estimated 3% of 86,736 requests or 2,602 requests are Branch duplicate pulls to send back at a cost of $1,613 or $.62 per return An estimated 1% of 86,736 requests or 867 requests are Wausau duplicate pulls to send back at a cost of $329 or $.38 per return Staffing levels and timing of pulling made a difference in the cost per return.

4. Our manual study said 11,336 expired holds of the 86,736 total requests were not picked up = 13% The Horizon statistics showed 11% of total requests were not picked up 5. We are further studying the notification process

The committee makes the following recommendations:

1. Look for alternatives to the customer number for customer ease in picking up their holds and cost effectiveness of staff time 2. Have a consistent process at Wausau and Branches for customers picking up their holds 3. Use a larger font on receipt slips for customer and staff ease of reading 4. Shelve holds at Wausau for customer ease of pick up > Do not use the bottom shelves in all sections or the top shelves in the high shelving units.

Further considerations are: 1. Study the U.S. postal mail delivery for holds

2. Repeat the expired holds and pulling study on the following dates: Feb 5-11 (to determine if weather an issue), June 4-10 (to determine if summer vacation is an issue), & October 1-7 (to compare to past year)

Examples – Materials Processing

Created flow charts

Timed and compared individuals processing each material type

Surveyed customers

Processing Timings April 11, 2006

Item Number of Items Time to Process DVD’s 11 24 min. 45 sec. Adult Fiction 10 34 min. 20 sec. Adult Non-fiction 10 31 min. Adult Paperback 10 10 min. 10 sec. CD’s 10 25 min. 35 sec. Children’s Fiction 10 29 min. 20 sec. Children’s Non-fiction 10 13 min. 20 sec.

When searching for a non-fiction book do you use the call number/cutter number to locate it on the shelf? Yes: No: Do you know how to use a call number/cutter number to locate an item? Yes: No: Would you prefer to use a cutter number or the author's last name to locate an item? Examples:

796.72 796.72

B233f BAR

Technical competency training/testing

QPI Team identified staff technology competency as an issue.

Recommended the creation of a process for sharing technical knowledge.

Technical competency training/testing

Levels Summary1 2 3 4 Rev. 3/20/08 InstructorX X X X Basic Hardware FelixX X X X Windows Basic SharynX X X X Basic Word Processing RachelX X X X Groupwise Email Basics TristanX X X X Searching HIP (Horizon Information Portal) SharynX X X X Searching Staff PAC DianeX X X X Express Checkout Skills/Self Check Mike

X X X GroupWise - Calendaring TristanX X X Basic Internet Explorer (IE) MikeX X X Basic Spreadsheet DianeX X X Computer Timing Software Skills TristanX X X Making an OCLC InterLibrary Loan request Sharyn

X X Intermediate Hardware MikeX X Intermediate Word Processing RachelX X Intermediate Spreadsheet DianeX X Basic Desktop Publishing (Publisher) BenX X Electronic Resources BeckyX X V-Cat reports DianeX X Electronic Ordering Using B&T - Title Source III Sharyn

X Basic PowerPoint SharynX Using Databases BenX Basic Web Authoring - Using Blogs/Wikis & other tools Mike

Level 1: PagesLevel 2: Clerical Assistants, Branch AssistantsLevel 3: Library Assistants I, Branch Supervisors, Administrative Specialist, Confidential Office Assistant

Confidential Personnel AssistantLevel 4: Library Assistants II, Customer Services Librarians, Managers, Personnel Specialist, Business Specialist, Purchasing Coordinator

Technical competency training/testing

Levels1 2 3 4Rev. 3/20/08

Basic Spreadsheet X X X Is able to define what a cell isX X X Is able to define what a worksheet isX X X Is able to define what a workbook isX X X Is able to enter and edit data in a worksheetX X X Is able to select a block of cellsX X X Is able to delete a row or columnX X X Is able to resize a column or rowX X X Is able to change font, font size, and font style in a cell, row, or columnX X X Is able to align cell textX X X Is able to insert a worksheetX X X Is able to apply/remove cell borders.X X X Is able to insert, delete, and rename sheetsX X X Is able to use the built-in Help features to locate instructions on how to perform an unfamiliar taskX X X Is able to tell the difference between a formula and a constant valueX X X Is able to use the AutoSum feature to sum a column of cellsX X X Is able to prepare a basic pie chartX X X Is able to use the fill handleX X X Is able to apply auto formattingX X X Is able to use the Auto Sum featureX X X Is able to insert a chart

Technical competency training/testing

Levels Summary1 2 3 4X X X X Basic Hardware 6/4/2007 passedX X X X Windows Basic 6/4/2007 passedX X X X Basic Word Processing 6/4/2007 passedX X X X Groupwise Email Basics 4/27/2007 PassedX X X X Searching HIP (Horizon Information Portal) 5/23/2008 passedX X X X Searching Staff PAC 5/23/2008 passedX X X X Express Checkout Skills/Self Check 12/12/2007 passed

X X X Groupwise Calendaring 12/12/2007 passedX X X Basic Internet Explorer (IE) 4/26/2007 passedX X X Basic Spreadsheet 6/4/2007 passedX X X Computer Timing Software Skills 12/12/2007 passedX X X InterLibrary Loan (if we move to OCLC ILL) 12/12/2007 passed

X X Intermediate Hardware 12/12/2007 passedX X Intermediate Word Processing 12/12/2007 passedX X Intermediate Spreadsheet 3/18/2008 passedX X Basic Desktop Publishing (Publisher) 3/18/2008 passedX X Electronic Resources 12/12/2007 passedX X V-Cat reports 5/22/2008 passedX X Electronic Ordering Using B&T - Title Source III 5/23/2008 passed

X Basic PowerPoint 5/23/2008 passedX Basic Database Design (Access) 4/22/2008 passedX Basic Web Authoring - Using Blogs/Wikis & other tools 5/23/2008 passed

Support Services timing

Customers and staff alike complained about how long it took to receive newly-acquired materials.

Approximately 80% of our materials were ordered through Baker and Taylor.

Support Services timing

From the time we receive B&T materials, to the time the materials are available to the customer

April 2007 - 44 days

September 2007 - 17 days

September 2008 - 13½ days

Common themes among studies

No one understood most processes from A to Z.

We rarely had sufficient backups.

No (or very little) documentation if someone gets hit by a bus.

Staff Reactions to Process Change

Initial Resistance

Adjustment Period

Return to harmony

Initial Resistance

We encountered most of the resistance during the planning stages of the projects

Our Staff: didn’t have a clear picture of the outcome were generally resistant to change resented changing areas that they were proud of

or had a hand in creating

Initial ResistanceSolution #1: Staff Input Very important to get staff input during the

planning stage Surveys Flowcharts Process notes

Easier to plan with accurate information

Makes staff less resentful of eventual change

Initial Resistance Solution #2: Don’t cause a panic

It is wise to withhold planning information from the rest of the staff until a plan is fully formed

Much of our meeting time is spent brainstorming ideas which never make it into the final plan

There is no need to make staff anxious about ideas that may never be put into action

Initial Resistance Solution #3: Be Indisputable

Our most successful results came from projects that had been carefully researched and surveyed

Strong results lend an extra level of authority to the implementation of a project

Examples

Acquisitions Study Process input Timing study

DVD Project Staff and customer surveys

87% of customers, 70% of staff

Adjustment Period After the

implementation of a project we generally experienced about a two week adjustment period

Behind the back rumblings and grumblings about how things were not going to work

Adjustment Period Solution: Create ownership Once the details of a project have been

worked out and decided upon, delegate implementation to key staff

Replaces the sense of pride and ownership that they may have feared they lost

Builds teamwork and trust among staff

Returning to harmony

If projects are planned and implemented thoughtfully, the staff will accept the changes if they see positive results. In some cases, staff will begin innovating independent of the team.

Examples

Acquisitions Study Left implementation to staff involved

Improved from 44 to 18 days

DVD Project Involved staff in re-labeling and shelving changes

Another successful staff project New Drive thru service added

Trained support staff with minimal experience in customer service procedures and techniques. This involved creating new documentation and training strategies

Made recommendations for purchasing equipment

Coordinated schedules

Created new systems for book delivery

Shifted the majority of materials check-in to drive thru staff

Future Projects

Pre-processing

Snags and damaged items

Inventory

Records retention

Resources

“The Memory Jogger – A Pocket Guide of Tools for Continuous Improvement” by Michael Brassard

The Library’s Continuous Improvement Fieldbook – 29 Ready-to-Use Tools by Sara Laughlin

Measuring for Results – The Dimensions of Public Library Effectiveness by Joseph R. Matthews

Smartdraw software (for creating flowcharts)

Contact Information

Jim Backus jdbackus38@yahoo.com

Garrett Erickson garrett.erickson@co.marathon.wi.us

Rebecca Lemons rebecca.lemons@co.marathon.wi.us

Presentation available at: www.mcpl.us/wla/qpi.ppt

Questions?