It’s All in the Packaging
Dan Lewis
University of West Georgia
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Abstract
So often overlooked in the operation of any organization are the timely receipts of supplies and
items that help to complete most daily functions. Whether the items are specialized LED bulbs to
light a lobby, chemical supplies for a classroom, or a computer component replacement for a
faculty or staff member; at the University of West Georgia, the delivery of an item falls on the
shoulders of a three-employee crew known as Central Stores, Receiving and Delivery.
Central Stores, Receiving and Delivery is an auxiliary unit that was established in 1970 to be the
focal point for campus deliveries and inventory. As the enrollment and campus have grown over
the past ten years, deliveries have increased by 21% reaching 26,879 in FY2013.
Over the years, this department has transitioned from typewritten purchase orders and hand
written carton information to electronic transactions and Universal Product Code (UPC) labels
in order to ensure that a package is delivered efficiently to the on-campus user. And while
technology has helped to expedite this effort, disconnects in the various systems that are used to
provide technology are not always in synchronization with one another and end up hampering
the cause and ultimately delaying the delivery.
In December 2013, Central Stores, Receiving and Delivery initiated the institution’s continuous
improvement methodology of Business Process Redesign (BPR) to evaluate the current delivery
process and determine where improvements could be gained. Representatives from Central
Stores and Receiving, the Center for Business Excellence, Purchasing, and outside vendors met
on a bi-weekly basis to chart the process flow, identify problem areas, improve the process, and
make corrections to the various systems that are involved with labeling the product correctly.
The BPR was successful in a number of ways. In addition to reducing the amount of unidentified
packages from 1.8% to .47% during a four-month period, the number of researched packages
dropped from 31% to 14.3%.
The spillover benefits from the BPR underscore the importance of data collection, the benefits of
cross-functional teams and information sharing, a more knowledgeable workforce, and a more
efficient and effective institution.
What does this mean? Central Stores, Receiving and Delivery transports the shipment faster, the
department awaiting the items runs more efficient and effectively, and the customer has greater
satisfaction and productivity.
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Introduction of Organization
The University of West Georgia (UWG) is a four-year co-educational, residential, liberal
arts institution. Located in Carrollton, UWG’s Fall 2013 student enrollment increased to 11,
969 students, the employee base included 779 fulltime faculty and staff, and the size of the
campus consisted of 117 buildings (2.3 million gsf) spread over 645 acres.
The Central Stores, Receiving and Delivery department at the University of West
Georgia is an auxiliary unit that was established in 1970 to be the focal point for campus
materials management and deliveries. As the enrollment and campus have grown over the past
ten years, deliveries have increased by 21% reaching 26,879 in FY2013.
Central Stores, Receiving and Delivery is comprised of three full-time employees and
two part-time student workers whom are dedicated to provide University clients with the tools
that are necessary to order, track, and deliver the components that are necessary to conduct
University business.
Statement of the Problem/Initiative
Over the years, Central Stores, Receiving and Delivery has transitioned from typewritten
purchase orders and hand written carton labels to electronic transactions and Universal Product
Code (UPC) labels in order to ensure that a package is delivered efficiently to the on-campus
user. And while technology has helped to expedite this effort, disconnects in the various systems
that are used to provide technology are not always in synchronization with one another and end
up hampering the cause and ultimately delaying the delivery.
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In addition to inefficiencies and delays resulting from the wait on mislabeled packages,
the research that is required to determine the appropriate destination is also costly as Central
Stores, Receiving and Delivery estimates 25 hours of research time per month.
Design
In December 2013, Central Stores, Receiving and Delivery initiated the institution’s
continuous improvement method of Business Process Redesign (BPR)¹ to evaluate the current
delivery process and determine where improvements could be derived. Representatives from
Central Stores and Receiving, the Center for Business Excellence, Purchasing, and outside
vendors met on a bi-weekly basis to chart the process flow, identify problem areas, and make
corrections to the various systems that are involved with labeling the product correctly.
Step 1 was to determine the significance of the problem. All three CSRD employees took
turns charting the number of shipments by vendor and recorded how many packages were
unidentified, how many required research, and how many hours were spent on research.
Transporters
UPS
February
Received Researched
685
26.42%
Unidentified
1.75%
FEDEX
376
27.13%
2.66%
Office Max
95
100%
0.00%
Staples
60
0.00%
0.00%
Total
1216
31.09%
1.81%
Note 1: 33% of the packages required research was deemed to be worthy of a BPR.
Note 2: 25.19 hours were used to research in one month.
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Step 2 was to chart the process flow to better assess value added and non-value added
steps. The process flow for packages with the appropriate carton information was selfexplanatory. If the cartons were marked appropriately, CSRD staff categorizes them by location
and then deliver.
The process flow for packages without the appropriate information was a little more
complex:
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If the package had a P.O. listed, CSRD would search PeopleSoft to identify the purchaser. If the
package had the name of an individual on it, CSRD would investigate the department they
worked in and make the delivery. If there was no information, CSRD would call the vendor.
Step 3 of the design was to determine why colleagues could not access critical
information (e.g. requisition numbers identify the requestor identity) with the systems being
utilized (i.e. PeopleSoft, Scitest). Representatives from UWG’s Information Technology
Services (ITS) and Purchasing Office were contacted to expand the security roles of Central
Stores, Receiving and Delivery to access this information.
Step 4 was to meet with those transportation representatives whose systems were not
capable of providing the necessary label information. Office Max representatives visited with
the team in February to assess the delays. Two solutions were determined:
1)
Information Technology Services (ITS) would have to be contacted to
investigate why the information on the requisition was not transferring
to the PO.
2)
UWG Purchasing would work with Office Max to make changes in the
coding fields.
Step 5 was to focus on the performance of the vendors to begin a documentation process
of labeling problems:
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Vendor
Edward Don
Southern Computer
Warehouse
Apple Inc.
Xerox
Officemax Drop Shipments
HP Direct
Total
Packages
40
26
April 2014
%
Comments
44% Only a PO#.
29% Only a PO #.
10 11%
5
6%
5
6%
4
4%
90 100%
Only a PO#.
These come listing Board of Regents as the department.
No information
Not enough characters for department’s identification.
While this is still being tracked on a monthly basis it appears that the majority of the delays can
be eliminated in the discussions with the 2 – 3 vendors.
Step 6 was to focus on educating the campus community on both the steps and the
information that was required in placing an order. The Center for Business Excellence - a
training and continuous improvement office that supports Business and Finance services
developed a 4-minute clip with Camtasia that helped to provide guidance to users on navigating
the purchasing process and inputting delivery information. The url to the video is as follows:
http://www.screencast.com/t/dgcEHjIBG.
Step 7 was to focus on the time it took to research mislabeled packages. Time segments
of 8 hours, 24 hours, 24 – 48 hours, and over 48 hours were designated and tracked. The
following graph of the current fiscal year reflects declining trends in the research time in all four
time segments tracked:
7
0.9
0.8
% of Research
0.7
0.6
480 min
0.5
480-1440 min
0.4
1440-2880 min
0.3
over2880 min
0.2
0.1
0
July
Aug
Sep
Oct
Nov
Dec
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
May
Implementation
The implementation of each step happened instantly following discussions in the biweekly meetings as team members became encouraged with the sharing of tasks. CSRD was
responsible for tracking the information and researching the vendors; CBE representatives were
involved in the analyses of the system limitations along with the presentation of data; and
Purchasing representatives were able to assist with scheduling vendor conferences and
improving system limitations. The continuous improvement process took just 6 months to
complete and only involved 12 hours of meeting time.
Benefits
The results of the effort over a four-month period revealed a significant decrease in both
researched (16.75%) and unidentified packages (1.34%) since the project began.
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Transport
UPS
UPS
UPS
Status
Received
Researched
Unidentified
Feb
Mar
685
26.4%
1.8%
Feb
FEDEX
FEDEX
FEDEX
Received
Researched
Unidentified
376
27.1%
2.7%
Feb
Office M
Office M
Office M
Received
Researched
Unidentified
Staples
Staples
Staples
Received
Researched
Unidentified
Total
Total
Total
Received
Researched
Unidentified
95
100.0%
0.0%
Feb
60
0.0%
0.0%
Feb
1216
31.1%
1.8%
992
20.9%
7.6%
Mar
601
19.1%
3.3%
Mar
219
0.0%
0.0%
Mar
58
0.0%
0.0%
Mar
1870
17.2%
5.1%
Apr
1286
16.6%
0.8%
Apr
898
17.5%
0.8%
Apr
452
0.0%
0.0%
Apr
226
0.0%
0.0%
Apr
2862
13.0%
0.6%
May
1254
17.5%
0.6%
May
840
17.4%
0.5%
May
342
0.0%
0.0%
May
97
0.0%
0.0%
May
2533
14.3%
0.5%
This translates into greater efficiencies for the CSRD staff, a faster delivery to the customer that
placed the order, and in increase in the overall effectiveness of the area receiving the delivery.
Other benefits included:
 Increased synergy and responsibility awareness from cross-functional team members.
 Improved partnerships with vendors through team involvement.
 A more educated workforce due to the training film.
_____________________
¹ Dougherty, Kidwell, Knight, Hubbell, Rush - “Business Process Redesign for Higher
Education” NACUBO (1994)
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