What Has Been Improved?

The above video is about the Central Receiving project to reduce rework in the handling of packages on campus.

The Office of Continuous Improvement started working on CI projects with several campus units in January 2010. Below is a listing, by campus division, of many of the projects that are currently underway, or have been completed.  An * indicates a completed project. You will notice that some of the completed projects have links to follow if you are interested in learning more about those projects.

Athletics

  • *Football Ticket Online Lottery:  Received 28 fewer mail trays and added 240 hours of annual capacity
  • Athletic Event Communications:  Focused on increasing the number and timeliness of communications, and the quantity of e-mail addresses on file
  • RecSports Waiver Process: Focused on making the process more efficient

Auxiliary Operations

  • *Catering & Event Management:  Reduced food waste by $40k annually and added 1,720 hours of annual capacity
  • Sorin's and Leahy's Transaction Accounting:  Focused on reducing rework and the time spent on daily accounting process
  • Cemetery Payment Collection Process:  Focused on decreasing delinquent loan payment
  • Laundry Inventory Management & Invoicing:  Focused on reducing inventory audit cycle time
  • Food Services Dietary Restriction Compliance: Focused on reducing response time to students and ensuring the accuracy of allergen identification 

Campus Services

  • *Custodial Supply Inventory Management:  Saved ~$200k to date and recovered 3,300 hours of annual capacity
  • *General Services Workload Management:  Reduced rework from 31% to ~2% and saved ~$40k in FY12 through first 2 quarters
  • *Central Warehouse Parcel Delivery:  Reduced rework and recovered 3.5 hours of capacity per week (View the video for more information)
  • AIM Work Order System:  Focused on increasing customer satisfaction and use of the ordering system
  • Building Services Equipment Management:  Focused on increasing equipment utilization
  • Mail Distribution Services: Focused on reducing time required to transport mail
  • Old 2 Gold: Focused on reducing labor required

DeBartolo Performing Arts Center

  • Event Planning & Scheduling: Focused on increasing staff usage of event business management software

Finance

  • *Spring Budget Process:  Reduced rework from 7% to 1.2%; timely staff performance review completion up 12%
  • *1099 Filing:  Reduced rework from 23.2% to 6.1%; reduced Tax Department time spent on 1099 forms by 213 hours
  • *Sub-Recipient Monitoring:  Created and implemented control plan and process to evaluate and mitigate risk
  • *Data Access:  Increased the accuracy of Banner access rights from 78% to 100% and added 400 hours of annual capacity
  • W-4 Submission:  Focused on reducing cycle time and handoffs
  • International Student Payments:  Focused on reducing cycle time
  • Cash Deposit Processing: Focused on reducing cycle time

General Counsel

  • H1-B Visa Process:  Focused on reducing rework and touch time

Graduate School

  • Graduate School Admissions Visa Process:  Focused on reducing cycle time

Human Resources

  • *Staff Recruiting:  Reduced cycle time to replace staff and fill new positions by ~12.5%
  • *New Staff Position Creation:  Reduced cycle time to create new staff positions from 14.5 days to 1.2 days; reduced rework from 50% to less than 16%  (Read more)
  • International Associate On-boarding:  Focused on reducing rework, increasing compliance, and improving visitors' on-boarding experience

Library

  • Internal Communications: Focused on decreasing mass communications and reducing errors

Mendoza College of Business

  • *MBA Admissions:  Focused on improving the process and quality of graduate student data transferred to Banner
  • *MSA Admissions:  Focused on improving efficiency and better utilization of staff in the application/admissions process
  • MBA Candidate Financial Transactions:  Focused on reducing lead time and touch time

OIT

  • *IT Project Intake & Delivery:  Increased capacity, delivering 30% more IT projects; increased customer satisfaction by 17-21% (Read more)
  • *Credit Card Compliance:  Reduced OIT touch time from 158 to 24 hours per year and reduced merchant touch time from 228 to 82 hours per year
  • *Telephone Work Order:  Reduced cost by $10k annually and reduced the likelihood of an error from 10% to 0.03%
  • Standard Project Delivery:  Focused on reducing cycle time
  • Scheduling IT Training:  Focused on reducing touch time
  • IT Project Backlog:  Focused on reducing backlog
  • OIT Contract Management Process:  Focused on reducing processing time and increasing customer satisfaction

Office of the Registrar

  • Semester Course Planning:  Focused on reducing rework and  variation; increasing spread of course offerings

Office of Research

  • Non-Faculty Researcher Appointments:  Focused on reducing time to appoint non-faculty researchers
  • Acquisition/Transfer of Research Materials:  Focused on mitigating risk

University Relations

  • *Presidential & Vice Presidential Acknowledgement Process:  Reduced average cycle time to produce and send a personal acknowledgement letter from 20.7 to 12.4 days (from the President) and from 24 to 14.9 days (from the VP); reduced maximum cycle time to produce and send a personal acknowledgement letter from 181 to 34 days (from the President) and from 135 to 28 days (from the VP)
  • *Pledge Receivables:  Significantly increased cash receipts
  • *Gift Processing: Reduced the average processing time from 4 to 2 days and reduced the maximum processing time from 253 to 60 days
  • *Annual Giving Programs e-Communications Approvals:  Reduced the average time to complete an e-communication from 8.5 to 1.6 days, and significantly reduced the variation in time
  • Lettershop Gift Acknowledgements:  Focused on reducing time to produce gift acknowledgement letters
  • Employment Data:  Focused on improving data accuracy
  • ND Engagement with Local Not-For-Profits:  Focused on increasing faculty/staff engagement
  • New Donor Retention:  Focused on increasing retention
  • Mailing Segmentation:  Focused on increasing mailing response rates
  • Major Gift Officer Fundraising:  Focused on increasing touch time
  • Endowment Reporting: Focused on reducing cycle time and touch time
  • Sorin Society Renewals: Focused on increasing the renewal rate