leaning your library's material handling workflows

LEANING YOUR LIBRARY’S MATERIAL HANDLING WORKFLOWS

Lori Bowen Ayre

June 30, 2014

Sponsored by Public Library Association

ALA Conference – Las Vegas

All content © 2014, Lori Bowen Ayre.  Unless otherwise stated, this document and its content is the original work of Lori Bowen Ayre and is licensed under a Creative Commons "BY-NC-SA 3.0" License.

Leaning the Library is to…

“…utilize the minimum resources necessary to deliver the greatest customer value,

while bringing out the full potential of every employee.”

Karen Martin (www.ksmartin.com)

Lean focuses on effectively delivering “value to the customer”

“External customers” aka patrons

“Internal customers” aka co-workers

Lean Looks at the Value Stream

All the activities, materials, people, and information that must flow and come together to provide your customer the

value they want, when they want it and how they want it

Ask Yourself: What is happening that doesn’t contribute to the value stream?

It’s not about working faster.

But it is about eliminating work that doesn’t improve the outcome.

Lean focuses on the elimination of “waste”

(C) 2013 Jens R. Woinowski, leanself.org; Created with Wordle and GIMP

How Waste Happens

• Defects• Inventory• Transportation• Extra Processing• Waiting• Motion• Bureaucracy

How Waste Happens in Libraries

Defects: Misshelved

items

Inventory: Unshelved

material

Transportation: Unclaimed holds that have to be returned to the loaning library

How Waste Happens in Libraries

Defects: Misshelved

items

Inventory: Unshelved

material

Transportation: Unclaimed holds that have to be returned to the loaning library

How Waste Happens in Libraries

Inventory: Unshelved

material

Transportation: Unclaimed holds that have to be returned to the loaning library

Extra Processing: More than necessary

cataloging or labeling of items

How Waste Happens in Libraries

Inventory: Unshelved

material

Transportation: Unclaimed holds that have to be returned to the loaning library

Extra Processing: More than necessary

cataloging or labeling of items

Waiting: Items sitting around waiting for

volunteers or pages to re-shelve

How Waste Happens in Libraries

Extra Processing: More than necessary

cataloging or labeling of items

Waiting: Items sitting around waiting for

volunteers or pages to re-shelve

Motion: Handling material to check-in

and resensitize

How Waste Happens in Libraries

Waiting: Items sitting around waiting for

volunteers or pages to re-shelve

Motion: Handling material to check-in

and resensitize

Bureaucracy: strict rules about who can do what part of the materials handling

workflow

How Waste Happens in Libraries

Motion: Handling material to check-in

and resensitize

Bureaucracy: strict rules about who can do what part of the materials handling

workflow

PDCA Improvement CycleProcess of “leaning your workflow”

• Plan: determine goals and needed changes to achieve them

• Do: implement the changes• Check: evaluate the results• Act: standardize and stabilize the change or begin the cycle again

Lean is an Organizational Effort• The people who do the work are the experts – they must be involved

• Management support critical

• Top Down and Bottom Up

Analyze the Value Streams

Workflow: processing bookdrop

Value Stream: shorten return to shelf time (RTS) for bookdrop returns

Value Stream = Workflow + Value to Customer

Analyze the Value Stream!

Help Analyzing the Value Stream

Huber’s book provides step-by-step instructions that can be used as a template for your process

Use Value Stream and Process Maps

Value Stream Map – high level view• designed for leadership• people who can authorize changes

Process Maps – micro view of each step• Created by people doing the work• Includes much more detail including wait times

LEAN TOOL: VISUAL MANAGEMENTGoal: status of system can be understood at a glance for everyone

Display Boards Showing Goals and Key Metrics

Teachers are Naturals at Visual Management!

Labeling Work-in-Progress

“Sorting” Shelves are NOT Visual Management

• Don’t know how bad backlog is

• Don’t know which items have sat there longer and for how long

• Plus….wasted steps of shelving and unshelving

LEAN TOOL: FIVE SS OF EFFICIENCY

#1 Sort: Clearly distinguish needed items from unneeded items and eliminate the latter

#2 Set in Order: Keep needed items in the correct place

#3 Shine: Clean work areas make everyone feel better, are safer, and reveal problems

# 4 Standardize: Make this the new way of doing things - “standardized work”

#5 Sustain: Make a habit of maintaining established procedures

WHERE LIBRARIES OFTEN GO WRONG

Problem: Bookcart Defines Batch Size

"Large batches are the result of placing too much emphasis on labor efficiency and not enough on delivery lead times or the performance of the service chain as a whole." (Huber)

Solution: Think Differently About Bookcarts

• Use the top shelf only

• Use small, lightweight bookcarts that are easy to move around

• Smaller batches mean they get on the shelves faster

• Consider “ergo”carts or trolleys

Problem: Reliance on Staging Areas

Libraries use lots of different things for staging:• Sorting carts• Ready to shelve carts• Sorting shelves• Stacks• Corrals• All of the above!

Solution: Eliminate Staging Areas Wherever Possible

"Staging areas hide inefficiencies and imbalances between workstations and staff,

and they are an open admission by management that they have designed into the service flow imbalances and delays.“

- John Huber

Problem: Acquisitions Surges

Solution: Implement Master Purchasing Schedule

• Acquisitions not always seen as part of the materials handling workflow but this is where it all begins!

• Develop a purchasing schedule that takes into account ramifications throughout system

• Flatten the flow of materials to reduce peaks and valleys

Problem: Exceptions!Very difficult to design a workflow with lots of exceptions, such as… • How new media is processed• Giving priority to triggered holds• Giving priority to returned media• That one patron who needs something special….

Solution: Make a Single Workflow That Works for Everything

• Sometimes exceptions are just one aspect of the flow to address – so address them as part of your primary workflow – it maybe improve the workflow for everything!

• Would it be so bad if ALL material was handled as expeditiously as Holds?

Problem: Rigid Staff Roles

Seeing the bottlenecks and clogs in the flow isn’t useful if you can’t put resources to the task of

unclogging

Solution: Implement flexible job descriptions

• Cross train staff

• Expect everyone to be flexible about handling routine surges (e.g. after closures)

• Isn’t it everyone’s job to get library resources on the shelves?

“If the current organizational structure cannot change, then the processes behind this organizational structure cannot change either.”

-John Huber

Bonus Tip of the Day!

Procedure

1. Check in all bookdrop returns

2. Check in all interlibrary deliveries

3. THEN, run your Pull List

Why This is Important

1. Reduces size of Pull List

2. Reduces handling

3. Reduces motion/transport

4. Gets items onto shelf for patron faster

Getting Started with Lean• Excellent (and free!) webinars from Lean consultant,

Karen Martin at http://www.ksmartin.com/webinars/

• Value-Stream Mapping by Karen Martin and Mike Osterling

• Metrics-Based Process Mapping by Karen Martin and Mike Osterling

• Lean Library Management: Eleven Strategies for Reducing Costs and Improving Customer Services by John J. Huber

• Your Two Eyeballs. Look around! What little changes can you make right away?

QUESTIONS?COMMENTS?Contact info:

lori.ayre@galecia.com

(707) 763-6869

www.galecia.com