Presentation at ALA Conference in Las Vegas (2014). Sponsored by the Public Library Association. I really enjoyed doing this presentation because the crowd was very engaged. Got lots of good ideas from them. Thanks to all who attended!
The presentation introduces Lean and provides some ideas about how to look at library materials handling workflows with a Lean, customer-centric focus where the customer may be internal (co-worker) or external (patron). Introduced concepts of Visual Management and 5S from Lean and identified where "waste" happens in libraries.
2. 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)
3. Lean focuses on effectively
delivering “value to the customer”
6. 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
7. 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.
8. Lean focuses on the elimination of “waste”
(C) 2013 Jens R. Woinowski, leanself.org; Created with Wordle and GIMP
9. How Waste Happens
• Defects
• Inventory
• Transportation
• Extra Processing
• Waiting
• Motion
• Bureaucracy
10. How Waste Happens in Libraries
Defects:
Misshelved
items
Inventory:
Unshelved
material
T
Unc
hav
to t
11. How Waste Happens in Libraries
Defects:
Misshelved
items
Inventory:
Unshelved
material
Transportation:
Unclaimed holds tha
have to be returned
to the loaning library
12. 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
13. How Waste Happens in Libraries
Transportation:
Unclaimed holds that
have to be returned
to the loaning library
Extra Processing:
More than
necessary
cataloging or
labeling of items
Waiting: Items sitt
around waiting f
volunteers or pag
to re-shelve
14. 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
15. 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
16. 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
17. PDCA Improvement Cycle
Process 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
18. 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
19. Analyze the Value Streams
Workflow: processing
bookdrop
Value Stream: shorten
return to shelf time
(RTS) for bookdrop
returns
20. Help Analyzing the Value Stream
Huber’s book provides
step-by-step instructions
that can be used as a
template for your process
21. 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
27. “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
35. 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)
36. 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
37. 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!
38. 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
40. 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
41. 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….
42. 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?
43. 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
44. 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?
45. “If the current organizational structure
cannot change, then the processes
behind this organizational structure cannot
change either.”
-John Huber
46. 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
47. 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?
Workflow improvement methodology
Six Sigma
TQM (Total Quality Management)
BPR (Business Process Reengineering)
What I like about it:
Practical
Customer focused
Empowers staff
Focus on “value to the customer” but let’s first define “customer”
Example: library staff doing check-in are customers of library couriers and technical services
Value Stream – all the linked activities, information, and people that go into delivering the product or service to the customer
If not value added activity it is either waste or “incidental”
Incidental work – requirements that don’t necessarily contribute to the end product
Waste is the arch enemy of Lean.
Waste is anything other than the minimum amount of equipment, materials, technology, space, and worker’s time that are essential to add value to the product, service or information required by the customer.
Waste is a symptom of underlying problems with the system which need to be corrected.
Lean Categories of Waste
Defects – things that have to be fixed or redone
Excessive Inventory – having more than you need or not the right inventory
Transportation – moving things from place to place unnecessarily
Processing – adding processing steps that don’t do anything for customers
Waiting – staging and staging material
Motion – unnecessary handling, hand-offs, and touches
Bureaucracy
Lean comes out of manufacturing industry…so let’s apply to library industry
Excess Inventory
Too many copies of a title
More book carts than you need
Too many copies of something “float” to one location
Friends donations
Transportation
Unclaimed holds
Taking carts of books from one desk to another
Placing things in inconvenient locations (e.g. the milk in the back of the store)
Extra Processing
Too many stickers and labels
Cataloging beyond what is useful
Mending things that should be tossed
Waiting
Leaving book carts for pages or special volunteers to reshelve
Bookdrop
ILL
Lines at service desk
For more copies of a title or new titles to arrive
Motion
Check-in and resensitizing in two steps instead of one
Opening media cases
Unshelving and reshelving multiple times between bookcarts and sorting shelves
Bureaucracy
Dealing with “working out of class” issues
Disconnect between Admin and line staff
Idiotic procurement policies
Note that it is a cycle. It never ends.
The people who do the work are the experts – they must be involved
People who really know the workflow and why certain things are done
Point is to empower and engage everyone at every level
Management support critical too
Process takes time and Lean Team needs to be released to do the work
Process results in change – Management needs to support those changes
The planning part requires analysis of the Value Stream. Important to define the Value Stream properly….keep the focus on the customer.
Lean environments convey critical information with a glimpse of an eye.
A Lean environment should enable everyone — even an outsider — to understand the status and state of affairs. How are you doing? All at a glance
Use simple techniques like floor tape and labels to show when something is out of place or has spilled over.
performance trend charts for key metrics
everyday so you start to see the patterns and how well you are handling peaks
e.g. to see if you are hitting your metric for getting bookdrop returns shelved – track each bookcart (capture when it was loaded, number books, number media, time shelved)
Visual Management
Communications Board
Why U shaped work areas matter
Importance of FIFO to “flow”
Examples of posters to document performance
How to defining and arrange work areas
Blue card – reading a book from home
Red card – reading a library book
White card – reading book owned by teacher
Sort
Set in Order / Stabilize
Shine
Standardize
Sustain
Sort. Sort, the first S, focuses on eliminating unnecessary items from the workplace that are not needed for current production operations. An effective visual method to identify these unneeded items is called "red tagging", which involves evaluating the necessity of each item in a work area and dealing with it appropriately. A red tag is placed on all items that are not important for operations or that are not in the proper location or quantity. Once the red tag items are identified, these items are then moved to a central holding area for subsequent disposal, recycling, or reassignment. Organizations often find that sorting enables them to reclaim valuable floor space and eliminate such things as broken tools, scrap, and excess raw material.
Sustain. Sustain, making a habit of properly maintaining correct procedures, is often the most difficult S to implement and achieve. Changing entrenched behaviors can be difficult, and the tendency is often to return to the status quo and the comfort zone of the "old way" of doing things. Sustain focuses on defining a new status quo and standard of work place organization. Without the Sustain pillar the achievements of the other pillars will not last long.
Tools for sustaining 5S include signs and posters, newsletters, pocket manuals, team and management check-ins, performance reviews, and department tours. Organizations typically seek to reinforce 5S messages in multiple formats until it becomes "the way things are done."
Specific and common practices in libraryland that should be examined…and some recommendations
Bookcarts are just staging areas on wheels
Use top shelf only – SJPL Lean process determined this worked better than fully loaded, multi-shelved carts
Don’t wait for bookcart to be full – get it back on the shelf as part of one flow – don’t park it!
Grant money, end of year money – creates huge surges of new material.
Keep the flow of material coming into the library as even as possible so you can staff for a predictable flow of work.
Surges of new material creating peaks that disrupt every step of the materials handling workflow.
Suggestion (from someone attending this presentation): create deadlines for some percentage of funds to be expended by certain dates.
Exceptions make spaghetti
Think about whether you really need to set something down that’s in your hands right now to do something else or can we make the process work without doing that?