Overall, MIT’s reengineering effort has attempted to simplify administrative processes while improving quality, enhancing customer responsiveness, and reducing costs. That’s a tall order, and though we have had some important successes, we still have more to do to streamline administrative work and reduce expenses.
The following material gives a brief summary of the projects we undertook.
More information is available in the articles and supplements in Tech
Talk, MIT’s campus newspaper.
The redesign of Repair and Maintenance functions called for dividing the campus into five zones with a resident team in each zone to correct problems in the following kinds of systems: electrical, heating and cooling, structural and mechanical, and plumbing. Customers report problems or make requests for routine service via a form on the Web. (Emergencies are, of course, reported by telephone.) The mechanics have become very familiar with the buildings in their zone, and often spot potential problems before they become serious. In addition, the team members have a greater sense of accountability and connection to their customers.
The Mail Services redesign had a number of components that address the problem areas identified by the teams who reviewed mail processing at MIT. The redesign began with the hiring of a professional mail manager and the creation of a centralized Mail Services operation. We now have 36 Distributed Mail Centers across campus, where customers have 24-hour access to their mailboxes. This model replaces an inequitable delivery service in which a small portion of campus received desktop delivery while at the other end of the spectrum, some buildings received a single unsorted bag of mail. Mail Services also has negotiated service level improvements with external providers.
One of the essential elements of the redesign -- the centralization
of outbound daily office mail -- is not yet complete because some departments
are still handling their own outgoing mail. In order to take advantage
of the maximum postal savings allowed by bar-coding and presorting, all
of the Institute’s outbound mail must be processed through one point. The
manager of Mail Services is currently working to broaden participation
in this program, which also will reduce costs by eliminating departmental
postage meters and their substantial annual fees in leases and maintenance
contracts.
After thorough reviews by several reengineering teams, MIT’s internal Office of Laboratory Supplies and the Graphic Arts offset printing and binding operation were closed. Though both of these organizations had provided good service to the Institute community, they had to mark up their costs in order to be self-supporting. The reengineering teams found that large and specialized outside vendors could provide office and laboratory supplies and printing services more economically. In addition, the MIT spaces formerly used for warehousing office and laboratory supplies and the building housing the printing plant are now available for other Institute operations.
Another project of Supplier Consolidation was the development of ECAT,
MIT’s electronic catalog. It allows members of the community to place orders
electronically with our partner companies, speeding the orders and reducing
paperwork.
In addition, core team members of HRPD analyzed MIT's classification and compensation system and recommended major changes. That project was then assigned to the Compensation area of MIT's Personnel Office, which is in the process of developing a new, simplified system for the administrative staff.
The next phase of the overall HRPD project involved developing the recommendations into an integrated competency-based system for MIT and its employees. A small implementation resource team was formed in the spring of 1999 to work with MIT areas that will now pilot test the recommendations.
The Performance Consulting & Training team has offered several workshops on change management, and they identified and prepared a curriculum for the core technology training that employees will need. Workshops on both giving and receiving performance appraisals were developed and presented to more than 1,000 staff members. In the spring of 1996, MIT opened its Professional Learning Center, which is a multipurpose training facility. The Center is being used for core technology training and other computer courses, SAP classes, and professional development seminars for employees.
Edited on June 1, 1999 by Janet
Snover
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