Innovation in practice
News 24 JulyA message from Executive Dean of Health Sciences Professor Suzanne Chambers: Winter has so far been a season of future-thinking and action for the Faculty of Health Sciences.
22 September 2016
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No longer a niche term in higher education, ‘Lean’ is getting runs on the board as a process improvement methodology at ACU.
Its reputation as a systematic and evidence-based approach to improving an existing process was reinforced recently in a timetabling process improvement initiative.
Earlier this year Nik Linnell, Manager of Timetabling, Examinations & Results, led a review of the timetabling process driven by a simple but powerful problem statement: “timetabling takes too long for all stakeholders”.
Lean methodology – with its focus on eliminating waste and improving process time and efficiency – proved to be the ideal approach for looking at waste within the end-to-end timetabling process. Lean advocates respect for people who are closest to the work and involving staff in identifying and solving problems. And in this case, staff had plenty to say about what could be improved in the process.
All stakeholders saw the value in having Schools spend less time drafting their timetable. Students had also been telling us they wanted their timetable earlier.
But to get there some key issues had to be addressed from the perspectives of students, teaching staff, Schools (including professional staff), Faculties and the broader University community:
The results of the review were a win for staff and students:
If you would like more information on using Lean to improve processes in your area, please contact the Service Matters Improvement Team. To learn more about Lean, see the Service Matters website.
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