UC Davis Reduces Transportation Waste By 58% With GLSS
California
Education
Operations
58%
Hampton Sublett of UC Davis wasted no time in conquering the task of improving “wrench time” to help lower costs for customers and increase the number of tasks completed across campus each year. Learn how his team was able to save and repurpose 2,600 hours!
Project Summary
Increasing “Wrench-Time” at UC Davis
Key Words:
- Wrench Time: The time a tradesperson spends performing their value-added work
Problem Statement: The campus is comprised of more than 1,000 buildings of varying ages and requires significant work to maintain and improve. UC Davis is attempting to see if it’s possible to increase “available wrench time” by decreasing the time trades professionals need to spend on tasks that are not directly related to their trade.
Goal Statement: By January 25th, 2018, prove via a pilot program, that available “wrench time” for electricians can increase by 5%.
Take Away: The Project Charter was important to keep the team focused on the goal & scope
This project was predominantly focused on trying to keep those well-skilled and folks that are doing the good work of trying to keep our buildings up and running, keep them actually in the field doing the work that they like to do and that they’re best at rather than driving around campus trying to get parts that they need, spend time pulling parts out of the warehouse. So that was real core focus of this particular project.
Define Phase: Identify the Problem
By utilizing a SIPOC and a Swimlane Map, Sublett & his process improvement team sought out to understand the customer requirements and a profound knowledge of the Budget Approval to Start Date process. They found that:
- Parts were being stored in multiple locations for a single order
- There were far too many steps in the process “From Budget Approval to Job Site Start Date”
But one of the key things that you need to do within any Lean Six Sigma project is really be careful not to expand your scope beyond what you can control. So we were very deliberate about making sure that we focus just on a small element of the entire lifecycle of projects getting completed around campus.
Measure Phase: Quantify the Problem
It was time to call in the Delta Force! A process improvement team who were comprised of the team members that are doing the work, including the project manager, supervisor, the electrician and his chain of command.
And so we had to focus and ensure that we had open and honest communication. This was probably no more important than to make sure that I, myself, and being very transparent about what it is we’re trying to do, how this will benefit not only themselves but the larger university.
To collect the data, the team made sure to implement a Data Collection Plan in which they identified specific measures they would collect data on, who would collect it, and how it would be collected.
Alright. When it comes to the data collection planning, it was rather simple. In fact, this entire project was rather simple. And that’s kind of one of the beauties of it and the Lean Six Sigma process if you follow it with a deliberate approach.
Sublett and his team created a Histogram of time spent pulling parts at a specific location (Location 3), and developed a Spaghetti Map to understand the process even further. They found that:
- 65% of trips took 5 minutes or less
- There were about 15 minutes from each day that were non-value added time
So if we can eliminate these trips all together, we really get some serious savings with respect to the drive time.
Analyze Phase: Identify the Cause of the Problem
It was time to identify the root causes of the problem. By creating a Fishbone Diagram, utilizing the Root Cause Hypotheses and testing to see if the Pareto Principle was in effect, the team found that:
- The customer is impacted multiple times due to multiple site visits
- There was a lack of end-to-end process visibility for all employees involved
- Plumbing, Structural and HVAC warehouse visits needed to be queued up to save time
Some possible root causes of why these issues were occuring included:
- Waste: Non-Utilized Talent
- Electricians are pulling parts at Location 3 instead of having Project Managers order all at once
- Waste: Motion
- Electricians are spending too much time driving back and forth to Location 3 and Project Manager Office
- Too Many Customer Site Visits
- No one has been tasked with looking at the process from the customer perspective
So we really tried to hold that charter up as often as need be to make sure that we didn’t get too deep into the woods. And that the team held me accountable for doing that as well.
Improve Phase: Implement and Verify the Solution
Now that Sublett and the ‘Delta Force’ have selected the solutions to move forward with, which included:
- Utilize “Location 3” warehouse staff to deliver electrical parts to Electrician’s Shop
- Project Manager places orders for Non-stock and Stock parts, thus eliminating the need for Electricians to shop for Stock parts at Location 3 warehouse
They then created a Future State Swimlane Map for the “Budget Approval to Job Site Start Date” process and implemented the improvements.
We were very noninvasive with respect to our data collection, wanted to make sure that the technicians did not feel as though they are a under a complete microscope. But there as many times where they either – parking and walking doesn’t sound like a lot but at some particular times, a time of day where the main parking lot for the Location 3 is busy
Success: The team was able to reclaim 30 minutes of time for Electricians every day!
- Per day per Electrician: 30 minutes
- Per year per Electrician: 130 hours (30 mins x 260 work days)
- 130 hours x 30 Electricians = 2,600 hours saved!
I find units saying, “It’s only a buck here or a minute there,” but when you’re really trying to find a way to quantify it into a meaningful number, you can see that it adds up to being something of real consequence.
Lean Six Sigma Tools Used: Solution Selection Matrix, Implementing Improvements
…to see the look in the eyes of the people who have been doing this work and probably wanting to try something different or at least seeing that their opinion is valued, obviously, we all have seen it. We are probably guilty of doing this sometimes by pushing down the solutions that we in management think are the right solution without making sure that we’ve either validate it or at least validated the employees’ perspective I think was truly one of the coolest parts of this entire project.
Control Phase: Maintain the Solution
By creating their Project Closure sheet and updating the Executive Summary, team Delta Force reflects on the positive impact their efforts will have made on the external customer.
Lessons Learned:
- Remember to stay agile during the Improve Phase, your plans may need to be adjusted once they meet with reality
- Continuously reiterate the purpose of the project to the team through the project
- Protect the scope of the project to ensure it remains manageable and achievable
- Set expectations up front that the project is a team effort and that open, honest communication is vital
While this project did not seek to achieve hard savings or profits, several solutions which were deemed out of scope still have the potential to create ongoing and impactful hard savings.
…to see the look in the eyes of the people who have been doing this work and probably wanting to try something different or at least seeing that their opinion is valued, obviously, we all have seen it. We are probably guilty of doing this sometimes by pushing down the solutions that we in management think are the right solution without making sure that we’ve either validate it or at least validated the employees’ perspective I think was truly one of the coolest parts of this entire project.
