Continuous improvement at Essex
"The right people continuously searching for the simplest and smoothest process,
in order to meet customer needs perfectly"
The
Strategic Projects Office (SPO) lead on Continuous Improvement (CI)
activities at the University, both in facilitating events, and through training,
mentoring and supporting staff to deliver their own change improvements around
the University. CI activitiy at Essex uses Lean principles:
- Who are the customers
of a process, and what value
do they want from it
- Understand and map the
current process
and where the value is delivered
- Create flow in the
process and remove unnecessary
wastes
- Ensure the process is driven by
customer demand
- Continuously identify opportunities
for
further improvement
2017-18 Continuous Improvements Programme
The core CI Programme for the year is developed and approved through the
Project Coordination Group
(PCG) and centres around areas that will help to deliver the University's
strategic aims. The programme for 2017-18 includes:
- Registration
- Scholarships and Bursaries
- Admissions process for disabled
students
- 28 Day Rule
- Timetable Teaching changes
- Exam Boards
- Extenuating Circumstances
- Ethics process for student projects
- Feedback forms and use of FASER
- eMentoring
- New and temporary staff starters
- Staff on short term contracts
Supporting continuous improvement
The
Strategic Projects Office also helps and supports
staff to carry out CI activity in their own areas. Support can take the form of
full end to end process reviews, a quick chat or brainstorm about the best
approach to take, advice on how best to use our
Tools, training, mentoring and just about anything in between. The types of
reviews can include:
- end to end process reviews
- department or section reviews
- process improvements
- brainstorming and evaluating as a team
- advice on how to prioritise improvement activity
- team development
- system specification development
- workshop support
Process for requesting support
We are happy to meet up to have an informal discussion on any area that you
are interesting in improving. The first step should be to just give us a call to
discuss the area you want to work on. This way we can discuss options and decide
on the appropriate approach. Should you wish to follow this up with some
continuous improvement activity, we can arrange to meet up and go through our
supporting documents.
The two key documents we use are
BOSCARD and our
Scoping Document (.docx, Essex users only). These
documents help you to explore what your objectives are,
and the benefits you would like to get out of a review.
They also outline information that is needed to identify
the kind of support or review that you need. They can be
completed independently or as a team, or with support
from SPO.
Once the documents are completed we will then work with you on identifying
who should be involved in the review, what training or support might be needed
prior to the activity, and when the activity should be scheduled.
Support can be requested by contacting the
Strategic Projects Office in the first instance.
Previous
core CI reviews
Lean has been used sucessfully within the University since 2013 to improve or
futher develop a variety of processes and systems, including:
- Finance Planning Round Budgeting
- External Speaker Booking
- Study Abroad
- The Student Services Hub
- Employability and Careers system
- Student Loans process
- Health and Safety processes
- REO Consultancy and Contract
Research processes
- UKDA Product Development processes
- Flexible Study
- Course and Module Approvals process
- Recruitment of staff
- Work-based learning
- Student withdrawals and retention
Further information
For more information about Lean and continuous improvement at Essex please
explore our webpages, which include more information on
tools and
training, or contact
change@essex.ac.uk.