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Work allocation work around

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  • February 4, 2008 at 11:38 am #49260

    MM
    ★ 20 Years ★
    Participant

    Hi,
    In my process, the work comes in via e-mail. The work is sent by counterparts stateside and comes in a defined mailbox (x) which is accessed only by the FLM’s. Now the workallocation is a three step process. Total team – lets say 30 for ease of communication – is divided into 3 parts – A, B, C. Work is 1st given to A by the FLM’s, who complete it and send the mail to mailbox (y). From here the work is sent to team B by the FLM’s – which in turn sends the completed work to mailbox (z). Similarly, the work is completed by team C and sent back to FLM’s for compilation and reporting purpose.
    Golden question – how to reduce this transport time wastage and go lean? Pls keep in mind the data sensitivity, restrictions by IT deptt etc. etc.

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    February 4, 2008 at 12:06 pm #168138

    Sayyed
    ★ 10 Years ★
    Participant

    Are the processes followed by A, B & C vastly different, are the competencies required varied and diverse…is there a possibility to cross-skill these roles.
    B’coz the very obvious suggestion is to let it be a one-touch process and eliminate all the handoffs. However I am certain this has crossed your mind and there are other constraints that may render it impractical or non-feasible.
    Interesting situation – will appreciate if you could throw some more light on it.
    Cheers, – Neal

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    February 4, 2008 at 1:00 pm #168140

    MM
    ★ 20 Years ★
    Participant

    Hi Neal – its the same process that they are doing – but since the work is lengthy, it has been divided into three parts. This has been done to ensure accuracy. I am trying to reduce the transportation time by trying to improve the work allocation method. I have thought of certain ideas like auto forward to the 1st team, who upon completion send that to a mailbox from where it is autoforwarded to the next team – but the catch is the number of ppl present in each batch and the time and accuracy of turning the rules on and off daily. I was thinking of copying the mails (they contain attachments of approx 2 MB in each) on some type of system which will have a IN sheet and in the end OUT sheet. This way I’ll be able to track the movement of work from one team to another, one individual to another, check on time taken on each step, all MIS and also (very important) avoid any client information staying on the system of any individual, even in the work tool designed…But I could not come up with any compatible system – can’t use oracle, VB – bane of working in a MNC—–
    So, any suggestions…

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    February 21, 2008 at 1:28 pm #168820

    Perryman
    ★ 10 Years ★
    Participant

    Hi MM,
    A few questions to clarify; have you done the VSM yet?  Why are you only focussed on removing the transport muda? Have you already applied the other lean principles – standard work, one-piece flow, continuous flow, etc.  Have you ensured they work is not done in batches? Is there “inventory” waiting to be processed by the teams.  It just seems to me that if you haven’t addressed these yet, you are missing alot of opportunities for improvement…
    Assuming you have addressed these, I would suggest you look at an electronic workflow enabler.  There are some pretty good ones out there to support document management and that easily integrate with e-mail systems to provide signals.  I won’t mention any products here but there are a wide variety and some for every budget.  Keep in mind though, that this is an expense to implement – if you haven’t done the other improvements yet – do those first.
    Hope this helps,
    Patch 

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