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Stanford University Libraries Redesign Report
Methodology
In July, 1994, the SUL directors appointed the
Redesign Team[3]
to work with Stillwater Consulting Group to apply
the principles of reengineering to the
acquisitions-to-access processes in order to
realize at least $750,000 in cost savings from
the Technical Services budget.
The Team contacted colleagues in a variety of
libraries and studied library and management
literature related to reengineering concepts,
workflow design, and vended services. The Team
interviewed staff during "walk-throughs" of
almost every Technical Services section and of
one branch library. Throughput statistics,
selected sampling, and experienced estimates were
used to calculate numbers of transactions and
transaction costs[4].
Responses to RFIs (Request for Information) about
vendor products[5],
visits to vendor sites, and a report from Karen
Wilson on the Jackson Library experiences with
outsourcing provided additional information to
the Team. The reengineering principles the Team
considered most important to apply to our
environment are:
- minimize physical hand-offs
- eliminate duplicate and unnecessary
steps
- perform work where it makes the most
sense
- maintain/improve customer satisfaction
- encourage risk-taking and innovation
- deliver quality products
The
membership of the Team is outlined in Appendix
2.
Current Transactions and Costs are presented in
Appendix 3.
A
spreadsheet summarizing vendor responses to
Stanford's RFI is in Appendix
4.
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Last modified:
August 12, 2005 |
