Physical Facilities SMRT Transferred Work Orders

Senior Maintenance Repair Technicians (SMRT’s) are the frontline staff of the Physical Facilities maintenance department. Some of their duties include power outages, flooded buildings, and minor electrical, plumbing, carpentry, and HVAC repairs. SMRT's act as first responders to urgent requests as well as a multitude of other repairs, allowing more technical work to be completed by master trades specialists from the specific trade shops.

SMRT's play a vital role in the execution of the maintenance plan for the Oxford Campus. While they do not specialize in one particular trade, they possess a broad overall knowledge of the university and all of the equipment within and they solve problems quickly. Whenever an SMRT is unable to complete an assigned repair, the work order is transferred to a master trades specialist.  However, this results in increased cost, a delay in completing the repair, and a drop in customer satisfaction.

A LEAN idea was submitted to reduce the number of work orders transferred from SMRTs to the master trades. The LEAN team was led by Sam Pence and included Dusty Hill, Chris Weitzel, Brandon Burke, Steve Feck, Jerry Hickey, Vic Conner, Dan Smith, and Dan Olthaus.  The team based on its analysis of past work orders identified some of the root causes for transferred work orders and developed new annual training aimed at correcting these issues and lowering the number of transferred work orders. After implementation in 2019, the changes have resulted in an increase in productivity by over 800 hours annually for the impacted staff. This improvement is expected to lead to reduced wait time for a repair to be made and an increase in customer satisfaction.

Thank you to all the team members who helped make this project a success!

Summer Orientation Break-Out Session Redesign Project

Each year the One Stop supports the Office of Parent and Family Programs and New Student Programs during summer orientation sessions for our incoming class.  In prior years, the sessions were on a first come, first served basis often resulting in a 10-20 minute wait time that prevented families from attending another important break-out session.  Lean team leaders Dawn White and Jerrad Harrison, along with Colleen Villa, Lindsay Marnell and Sandra Ledger took on this issue and met to develop a better approach. 

Working together, the One Stop team developed a program that provides families the opportunity to pre-register for private sessions to discuss billing, payment and financing options.  These appointments allow families to have better control of their day and afford them the time to attend additional sessions during their visit, all while providing better customer service. The staff also reached out to families prior to their appointments to prepare them for the upcoming session, better ensuring the sessions were more meaningful for the family and the families left with more knowledge of billing issues and better prepared to manage the cost of their son or daughter’s education.  As a result of the one-on-one counseling format, 359 student families prescheduled for the 2019 Summer Orientation and 714 students and families were seen.

Once again, the One Stop staff demonstrated its service commitment to our students and their families.

Certification News

William Loos was chosen from all those who submitted a Lean Fair post-event survey and won the grand prize- an Annual Red Lot Parking Pass.  He will be able to renew his annual parking pass in June at no charge.  Congratulations, William!