North Star Project Update: Physical Structures & Supports

Name of Project: Physical Structures & Supports

Name of Initiative: Infrastructure

Team members:
Mark McMurry, Doug McVey, Jason Elliott, Dustin Gean, Scott Mayne, Nancy Penley, Sherise Ahlers, Paul Lauritsen

Give the gist of what your project is about including the long-term goal.
To develop and maintain adequate facilities and supports that promote efficient and effective services to staff and schools.

What are the things that your team has been working on?
The three main projects that the team is currently working on include:
• Coordinating the warehousing (storage) and distribution of supplies, materials and equipment for the entire Agency.
• Developing guidelines and procedures for distributing supplies, materials and equipment.
• Implementing systemic controls to enhance operational efficiency and ensure adequate warehouse space. This includes developing guidelines that stipulate space allocation, storage methods, maintenance requirements and storage criteria for all supplies, materials and equipment and making this information available on the server.

What has your team accomplished?
The results of the Kaizen event in 2007 led to the redesign of the Agency’s distribution system to integrate it more closely with the schools the Agency serves. The staff participating in our Kaizen helped identify what the current distribution system looked like and areas of weakness or concern and then redesigned a new system of distribution. We have continued to improve upon the original implementation to include other aspects of distribution.

The new distribution system also creates more efficiency for our staff in the lending libraries, staff who use specialized equipment and materials to serve children, staff who work in regional offices and staff who organize events in which they need significant amounts of materials and equipment. Instead of having multiple delivery methods of Heartland equipment and supplies, we are using our vans to deliver it all.

Why are these important to the Agency’s goal of increasing student achievement?
The more efficient our Agency’s support staff is, the more time and resources can be devoted to helping children. This example may say it best: If Heartland can save money and become more efficient in certain areas, more funds can be made available to purchase audiology equipment or time for a physical therapist to work with a child.

What can staff expect in the future?
The team is continuing to redefine and update our project to become more efficient and streamline the Agency’s receiving, warehousing and distribution systems. For example, we are currently in the process of bringing the OT/PT equipment to the warehouse to take advantage of our improvements in distribution. By moving the equipment to the warehouse, we will be able to realize a dramatic decrease in cycle time, thus, getting the equipment from one child to the next much sooner. We are also expanding our original North Star Initiative team to capture other perspectives on distribution.