Rapid Process Improvement for SFS Scholarships

By Diane Cooley, SFS

In July of 2001, the Student Accounts and Student Loans and Receivables Offices joined forces to create Student Fiscal Services. As a result of this merger and the departure of Deirdre Greene, the newly formed Customer Service Unit found itself with a couple of new teammates and a whole new process to learn. This was a perfect opportunity to use the Rapid Process Improvement (RPI) method to bring the team up to speed on the scholarships process.

A lot of pre-work was needed and Kate Riley and Pam Luther were up to the challenge. They reviewed the current scholarships process, interviewed key people and put together an information binder. The Lead Team (Andrew Monusko, Heidi Anderson, Stepheny Bonner and Lindsay Hendrix) along with their leaders (Nancy Hurja and Pam) then spent a week away from their desks looking at the process this past March. Peggy Fitzwater joined in as computer expert and Kate led the effort.

First the team learned about the RPI process and then dove into a review of the current scholarship process. Lists were made and processes charted. After everyone felt that they had a good, basic feel for scholarships, an ideal process for managing scholarships was created. Plans to achieve the team's vision were then developed.

After two days of studying the old process and designing the new one, the team went to work. For the next three days, everyone worked hard on their project "To Do" lists. Experts (Diane Cooley, LiChang Wong and Ken Haines) were called in as needed. The final task of the week was to prepare a presentation to be shared with everyone in Financial Management who was interested in scholarships or the RPI process.

The STS Lead Team continues to learn about the intricacies of the scholarships process and move forward with their streamlining efforts. One immediate benefit to the customers so far has been that there is no longer a separate scholarships counter students can get their questions answered at any customer service position on the first floor of Schmitz.