By Rebecca A. Doyle
What used to be a nightmare is now almost a dream come true for employees in telecommunications, thanks to some planning sessions, customer input and guidelines in quality management that advised that they listen to each other without passing judgment or trying to place blame.
Information Technology Division’s (ITD) Network Systems telecommunications group spent almost one and one-half years analyzing and researching problems in their system.
“There was a lot of internal finger-pointing,” says Mary Nicholas, telecommunications supervisor. “We were all saying that somebody else was doing something wrong.
“But by following the steps in quality management, we found that the problem really was in the system.”
The problems in the system were multiple. Customers throughout the University were generally waiting six to eight weeks to have telephone lines installed, and sometimes the process took even longer.
Orders for data or phone lines were taken in one area, then processed and given to a technician to carry out. But sometimes when the technician went to the site, conduit had not been installed because customers were not aware that it needed to be requested separately, from a different department. And it was the customer’s responsibility to notify telecommunications when the conduit was installed, leaving open another window for delay. Sometimes the data or voice lines customers wanted changed were not there, room numbers were incorrect or had been changed, telephones were missing or defective, even building numbers were incorrect.
But that wasn’t all. Once in the field, technicians had more paperwork to complete than physical work to do.
“To move a line,” says Donald A. Gagnon, telecommunication facilities/equipment engineer, “records had to be changed in five books and twice online.” The actual work may have only taken a few minutes, but the paperwork was 10 to 15 minutes, he says.
Part of the problem was in the data system used to record changes. ComNet was originally set up to handle only voice transmissions. A new team is being formed to look at proposals from approximately 30 vendors for a replacement tracking system.
Team members represent all subgroups that are involved in the process. This is an important part of the procedure used to identify problems, Nicholas says.
Team members are: Richard Darr, manager, telecommunication; Gagnon; Daniel LaLonde, telecommunication switch specialist; Nicholas; Robert Scapelliti, telecommunications supervisor; Wayne Steinle, field service; Gregg Stohler, transmission maintenance; and Patricia Thomsen, telecommunication systems analyst. Together, they represent nearly 140 years of experience in telecommunications.
But all team members stress that they are only part of the team. In fact, they say their facilitator, Edward Rothman, who is director of the Center for Statistical Consultation and Research, was instrumental in their success.
“He was incredible,” says Thomsen. “He was the outsider who could see the whole picture. He helped keep the process on track.”
Everything isn’t fixed yet, group members are quick to admit. Their focus was on the service order procedure and they have instituted changes to streamline the procedure, decrease the time and paperwork involved, and eliminate the step that required the customer to act as a subcontractor. Customers now make one call and receive one bill for telephone installation.
By targeting that area for improvement, the team says they learned some major lessons that they will employ in future quality efforts:
