KCLS was challenged with the length of time it took for us to get books and materials into the hands of our patrons. With the distribution system we had in place, it took between two to three weeks for the majority of materials to get from our receiving department to our library branches.

Many of our patrons had expressed frustration over the length of time it took for items to reach them. KCLS recognized that most often it was our most-impacted patrons who were most at risk of not having materials to them when they were needed or wanted.

This long turnaround time negatively impacted our hold ratios. For example, we were ordering a higher volume of new releases to keep up with demand for these items and to accommodate our longer turn-around times. Additionally, our collection management services team was not able to be as responsive or flexible to customer needs and demands as they were bogged down with an ineffective distribution system.

Our goal was to reduce turnaround from weeks to days and for 65% of our new materials to reduce turnaround time to 3 days. A second goal was to streamline work for staff and establish practical methods for future improvements. With a grant from the KCLS Foundation, we implemented Lean Library Management practices. This staff-driven system has been demonstrated to increase efficiency by smoothing out peaks and valleys, reducing redundant work practices, and recenter patron experience.

Key innovations included creating a cross-functional team with members from multiple departments. Each team created Value Stream Maps breaking down their workflows into individual steps. This helped identify redundancies and obstacles. The teams created solutions to improve workflows and collaborated to ensure the new workflows complemented each other.

We saw immediate reductions in turn-around times. Between Q1 and Q4 of 2023, we reduced our turnaround time from 43% of materials being sent out between 11 days - 3 weeks to 18% of materials being sent out during that same range with 70% of materials being sent out between 4 and 10 days. By the end of 2023, we were able to send 9% of materials out between 1-3 days. We continue to decrease our turnaround times. Data for Q2 of 2024 shows that 30% of materials are being sent out between 1-3 days as noted in the video and most recently we’ve increased that to 43%.

Selection staff are now able to submit order lists daily, creating a steady flow of items for receiving. Order staff and the ITS (Information Technology Services) department made updates to our ordering service that streamlined the order submission process. We have added a conveyor belt system that optimized our workflow.