Work's Projects

Inventory Management Software

Most of the Government agencies in Guatemala lack the technological tools that could help them to keep control of their inventory, which means they have to do it by hand counting. For this project, USAID helped the Ministry of Public Finances of Guatemala design and develop a custom-made software that could fit all the needs of its different departments. This software helped not only to automate the processes and reduce the human error, but also it helped to reduce the processing time by 80%.

Team

6 members

Roles

Process Design Expert,

UX Researcher

Tools

Microsoft Office Suite, Visio (advance use)

Length

14 months

Year

2013-2014

Location

Guatemala City

Process

For this project we followed the Deming Circle, a method use to design and implement Total Quality Management Systems. This process provides a simple and effective approach for solving problems, allowing the organization to make continual improvements by each iteration of the cycle.

We also followed the ISO 9001:2005 quality standards, which sets the quality management principles of: customer focus, motivation and implication of top management, process approach, and continual improvement.

Deming Circle

1 Plan

During this stage, I analyzed as much information as possible that would allow me to understand the information needed for controlling the inventory and therefore elaborated on the new procedures that guided the new software to be developed.

a. Documentation review

During this stage I identified and reviewed the current procedures and regulations regarding the inventory management that were applicable to the government agencies.

b. Interviews

I identified five different departments that would represent the different types of users. I held weekly meetings to define the new way to work while complying with all the regulations.

c. Documentation elaboration

With the information collected I developed the proposal for the new procedures and foresaw how the users would interact with the new software to be developed.

d. Software requirements

I held regular meetings with the Software Architect and provided all the requirements needed and solved any questions regarding the new procedures.

Sample of documents produced

Process architecture

3.3.2 1 Process Summary.pdf

Process Summary Sample

3.3.2 2 procedure.pdf

Process Narrative Sample

2 Do

For a successful implementation of the new procedures and related documentation, the team performed a series of different activities that could ease the transition and reduce the fear of change.

a. Training

To get the organization on board, we trained over 150 employees from the different management levels in quality assurance practices.

b. Validation

I held meetings with the different users and main stakeholders to validate the content of the new procedures.

c. Communication

We coordinated with the Communication Department what information should be released to the users.

d. Support

We provided support on demand through either individual or group guidance.

3 Check

During this stage, we performed different activities that helped the organization to analyze the implementation progress of the Quality Management Systems and its procedures.

a. KPIs Measurement

We defined five KPIs for the process, then measured and communicated the results to the employees involved.

b. Internal Audits

As a team we performed an Internal Audit, evaluating the process assigned to other members of the team and identified nonconformities.

4 Act

To guarantee continual improvement throughout the process, it was necessary to perform different activities that helped us to correct the issues uncovered during the previous stage.

a. Action Plans

With the results obtained from the Internal Audit, we did a collaborative root cause analysis and elaborated action plans to correct and improve the issues found.

b. Follow-up Meetings

We continued to hold meetings with the users and IT Department to keep track of the progress and to identify more opportunities for improvements and start the cycle again.

Major Results

Some of the benefits obtained were:

Standardized the procedures throughout the 15 different departments within the organization
Custom-made software that met the needs of all the different type of users
Automated the inventory process
Reduced the processing time about 80%
Established different controls throughout the process to avoid intentional changes of the information registered in the software
Designed different reports with vital information for decision making

Challenges

Some of the challenges that we encountered during this project were:

Organizing and getting consensus within the different stakeholders and management levels
Limited time that employees had available to dedicate to this project
Making the procedures more efficient despite the fact having to use dated regulations
Foresee how the users would interact with the software that didn't yet exist