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LEAN MANUFACTURING

IE-GY-7873

PAUL LINTHORST

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OPTIMIZING NYU TANDON GRADUATE

ADMISSIONS PROCESS

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Rachit Gupta

Mehul Gohil

Niyati Patel

Purva Talwande

TEAM-2

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Current Value Stream Map

CURRENT VALUE STREAM MAP

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At present, the NYU Tandon Graduate Admissions Department handles the following activities:

Reviewing admission applications for 26 graduate programs and 9 doctorate programs
Coordination with other departments for updates and recent developments
Seamless enrollment of students in the university system
Granting scholarships to qualifying students
Establishing superior communication between students and the department regarding documents submission

INTRODUCTION

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ADMISSIONS PROCESS FOR MS INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING AT NYU TANDON

Why did we choose this improvement opportunity?

Variations in declaration of results from individual to individual
Delays in response to the concerned applicant’s emails and queries
Reduction in existing inventories present between departments
Better in-depth understanding of the entire admissions process

FOCUS

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SCOPE

The New York University accepts countless applications for a number of programs in various associated schools each year.

Our goal is to target the applications received for the Masters in Industrial Engineering program at the NYU Tandon School of Engineering.

As a part of the project, we will be considering the applications review process for the On-Campus mode of instruction.

SCOPE

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QUESTIONNAIRE

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QUESTIONNAIRE

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QUESTIONNAIRE OVERVIEW

The months of November, December, January account for more than 70% of total NYU graduate applications received
Average wait time of admit decision receival for students is 5-6 weeks
The query solving efficiency of NYU Tandon graduate admission department is 8/10
The processing time to submit official transcripts is more than expected, thereby leading to extended delays in admissions process
Furthermore, over 36% submitted their transcripts after arriving at NYU Tandon
Overall existing application process rating is around 7.8 on a scale of 10
We infer that there is a significant improvement opportunity in the overall admissions process, in terms of response from the communications department, which will be further addressed by using lean improvement techniques and tools.

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Average intake per semester
Spring	Fall
800	2300

No. of applicants per semester
Spring	Fall
5000	20000

Application processing time
Spring	Fall
4 weeks	Upto 8 weeks

Staffing in the Admissions Department
Communications	Documents	CGPA	Database management	Double proofing
96	6	5	4	6

Problems Faced

Delay

Overprocessing

Imbalanced Workforce

INFORMATION FROM NYU ADMISSIONS DEPARTMENT

Scope of Improvement

Reduced processing time

Seamless application reviewing

Uniformity in overall result declaration

Reducing the workload for the reviewing committee team.

Minimizing non-value adding activities involved in the process

Decreasing the number of reworks

Evaluate potential alternatives for effective communication

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Reduce Excess processing-

Elimination of 2nd proofing of documents.

Reduce Waiting time-

Introducing provisions of auto CGPA calculation into USA 4.0 point right during the submission of application.

Kaizen burst

Tie-up with a third party organization such as WES (World education services) and Foreign Credentials for CGPA calculation so that when we receive the application, the CGPA is present right in there which would decrease the application lead time by 10 days

LEAN IMPROVEMENT TECHNIQUES

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Not utilizing talent

5S- Set in order

Enlargement of Communication team by seasonal hiring of GA on basis of admission season.

5S- Sort, Standardize

Bifurcation of communication team based on enquiring students and admitted students.

Train the entire employees of admissions department to take calls regarding queries during peak seasons, hereby reducing the workload of the communications department.