Laboratory Supplies Order & Management

1. Laboratory Supplies Order & Management TISSUETECH, INC. Team Members: Lorraine Chua Ek Kia Tan

2. INTRODUCTIONAbout Tissue Tech Inc • R&D and Product Development Company • 13 scientists and engineers • Conducts basic scientific research and develop tissue based products focusing primarily on ophthalmology • Consume lab supplies: • General Lab Supplies: gloves, culture dishes, masks, pipet tips etc • Project Specific Lab Supplies: Reagents, Solutions, antibodies, primers etc www.biotissue.com

3. PROJECT SELECTION METHOD • Top Down and Bottom Up Approach

4. DEFINE • Problems: • Process Steps Redundancy • Time required for some process steps is too long • History: • Total time required to complete purchasing ordering for 1 week’s lab supplies is 131 minutes ± 14 min (4 week average) More than 2 hours spent each week on lab supplies purchase ordering and management (excludes order status checks, return of defect items and other purchasing related management tasks) OPPORTUNITY: IMPROVE PURCHASE ORDERING SYSTEM • Goal • Improve Purchase Ordering Efficiency by 30%

5. Purchasing Process Flow Chart DEFINE STEP 1 STEP 3 STEP 4 Purchasing Agent Checks on General Lab Supplies Inventory STEP 2 Scientists Determine Project Specific Lab Supplies STEP 6 STEP 7 STEP 5 STEP 8 Total Time: 131 minutes ± 14 min

6. PICTURES OF FORMS Step 3: Electronic Purchase Order Form Step 2: Manual/Handwritten Purchase Order Form

7. MEASURE

8. ANALYZE • Key Steps that Cannot Be Changed • Step 1 – Lab Inventory Depends on Usage of Scientists (15 ¾ Min) • Step 4 – Director’s Approval Required for Order (8 ¾ Min) • Step 6 – Purchase Order System (PeachTree) is used by all Departments (R&D, Marketing, Manufacturing, etc.) – Significant Cost to Change (20 min) • Step 7 – Proof of Delivery (5 min) • Step 8 – Required to Process Payment (10 min) • Key Steps that Can Be Improved • Step 2 – Manual (handwritten) Purchase Order (PO) Form (10 ¼) • Step 3 – Convert written PO to Electronic PO (27 ½ min) • Step 5 – Purchase from Vendor (33 ¾ min)

9. ANALYZE • Identify Possible Causes • Redundancy (Converting written copy to electronic copy) • Obsolete Purchase Ordering System (Mix between Manual & Electronic System) • Isolate Critical Factors • Time writing and typing • Time searching for vendors online • Time to key in different usernames and passwords for different vendors online

10. IMPROVE • Use Lean Tools – 7W + 1 Approach • Transport – Moving purchase order information around • Inventory – Storing documentation of order ahead of requirements • Motion – Handwriting and typing purchase order

11. #1 IMPROVE (Electronic Form & Web browser) • Electronic Form – Email Document • Copy and paste function – reduce typing redundancy • Bookmarks on Web browser • One click to access vendor website as opposed to searching for website – reduce typing redundancy • Saved Username and Password • Password security maintained with a Master Password #3 #3 #2 #3

12. Optimized Purchasing Process Flow Chart CONTROL - Estimated Eliminate Handwritten PO Form – Saves 15 min STEP 1 New Tools – Saves 15 min Purchasing Agent Checks on General Lab Supplies Inventory STEP 4 STEP 2 STEP 3 Scientists Determine Project Specific Lab Supplies STEP 7 STEP 5 STEP 6 Total Time: ~100 min (30% Improvement)

13. Summary • The Purchase Ordering System has a lot of redundancy • By implementing Lean Sigma Practices (DMAIC Improvement Process & 7W + 1 Tool) on the Purchase Ordering System, the total purchase ordering time was reduced from 131 ± 14 minutes to approx. 100 minutes (estimated).