Ordinary school systems in the US are scoring A’s for efficiency and accountability as they apply supply chain concepts to their tired old systems. Schools that are implementing these concepts are easily scoring between 10% and 60% in textbook savings in the first year and from 10% to 25% in subsequent years.

“Even their investment in inventory tracking infrastructure (software, hardware, and training) is quickly recovered in the first year by the cost-savings achieved due to a better understanding of learner material usage and the higher student and teacher return rate of these materials at the end of the school year,” says Joyce Lewis, APICS Master Instructor and President of the APICS Los Angeles Chapter.

“Across the globe, non-traditional supply chains like schools have historically been slow to adopt innovative supply chain concepts in order to manage student resources,” says Lewis. “But, the recent global trend in public reporting of education funding and transparency in spending has pressured many educational institutions to rethink how best to manage its technologies, textbooks, and teaching materials.”

During her workshop, which will also be of interest to NGOs, Lewis will present a case study that details how a school system suffering from big budget cuts and quantum growth (200 students to 10,000 students in a ten year period) resolved its educational asset allocation issues and achieved significant cost savings through optimised asset management.

Top tips for schools
• Apply standard business operations and inventory management principles normally used by business such as ABC control, cycle counting, and lean manufacturing concepts such as 5S in order to manage Learning and Teaching Support Material (LTSM) including library books, textbooks, and supplemental teaching items
• Align a province’s asset tracking programmes with Learning and Teaching Support Material (LTSM) tracking programmes in order to retrieve all resources at year-end as needed
• Implement a textbook management system that provides receipts, notices, letters, and various reports to communicate obligations for textbooks; merely recording textbook obligations can ensure that textbooks are returned by students and parents and will increase the usable lifespan of textbooks and other resources.
• Whenever possible, integrate technology to replace printed textbooks and request that textbook publishers offer lower-cost online textbooks in addition to the print version
• Educate students and teachers on the replacement value of Learning and Teaching Support Material by sharing resource cost information
Benefits

“The benefits of applying these tips are enormous. Not only is less time spent by teachers and administration reacting to and recovering from textbook loss at the end of the year, but active tracking of resources throughout the year allows them to put processes in place to limit future losses of resources,” concludes Lewis. “And the good news is that funding normally spent on replacing textbooks can instead be used for other educational purposes.”