Are you plagued by management conundrums? Do you need a gentle nudge to explore new management directions? If so, then write your woes to our newest columnist, Miss Manager. Her advice is timely, yet well-seasoned, firm, but surprisingly gentle. She is prepared (and qualified) to respond to your deep- est management fears and dreams. Please feel free to write to her in care of the TSLL editors and join us in welcoming her to the TSLL staff. Modesty prevents Miss Manager from revealing her true identity; she feels main- taining her anonymity will preserve a more decorous atmosphere between advisor and advisee.

-- The Editors

Dear Miss Manager:

For years I’ve been hearing about “workflow”. I know that things move through my Technical Services Department in a particular pattern, and I know that I can map all that out. But after 15 years, I’m not sure if I am doing things as efficiently as possible. We’ve been through innumerable changes in personnel, equipment, and technology, but we’re still set up in pretty much the same pattern we were in when I first started. How do I figure out if my workflow is efficient and how I should change it if it’s not?

Sincerely,
Ill-prepared in Illinois

Dear Ill,

Miss Manager is very sympathetic toward your plight and is sure that you are not alone. How often have we heard others or even caught ourselves saying that we can get rid of that backlog or move those books through more quickly if we just change our workflow? After spending a few years watching staff member Able pass all of the free-standing supplements to Baker and the pocket parts to Char- ley, we think there is no reason to split these duties up; but we also can’t change that particular pair of tasks without changing the steps before and the steps after. That then requires changing steps outward in both directions until pretty soon we are looking at every task in the department. So, we decide it is time to look at the   [continued...]