Consistently ranked among the top 10 universities in the country by U.S. News and World Report, the University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA) carries on the principles and spirit of its founder, Benjamin Franklin: entrepreneurship, invention, and unquenchable thirst for knowledge. Franklin's pragmatic outlook has remained a driving force in Penn’s development, as seen in the following situation where the University recognized a problem and moved swiftly to solve it.

In 1999, executives at Penn Facilities Services realized that the maintenance staff was being underutilized due to inefficient MRO storeroom operations. Daily-use supplies were not always available, leading to preventable trips by maintenance staff to local supply vendors and longer repair times. These time-consuming trips were a major drain on productivity…and on the level of service to the University community. To add to the challenge, workers sometimes created their own private stash of supplies in an effort to save time. These supplies became nearly impossible to track, resulting in excess inventory.

Penn’s Facilities Services analyzed the situation and then took the first steps to make improvements by outsourcing the management of its storeroom to a third party that specialized in MRO storeroom management. After an extensive interview and review process, SDI was selected. Working closely with Penn, SDI implemented a comprehensive program to manage Penn’s inventory — which includes all items used to maintain the 15- to 20-block campus, from sheets of drywall and halogen lightbulbs to steel pipe and screws. Now, supervisors simply place orders from anywhere — via phone, fax, or the Web — and pick them up right at the university storeroom. Today, the storeroom consistently achieves high order fill-rates, averaging nearly 98%, so workers can get the supplies they need and get on with their job.

In addition to saving valuable time, SDI has been able to show cost savings by using their premier vendors. SDI’s breadth of product vendors allows the company to economically supply all MRO needs. In one instance, SDI helped Penn achieve a 40% savings on bearings. In another, there was a 23% savings on a particular appliance part for their residential buildings.

The new system signaled change for the University’s maintenance staff of 200 workers who were very comfortable with the previous operations. SDI Site Operations Manager, Gene White, explains, “We worked hard to develop a relationship with the staff. We conducted ‘window surveys’ with workers as they came to pick up supplies, held ‘lunch-n-learn’ sessions, and trained them on new vendors, products, and technology. In short, we helped them adjust to the new system as smoothly as possible.” Today, Penn’s staff appreciates the system and the University’s maintenance operations run more efficiently.

One additional way Penn benefited from the new system was in the area of tracking. SDI enabled the University to reach a critical goal for urban schools: to track spending with minority-owned and local businesses. With SDI’s tracking, planning, and reporting capabilities, Penn has been better able to monitor transactions and therefore focus on increasing its business with minority-owned suppliers and local companies.

“Thanks to SDI and our hardworking facility staff, we have optimized our entire MRO supply system,” said Mike Coleman, Executive Director of Facilities. “We have seen cost savings and have dramatically improved service to the university community, plus the SDI staff that works in our storeroom really helps to keep everything running efficiently.”