BYU Streamlines

"We felt that we had too many inefficiencies in the organization," admits Maxwell, who took over as director last July when West Barton retired. "We were trying to maintain equipment, personnel and systems for three organizations. We had a lot of redundancy...that was very costly."

To eliminate that redundancy, the mailing, printing and copying areas in the operation's Provo, Utah, plant have been moved into one production area that reports to the production manager. In this way the in-plant now manages one pool of part-time student workers, rather than each part of the operation hiring and managing separate staffs. As a result, these student workers—about 200, working three shifts—can be cross-trained and quickly shifted to whichever area is busiest.