1. Tracking Productivity at Kodak’s Technical Support Center Heidi Huber John Rosenbaum Amy Stokes

2. Background of Kodak Health Imaging  Involved in health imaging for over a century.  Sells hardware and software involved in every facet of health imaging.  Technical support call center in Dallas.  Responsible for a select group of hardware.

3. Details of the Call Center  Open 24/7  Divided in two levels  Level 1 – Simple, immediate support  Level 2 – Complex, higher skilled techs  Cases tracked using Vantive  Problems solved using several methods

4. Tracking Productivity  Basic model that existed prior to our analysis tracked productivity at a dismal 39%.  Management is convinced that actual productivity is much higher than 39%.  At 39% over 90 work days per year are spent not working.  Based estimate on time entered in Vantive.  Took into account some legitimate untracked activities.  Target productivity rate is 70%.

5. Our Job  Determine the reason productivity is reported at 39%.  Answer 3 main questions:  Do the technicians accurately track their own time?  Are there any duties they perform that are not currently accounted for?  Are the current recorded miscellaneous duties estimated accurately?  Present an updated more accurate model.  Make recommendations regarding the future tracking of productivity.

6. The Productivity Model  Level 2 support technicians take an average of 3.36 cases per day.  Estimation of time was off by an average of 2.167 minutes per call with an average of 2 calls per case.  Support technicians do not track time spent assisting other colleagues with cases.  Observed to be approximately 45 minutes per day.

7. Productivity Model  Other indirect factors included in model:  Training  Vacation  Sick Leave  Holidays  E-mail and Voice Mail  Meeting and Special Projects 64%  The updated model estimates productivity more accurately at 64%

9. Possible Sources of Error  Support technicians modifying normal behavior because they are under observation.  Graveyard shift employees handle a greatly reduced number of cases.  Volume of cases potentially sporadic.

10. Recommendations  Periodic observation of staff to obtain valid estimates of indirect hours and unreported time.  Small adhesive clock that attaches to monitor to ease the tracking of time spent on a call.  Gather input directly from support technicians regarding where they feel most of their time is spent.

11. Conclusion  Two elements were left out of Kodak’s original productivity model:  Underestimated time.  Time spent helping colleagues.  Not enough time was allocated to e-mail and voice mail in the original model.  The more accurate productivity report of 64% puts the Dallas Level 2 call center only 6% away from their target.