Question

Consider the University Admission Process case description below In order to apply for admission, students first fill in an online form. Online applications are recorded in an information system to which all staff members involved in the admissions process have access. After a student has submitted the online form, a PDF document is generated and the student is requested to download it, sign it, and send it by post together with the required documents, which include: • certified copies of previous degree and academic transcripts • results of English language test • curriculum vitae • two reference letters When these documents are received by the admissions office, an officer checks the completeness of the documents. If any document is missing, an email is sent to the student. The student has to send the missing documents by post. Assuming the application is complete, the admissions office sends the certified copies of the degrees to an academic recognition agency, which checks the degrees and gives an assessment of their validity and equivalence in terms of local education standards. This agency requires that all documents be sent to it by post, and that all documents be certified copies of the originals. The agency sends back its assessment to the university by post as well. Assuming the degree verification is successful, the English language test results are then checked online by an officer at the admissions office. If the validity of the English language test results cannot be verified, the application is rejected (such notifications of rejection are sent by email). Once all documents of a given student have been validated, the admissions office forwards these documents by internal mail to the corresponding academic committee responsible for deciding whether to offer admission or not. The committee makes its decision based on the academic degrees and transcripts, the CV, and the reference letters. The committee meets once every three months to examine all applications that are ready for academic assessment at the time of the meeting. At the end of the committee meeting, the chair of the committee notifies the admissions office of the selection outcomes. This notification includes a list of admitted and rejected candidates. A few days later, the admissions office notifies the outcome to each candidate via email. Additionally, successful candidates are sent a confirmation letter by post. What steps can you extract from this process? Classify these steps into VA, BVA, and NVA.

Answer 1

Value-Adding:

• This is a step that produces value or satisfaction vis-a-vis of the customer. When determining whether or not a step is value-adding, it may help to ask the following question: Would the customer be willing to pay for this activity?

Business value-adding (BVA):

• The step is necessary or useful for the business to run smoothly, or it is required due to the regulatory environment of the business.

Non-value adding (NVA):

• The step does not fall into any of the other two categories

Steps that can be extracted from given process:

1. Filling of online form
2. Downloading, signing and mailing form through post
3. Verification of documents completedness by officer
4. If there is missing information then student notified through email
5. If no missing information in the application then certified copies of documents are sent for verification
6. Degrees are checked by agency
7. Assessment is sent back by agency
8. If degree verification is successful English test results are checked online by officer
9. If validity of results cannot be verified application is rejected
10. If results are verified the documents are forwarded to the academic committee
11. Committee makes a decision
12. Chair of the committee notifies the admissions office of decision
13. Admissions office notifies the outcome to each candidate
14. Successful candidates are sent a confirmation letter by post

Value-adding Steps: 1, 2

Business value-adding Steps: 3, 4, 5, 8, 9, 11, 13

Non-value adding Steps: 6, 7, 10, 12, 14