By UCSF Financial and Administrative Services
“In Logistics, ‘We Deliver Excellence’ is our moniker. This project has given us confidence that we are on the right track.” — Mel Maxwell
Executive Director of Logistics Mel Maxwell joined UCSF Finance in 2023. Since then, he’s accomplished several notable achievements, including purchasing UCSF Logistics’ first electric vehicle and calling upon his experiences as a veteran to mentor others at UCSF Veterans Job Fairs.
Mel recently sat down with UCSF Financial and Administrative Services to share updates on his newest initiative, the Perfect Orders Project.
How does Logistics support UCSF?
Logistics is a one-stop shop for mail and package services, storage, moving, installation, equipment receipt and delivery and surplus. We also provide an online warehouse for gases and alcohol. Our team is located at Oyster Point in South San Francisco with two distribution hubs on the Parnassus and Mission Bay campuses. Every day, our roughly 50-person team delivers mail, essential goods and services to UCSF customers as far as the East Bay.
How do we use gas at UCSF?
Logistics fulfills about 3,000 gas orders from both campus and health customers a year, delivering nearly 45,000 gas cylinders. UCSF uses gas in many ways, from industrial-size gas cylinders supporting research activities to smaller, portable oxygen cylinders supporting patient care in our medical centers. Our goal is to provide next-day service for all gas orders.
What problem were you trying to solve with the Perfect Orders Project?
Like any new leader in an organization, I was going through the learning cycle. To me this means that first you learn what you and your team do. Then, you figure out how much you do. Finally, you learn how well you do its work. In our gas business line, we did not have a clear understanding of how well we were serving our customers. We created the “Perfect Order KPI Dashboard” to track how often we completed “perfect orders” — getting the right products in the right quantities delivered on time to our customers. We figured that if we knew our perfect order fulfillment rate, we’d know how well we were serving UCSF departments.
How has the dashboard helped?
We went from having no visible information about our success rate to having detailed metrics viewable by everyone on the team. We can better see problems in real-time, investigate delayed orders more quickly, and ultimately provide better service to department customers. When we first analyzed the data, we found “perfect orders” were as low as 45%. With increased visibility and focus, we are now trending closer to 90%!
Fill in the blank: Continuous improvement is _________.
Essential. For us, it’s got to be our way of life. In Logistics, “We Deliver Excellence” is our moniker. This project has given us confidence that we are on the right track.
What’s your favorite cookie jar treat?
Macarons. I’m more of a savory person, but I dig the colors, variety of flavors, and small size.