Streamlining the Workflow at the Undergraduate Admissions Area

The undergraduate admissions office at Binghamton University (BU) is in the process of streamlining the overall application processing in order to account for larger volumes of applications. The identification of bottlenecks in the workflow within the application processing area is a critical aspect that needs to be considered.

The objective of this study was to identify the modifications to the existing workflow of application processing in order to reduce the application turnaround time, 'optimize' the utilization of resources, and maximize throughput of the applications processed. Also, additional recommendations have been tested and presented in order to further maximize the aforementioned performance measures.

Several key suggestions were presented and validated using simulation techniques. These include re-allocation of the filing area, new filing protocol for decided applications, decision support systems, and resource planning for peak periods. The proposed recommendations and the forecasting model would concomitantly reduce the application processing time along with the efficient usage of resources.