The Records Storage Problem â?? Hoskin UniversityIntroductionPeter Smith, Assistant Director of Purc

The Records Storage Problem – Hoskin UniversityIntroductionPeter Smith, Assistant Director of Purchasing at Hoskin University returned to his office aftermeeting with the university archivist to talk about the potential requirement for outside storage ofthe records held by the various departments of the university. The meeting took place on aMonday morning and Smith asked for a few days to mull over the information provided and dosome quick research on the availability of potential suppliers, based on the requirements thearchivist had outlined.Hoskin UniversityHoskin University is a large multi-campus university in southern Ontario. Established in 1830under an act of provincial parliament it is currently world renowned for its academic programsand research activities. Hoskin University offers about 700 undergraduate programs inArchitecture.Commerce & ManagementComputer ScienceEngineeringHumanities & Social SciencesKinesiology & Physical EducationLife SciencesMusicPhysical & Mathematical SciencesThe university offers second entry professional programs inDentistryEducationLawMedicine.NursingPharmacyThe university also offers over 200 graduate and doctoral programs and over 50 professionalgraduate programs to its 75,000 students in its undergraduate and graduate programs. Hoskinis a large medical training facility and as such has affiliations/collaborations with hospitalsthrough the region. It also has affiliations with several secular colleges and operates 8 collegesof its own. Because of its reputation and affiliations, Hoskin and its affiliates generate about onebillion dollars in research revenue annually and in the past five years its research has created60 new companies. This activity and excellence consistently ranks Hoskin as one of the topNeil Bishop wrote this case It was prepared solely to provide teaching materials for class discussion. The writer does not intend toillustrate either effective or ineffective handling of a managerial situation. The writer may have disguised certain names and otheridentifying information to protect confidentiality. The authors may have disguised individual and company names and otheridentifying information to protect confidentiality.Reproduction by any means is not permitted without written consent of the Lawrence Kinlin School of Business at FanshaweCollege. To request permission to use contact Lawrence Kinlin School of Business, Fanshawe College, 1001 Fanshawe CollegeBlvd, London, ON N5Y 5R6Copyright © 2015, Neil Bishop and Lawrence Kinlin School of Business Fanshawe CollegeVersion: 14-06-20Page 2universities as indicated by international rankings, which makes it very appealing for not onlydomestic and international students, but also with researchers. Hoskin also has 14,000 Faculty,5,000 Teaching Assistants, 6,500 Administrative staff and 150 librarians at its three campuses.They operate 12 residences for students which can accommodate over 10,000 students. Theuniversity also has over forty libraries in its system, some specific to a discipline of study withover 25,000,000 volumes held.The main and oldest campus is located in the centre of the city with the two other campuseslocated approximately 50 kilometres east and west of the main campus. The total building countfor the university is 250, encompassing over 1.6 million square metres of space. The space isutilized as follows:UsagePercentageAdministrative5%Teaching and ResearchAcademic Services52%ClassroomsLaboratoriesLibraries10%Residences15%MiscellaneousArt & Exhibition Areas10%Common AreasMaintenance AreasStudent ServicesAthleticsBookstores8%Food ServicesHealth ServicesMerchandisingHoskin has students from around the world, as well as alumni numbering over 600,000 in over150 countries, with most of the alumni residing in North America and are very supportive of theuniversity fundraising activities.The annual operating budget for Hoskin University is two billion dollars and is estimated to havean economic impact to the Canadian economy of over 14,000,000,000 dollars annually.Purchasing Services DepartmentPurchasing Services at Hoskins University was created in 1949 as a centralized function tosupport the school. Like many organizations it selected its Purchasing team from internalcandidates, most without any formal education in Procurement, but it was felt that as long asthey did not cost the university much money they would be fine. As the university grew, so didthe Purchasing Services Department. Like purchasing in many large organizations it wasviewed as a “necessary evilâ€, that is it was viewed as a paper pushing bureaucratic operation,responsible for maintaining the records, but not always being a functional integrate part of thebuying process. Several of the large faculties/department felt they could do a better job andcreated their own areas to oversee this function as well as running inventory operations for theirspecific faculty.Page 3Purchasing Services, was not always respected and several of the long term managementemployees were considered to be hindrances, rather than supporters. This led to the “decentralized†functionality of Purchasing Services at Hoskins. Some of the decentralizationcaused friction as well, as specific faculties had preferred vendors and worked on a“reimbursement†program to ensure they remained as preferred. When the two new campusescame on board, buyers from Purchasing Services were appointed managers at the respectivecampuses, who were allowed to operate autonomously while remaining in contact with thecentralized department.Purchasing services also oversaw the Customs Service for the university, for all campuses. Italso had been the designed controller for the newer “Travel Programme†which was an attemptto control the expenditures in this area for all three campuses. As well Purchasing Services wasresponsible for the disposal of all non-facility related equipment.Inventory operations, which normally would fall under the jurisdiction of Purchasing Serviceswere handled by several areas of the university, some specific to faculties or large departmentsand a Facility Stores unit that supplied general use materials to all departments.The new Director of Purchasing had come from one of the larger faculties and had beeninstrumental in creating the same function within the faculty, therefore was felt to be the idealcandidate. He had been Director for about 4 years before hiring Peter Smith, and left within ayear of Smith being hired. He left to take the Directorship at a university in western Canada.Peter Smith was hired as the Assistant Director in the mid 1980’s to replace the Manager ofPurchasing who was retiring after 40 years of service to the university. Smith was selectedbecause of his education and ability to be a change agent that is he was hired to clean-up thedepartment. Smith had experience in the private sector in large organizations and his trackrecord should a clear ability to make changes. Smith was surprised at the change that occurredwithin the year of his arrival, when the Director left and all responsibility fell on to Smith’sshoulders.Just prior to Smith being hired, Purchasing Services had implemented a new in-house designedand created Purchasing System. This system was meant to take Purchasing services into thecomputer age and allow departments to electronically transmit there requirements for nonstocked items.When Smith took over, the structure of the department was as followsDirector of PurchasingAdministrativeAssistantAssistant Director ofPurchasing(Purchasing Manager)AdministrativeAssistantShared with Manager,AdministrationPurchasing OfficerFurniturePurchasing OfficerGeneralManager, CustomsServicesFiling ClerkPurchasing OfficerElectronics andComputersPurchasing AssistantManager,AdministrationCustoms AssistantPurchasing OfficerFacilities and MROPurchasing AssistantCustoms AssistantPurchasing OfficerResearch, Medical &ScientificPurchasing AssistantPurchasing AssistantPage 4One of the things that Smith believed in as part of the overall change process was that thedepartment had to increase its visibility, to do this he insisted on visiting all the departments inthe organization, including the two other campuses, to introduce not only himself, but theservices that the department could offer. This is how Smith became involved with the Archivistand their need for storage.The Storage DilemmaHoskins University has always maintained its records on campus. However with the growth ofthe university, including the addition of two campuses in the late 1960’s the demand for storagespace has grown to a point where it is not as convenient to store the archives on campus. Thishowever does not apply to all records, some of the materials stored require special handling andconsideration. The Archivist in the conversation with Petr Smith indicated that the records to beconsidered for this project were those that were related to the various departments andprogrammes within the university excluding those that required special handling andconsideration.Those records or archives that required special handling or consideration included documentsthat were historical in nature, often being the only copy available which could include transcripts,first edition books (rare editions) maps, speeches, incorporation documentation, thesis’s, andother fragile documentation. These documents needed specific conditions that includedsurveillance, temperature control and humidity control.For the other documentation that needed to be maintained, much of it indefinitely, there neededto be a Request for (RFX) created and Peter Smith needed to complete something to present tothe Archivist and their committee. As he started to examine his notes he realized that it would bebetter to involve members of his staff, which to him would provide training and show that thedepartment was working together as a team.He decided to call a meeting the next day with his staff and outline the basic requirements asprovided to him by the Archivist. He also decided that in this meeting he would request theirassistance in preparing a document that could be used for this project.AssignmentYou are taking on the role of the staff of Purchasing Services at Hoskins University and arerequired to prepare a RFX document for review and approval of Peter Smith.Some information you need regarding volumes is provided below.Each storage box is 1 cubic foot (12†x 12†x 12â€)(Records Storage box example)Sample VolumesFinancial ServicesLibrary SciencesPurchasing ServicesOffice of the President2,500 cubic feet100 cubic feet50 cubic feet20 cubic feetPage 5Archival Services50 cubic feetFaculty of Arts – Administration 50 cubic feet