MBF 2133 Operations Management

Assignment 2 - Case Study 1

Re-inventing Singapore’s Libraries

By Professors Robert Johnston, Warwick Business School, Chai Kah Hin and Jochen Wirtz, National
University of Singapore, and Christopher Lovelock, Yale University.

The National Library Board (NLB) in Singapore oversees the management of the national,
reference, regional, com- munity and children’s libraries, as well as over 30 libraries belonging to
government agencies, schools and private institutions. Over the last 15 years the NLB has
completely changed the nature of libraries in Singapore and its work has been used as a blueprint
for many other libraries across the world. Yet it was not always like this. In 1995 libraries in
Singapore were traditional, quiet places full of old books where you went to study or borrow books
if you could not afford to buy them. There were long queues to have books stamped or returned
and the staff seemed unhelpful and unfriendly. But today, things are very different. There are cafés
in libraries to encourage people to come in, browse and sit down with a book, and libraries in
community centres (putting libraries where the people are). The NLB has developed specialist
libraries aimed at children, libraries in shopping malls aimed at attracting busy 18–35-year-olds
into the library while they are shop ping. There are libraries dedicated to teenagers, one of the most
difficult groups to entice into the library. These have even been designed by the teenagers
themselves so they include drinks machines, cushions and music systems. The library also hosts a
wide range of events from mother and baby reading sessions to rock concerts to encourage a wide
range of people into the library.

‘We started this journey back in 1995 when Dr Christopher Chia was appointed as Chief
Executive. Looking back, we were a very traditional public service. Our customers used words
like “cold” and “unfriendly”, though, in fairness, our staff were working under great pressure to
deal with the long queues for books and to answer enquiries on library materials posed by our
customers. Christopher Chia and his team made a study of the problems, undertook surveys and ran
focus groups. They then began to address the challenges with vision and imagination through the
application of the project management methodology and the innovative use of technology. Staff
involvement and contribution was key to the success of the transformation. We knew where we wanted
to go, and were committed to the cause.’ (Ms Ngian Lek Choh, the Deputy Chief Executive and
Director of the National Library)

Underpinning many of the changes was the NLB’s innovative use of technology. It was the first
public library in the world to prototype radio-frequency identification (RFID) to create its Electronic
Library Management System (ELiMS). RFID is an electronic system for automatically identifying
items. It uses RFID tags, or transponders, which are contained in smart labels consisting of a silicon
chip and coiled antenna. They receive and respond to radio-frequency queries from an RFID
transceiver, which enables the remote and automatic retrieval, storing and sharing of information.
RFID tags are installed in its 10 million books making it one of the largest users of the technology
in the world. Customers spend very little time queuing, with book issuing and returns automated.
Indeed books can be returned to any of the NLB’s 24-hour book drops (which look a bit like
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ATM machines) where RFID enables not only fast and easy returns but also fast and easy sorting.
The NLB has also launched a mobile service via SMS (text messaging). This allows users to
manage their library accounts anytime and anywhere through their mobile phones. They can check
their loan records, renew their books, pay library payments, and get reminder alerts to return library
items before the due-date.

Improving its services meant fully understanding the Library’s customers. Customers were
studied using surveys and focus groups to understand how the library added value for customers,
how customers could be segmented, the main learning and reading motivators, and people’s
general reading habits. And feedback from customers, both formal and informal, is an important
source of design innovation – as are ideas from staff. Everyone in NLB, from the chief executive
to the library assistant is expected to contribute to work improvement and innovations. So much
so that innovation has become an integral part of NLB’s culture, leading to a steady stream of both
large and small innovations. In order to facilitate this, the chief executive holds ‘express-o’
sessions discussions with staff. He also has a strategy called ‘ask stupid questions’ (ASQ) which
encourages staff to challenge what is normally accepted. Dr Varaprasad, the chief executive
commented, ‘In my view there are no stupid questions there are only stupid answers! What we try
to do is engage the staff by letting them feel they can ask stupid questions and that they are entitled
to an answer.’

The NLB also makes use of small improvement teams to brainstorm ideas and test them out with
colleagues from other libraries across the island. Good ideas attract financial rewards from S$5 to
$1,000. One such idea was using a simple system of coloured bands on the spines of books
(representing the identification number of each book) which make it much easier to shelve the books
in the right places and also spot books that have been misplaced by customers. Staff are also
encouraged to travel overseas to visit other libraries to learn about how they use their space, their
programmes and collections, attend and speak at conventions and also visit very different
organizations to get new ideas. The automatic book return for example was an idea borrowed and
modified from the Mass Rapid Transport stations in Hong Kong where, with the flash of a card, the
user is identified and given access across the system. NLB applied a similar line of thought for
seamless check-in and check-out of books and a return anywhere concept. NLB harvests ideas from
many different industries including logistics, manufacturing, IT and supermarkets. However, some
elements of NLB’s improvement process have changed. In the early days their approach to
implementing ideas was informal and intuitive. It is now much more structured. Now, each good
idea that comes forward is managed as a project, starting with a ‘proof of concept’ stage which
involves selling the idea to management and checking with a range of people that the idea seems
feasible. Then the services or processes are re-engineered, often involving customers or users. The
new concepts are then prototyped and piloted allowing managers to gather customer feedback to
enable them to assess, refine and, if appropriate, develop them for other sites.

Questions

1. How would the culture of NLB have changed in order for it to make such improvements?
2. Where did the ideas for improvement originate? And how did NLB encourage improvement
ideas?
3. Why, do you think, has the improvement process become more systematic over the years?
4. What could be the biggest challenges to NLB’s improvement activities in the future?
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