I think, therefore I print

Deakin University has for all of its existence supplied its distance education students with packs of printed course material. Despite the growth of online education the demand for printed material continues to grow. Faced with the challenge of improving processes Deakin University has turned to a process mapping model and ithink software to help it dynamically model internal processes allowing for the monitoring of demand shifts to see when and where tension is occurring in the system. The software allows the user to modify resource allocations to graphically observe where and when the ‘bottle-necks’ and capacity gaps are occurring and to perform a series of ‘what-if’ scenarios to address these capacity issues. These results are then allowing the University to work out where the ‘sticking points’ are and to improve resource allocation and processes. While the printing part of the course materials development process has been the pilot, the University expects to model all course material development processes, including hard copy, multimedia and online, using the ithink software.<br />