The undergraduate student retention rate at the School of Engineering, Suranaree University of Technology, declined from 79.23% in the 2022 academic year to 73.41% in 2023. Risk analysis indicated that this issue was primarily associated with students having a Cumulative Grade Point Average (GPAX) below 2.00. To address this problem, the School requires low-performing students to meet with academic advisors prior to course registration. However, the existing paper-based advising process resulted in delayed submissions, excessive processing time, and inefficient data retrieval. The objective of this study was to improve the academic advising process for students with GPAX below 2.00, reduce administrative workload, and enhance convenience for students and faculty members. Lean principles were applied to identify operational waste, supported by Pareto charts and fishbone diagrams for problem and root cause analysis. Process improvement was conducted using the ECRS principles, along with the development of an online database and web-based system for recording advising information.  Results showed that the processing time per task was reduced from 6,900 seconds to 3,540 seconds, representing a 49.69% reduction. In addition, 86.60% of students reported satisfaction and perceived the advising process as beneficial.

Keywords

ECRS, Productivity Improvement, 7WASTES, Lean Management