A systematic and strategic system for data collection management at Statistics Norway

1. A systematic and strategic system for data collection management at Statistics Norway Seminar on New Frontiers for Statistical Data Collection Geneva, Switzerland, 31 October-2 November 2012 Bengt Oscar Lagerstrøm, bol@ssb.no, Statistics Norway

2. Outline • Background • What is a action plan? • Use of action plans • Results • Conclusion/Further works

3. Background • Increasing emphasis on quality management • Total quality management, continuous quality improving, six sigma, and so forth • At the same time, our industry have experienced • Increased non response rates, and • (much) higher survey costs

4. Respons rates, Norway

5. Quality in data collection • ”Number of ton produced” • Number of interview started • Item non-response • ……. • Optimal planning • How many interviewers and when? • Reduction of non-scheduled stops • Organization of good flow

6. Lean philosophy • Is about • structuring, • operating, • controlling, • managing, and • continuously improving (our data collection)

7. Action plans and Lean • Purpose: Make a environment for • reducing costs • increase efficiencies, and • improve our products/statistics • How? • Reducing “waste” • “Only one time” • Organize and standardizes

8. Why action plans? • A tool for designing and manage data collection within an allocated resource limit • A tool to monitor that actions leads to better quality given a set of resources • Documentation • But most of all, a tool for making a (different) culture around a data collection • Improved competence through more systematically and strategic approaches

9. What is a action plan? • A description of the planning and implementation of the set of process that make a data collection • Quality indicators • Demming’s quality wheel (PDCA) • A preparation for both anticipated and unexpected challenges • A documentation • Of actions and results • A communication strategy • Who is responsible for what and when? • A monitoring system • indicators • A guidance • For next wave or a different survey

10. Action plans • Goals and key figures • Actions • Before and during the field period • What to do, when and who? • Indicators • response rate, • contact rate, • recruitment rate, • r-indicator etc.

11. Goal Mål 60% intervju (anslag på ca 25 avganger) , utvalg 2000, 16-79 år. Antall intervju 1200 Antall minutter:  11 minutter i gjennomsnitt.   

12. Actions before the field period starts

13. Actions during the field period, part 1

14. Actions during the field period, part 2

15. Indicators

16. Results, Omnibus • Shorter field period • from 6-7 weeks to 5 • Less interviewer hours • Standardized procedures • Steady state • No jumping!

17. Results, LFS • Shift in ‘mode’ between 2. and 3 quarter 2011 (from decentralized CATI to centralized CATI) • New challenges (questionnaire, contact strategies) • Standardized procedures • Steady state • No jumping!

18. Conclusions • Standards for planning, communication, reporting, correction, documentation and evaluation of the field period • Especially surveys with • less complexes structures, • few involvements (persons), or • high degree of repetitive actions • Further work • Look for more similar iterative processes in different surveys • Work more with the teams (communication and standardization) • Not only steady state, but also continuous improvement • Higher response rate • Lower bias • Lower cost

19. Thank you for your attention! Bengt Oscar Lagerstrøm, bol@ssb.no, Statistics Norway