WASTE MANAGEMENT
Cutting the cost of waste collection W
aste and recycling departments are facing the
same budgetary constraints as everyone else in local government with tight budgets having to go even further. Fuel costs are continuing their long term upward trend ahead of general inflation and pressure to reduce carbon emissions mounts. All this is happening against a backdrop of increasingly sophisticated collection services as councils try to capture as much recyclable material as possible to hold down disposal costs.
Whilst emptying bins appears to be a simple process, the pace of change in the last decade has been immense. Local authorities have been driven to implement multiple collections including different types of recycling, nappies, food waste and garden waste.
Together with alternate weekly collections and development of more sophisticated enforcement policies, this has made operational planning and service management much more complex. Little by little the processes in waste departments have evolved, often with each initiative bringing another form, another spreadsheet and another line of reporting.
A thorough examination of key processes and fresh look at both what the service does and how it does it can identify substantial cost savings by cutting out manual administration and lengthy communication cycles.
Technology which is now commonplace in most utility companies, such as electronic
50 pse
billing, mobile working and digital fleet management can bring significant benefits in isolation. When introduced strategically as part of more fundamental process improvements, the savings can be even more substantial.
Computerised systems are now essential for waste managers. Myriad spreadsheets and paper- based reporting methods cannot provide the rich information and analysis that drive good decisions and do not add value to the operation. Experienced systems-providers can guide councils in implementing straightforward processes that reduce administrative effort and give tight control of assets and costs.
Take, as an example, duty of care notes. This mandatory document must be provided annually to commercial waste clients and received back with a valid signature. Issuing the paperwork, mailing it out and receiving it back is an innocuous task which forms part of the regular admin in a busy waste department.
A relatively simple analysis of
the activity, however, paints a starker picture. Manual processing of these notes can soak up as much as an entire month of administration time! It was not difficult to conceive a redesigned process in which the duty of care note is automatically printed (or e- mailed) and includes a barcode to speed up receipt back. This significantly improves the workflow to only one or two days of administrative effort. This is a significant improvement with a very rapid payback time.
However, a more complete understanding of the process of signing-up a commercial customer can lead to a far more substantial change. Rather than computerising the existing duty of care note process, it is beneficial to look at why it exists at all.
Taking it is a key component of the wider process of starting new annual contracts leads to a redesigned approach which
FOR MORE INFORMATION
Tim Hobbs T: 01226 209209 E:
thobbs@bartec-systems.com W:
www.bartec-systems.com
Jul/Aug 10
not only takes the duty of care note administration to virtually nil and eliminates all postal costs, but also drives out parallel administrative effort relating to bin deliveries, health and safety assessments and contract management.
This ‘joined up’ analysis not only cuts out costs but also speeds up service delivery.
Of course, business processes extend beyond the waste department into the call centre, finance, procurement and GIS to name but a few. Effective inter- departmental communications powered by joined up computer systems can eliminate swathes of administration.
Mobile working systems in frontline vehicles are becoming commonplace and driving new levels of automation, with each bin lift automatically updating and optimising round plans, creating invoices and updating CRM records.
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