Benchmarking Benchmarking


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Management Services Spring 2012


know to be the ‘upper level of demand’, explaining that demand varies, but is broadly stable and predictable and, so to ensure they can meet all tenants’ requirements; they, in effect, keep an excess of tradesman resource.


My prediction is that the conventional thinker would gloss over phrases like


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‘upper level’ predictability and so on, being unable to fi nd questions to illuminate something that is foreign and, in any event, the rev tra his


mean high costs.


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27


revelation that an excess of tradesmen will have caught his attention and fuelled his ass


you don’t want guys carrying things around that cost money and don’t get used. And then you’d see the tradesman fi nish the job and ask the tenant if anything else needs doing – and then you’d see him just get right on and do it. No job ticket, no instructions, nothing. If something needs doing that he can’t do, the tradesman will use the call-handlers in the centre to get the right man there to solve the problem during the same visit, meaning less inconvenience for the tenant.


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If your visit then moves on to going out with tradesmen as they go to do the repairs, you would see, fi rst of all, that they always get in (well you would, with excess resource and pandering to tenants) and then you would witness the tradesman calling in to say how long he was going to take to complete the repair. “You’ve got to be kidding,” would be the fi rst emotional response. This is putting the amount of time spent on jobs in the control of the worker; it could only mean that tradesmen will be encouraged to take their time or spend time drinking tea. If it is a job that requires materials not kept in the tradesman’s van, you’ll see him call in to order materials and you’ll hear him being asked when he’d like it delivered. More control to the worker, this is something like a holiday camp.


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The one thing that would get you excited, if your tradesman talked about it, would be the fact that tradesmen now carry much less van stock, saving about 65% of material costs for items carried. It is something you’ve always believed in;


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Issue of control If you are a conventional manager, by now you’d be having a fi t of the out-of- control variety. You’d be wondering if the managers have lost their marbles, you’d be very concerned about whether the managers running this service have any control of their tradesmen and their costs. If you engage the tradesman in a conversation about the materials that are being delivered, you may learn that management worries about availability not unit cost; so they will often pay more for things they need at short notice. Unbelievably bonkers. Maybe, by now, the day is over and you join your colleagues for the journey home. Sharing your observations from the day, someone will, at some time, realise that the thing missing was the schedule of rates, something all housing repairs organisations use to control costs. But, by now, you are up the road and there is no one to ask about where it had got to. You all really liked the fact that van stocks were minimised, but you hadn’t had the time to fi nd out how they did it; in any event, you think you know how to do


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