FW: Benchmarking Rostering and Manpower Planning

[Bob Adsett <bob.adsett@lineone.net>]

Jo

I have been working in the UK with the public sector on the Government's
Best Value programme. One of the major concerns that I have with this
initiative is the preoccupation with comparisons between local authorities
(the programme is devised to deliver continuous improvement using what is
called the 4 'C's Compare, Challenge, Consult, Compete).

Part of this evaluation review involves comparing or benchmarking that IMHO
is sadly a waste of time, despite the fact that these organisations are set
up to deliver similar services to their customers (communities), there are
no meaningful comparisons based upon outputs that I believe can be drawn -
it is like trying to compare apples with potatoes.
Neither do these indicators give any insights to the capacity of an
authority to improve (which is what we should be interested in discovering).
Establishing a benchmarked position on a league table may appear to have
some value but I believe, to steal a phrase from Tom Johnson, "it is poor
science based upon fallacious logic". So the message I have about
benchmarking, to use a railways analogy, you are in danger of passing an
amber light - 'proceed with extreme caution'.

In local authorities significant time and resources are wasted every year
across the country comparing Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)  but these
are related to outputs (comparisons of the targets used by organisations
wedded to Management by Objectives [MBO]) and this tell you nothing about
the effectiveness or efficiency of the processes that are in use.
What managers need to understand is that we will only be able to deliver
sustainable and profitable businesses when we move away from MBO to replace
this paradigm with "Management By Means " (MBM). By appreciating that
outputs are the 'product' of processes and not the primary purpose of the
organisation. 
The role of the organisation is to satisfy the customers/consumers and to
increase shareholder value through the delivery of a quality service - these
are NOT contradictory aims.

The danger of using targets as a basis for comparisons is that they work
against your organisation's own system and can push up cost by increasing
inefficiencies elsewhere due to sub-optimisation.
You will need to take care when looking at "manpower planning for our
frontline teams, e.g train drivers, train managers  and catering teams"
because the problems that you are trying to address may only be the effects
of problems caused upstream in your operation and therefore any proposed
solutions may not actually impact on the the underlying causes.

Such an approach would keep you very busy (fire-fighting) but will not
support continual improvement and the benefits this approach will bring. To
further complicate the situation these causes or constraints to better
performance may be separated from the effects you see by time as well as
geographic space. No one said this task is easy!

Furthermore, the actual solutions may be outside the immediate area under
consideration, and to quote Myron Tribus "Put good people into a bad system
and the system will win every time". As over 85% of the time organisational
problems are caused by the system (processes and procedures) - this is where
most effort should be targeted - following the Pareto Principle, 80% of the
benefit flow from 20% of the effort, the skill will be to be able to
identify the leverage points in your organisation that can work with you to
progress to a more efficient business. As you will gather there is a lot can
and should be explored in this area alone.

To return to benchmarking, in my mind it does not matters where Virgin
Trains are relative to other companies, provided you start to put in place
the changes that can support continual improvement, then you will stand a
significant chance of out pacing them over time. Beating yourselves up by
trying to compare your performance to others will only work against what you
are trying to achieve - you already have the impetus for change, that is the
fuel you need to work with.
I would tentatively suggest that one of the salient factors will be how
Virgin Trains are perceived by it's customers - they are the only valid
arbiters of the service you deliver, and it is these individuals that you
need to retain and grow to improve your profitability.

When looking at other organisation for inspiration it is important to
recognise that what we 'see' is the expression or manifestation of the
principles and values that exist in that company and the processes that they
use. 
I believe that trying to copy others' success is not readily transferable,
or replicable. The processes they use however (because they are the means
and not the ends) may have a value in an evaluation of what works elsewhere
(for example your comments on World Class) and it is this that may be
modified and incorporated into what Virgin Trains are trying to achieve.


-- 
Bob Adsett
11 Fernbank Drive
Bingley, Yorkshire
UK BD16 4HB

Tel. +44 (0) 1274 779 502          Mobile +44 (0) 7980 85 22 34