£1.3M increase in productivity for A2 Dominion
Housing
Results & ROI
An increase in productivity to the equivalent of £1.3 million across the group.
The client
A2Dominion Group was formed in 2008, as a result of a merger, to create an organisation with financial strength and resources to deliver more homes and better services to customers. The group now provide 34,000 home in London and southern England with thousands more in development.
The challenge
Repairing the group’s properties is a substantial task, given the number, variety, age and geographical spread of their stock. Connaught was their sole provider of reactive property repairs, but unfortunately went into administration and ceased trading, leaving A2Dominion and its customers in a precarious situation. The group reacted rapidly, taking control of the contact centre where repairs were reported and engaging 3 interim property contractors. Whilst this ensured a continued service, it was not long before high levels of failure demand and complaints showed all was not as it should be and created a stressful situation for staff, contractors and residents. The group and its 3 contractors engaged us to apply Lean to stabilise the current service before designing their future operating model.
The approach
The review consisted of 2 steps – a diagnostic to analyse the current state, and redesign, which included process stabilisation and future operating model design.
Diagnostic
Analysis showed the contact centre was receiving 600 calls a days, 57% of which was failure demand. Additionally, the Customer Experience Team was receiving 200 repairs related complaints per month. Mapping found the process was overly complex with high levels of over-processing and rework. The KPIs in place were distorting behaviours and at that stage there was a backlog of 2000 repairs.
Redesign
Root cause analysis, load and capacity analysis and daily operational planning were used to stabilise performance. The current state analysis was used to develop 2 new processes – an interim future state for the remainder of the contract and a longer-term future operating model.
The benefits
A 102-point improvement plan was implemented to stabilise the situation. Benefits achieved included a 60% reduction in failure demand within 2 months and the backlog of repairs tasks (emails) reduced from 1100 to 28. The outcome was an increase in resident satisfaction from circa 20% to 96%. Additionally, internal Lean champions were provided with mentoring and practical Lean training to ensure knowledge transfer and a confidence boosting learn-by-doing approach to their development.
“We were impressed by Ad Esse’s approach, and in particular the consultant’s ability to engage with all parties and get them to focus on the outcome, and their part in the overall process. The holistic approach has paid dividends, and all parties are seeing operational and financial benefits from the project.”
David Lingeman | Group Director of Property Services