Over £35K worth of time saved at Johnnie Johnson
Housing
Results & ROI
- An improved voids process has resulted in void rent loss reducing by 14% with other significant changes yet to be implemented
- Reduced waste in the voids process set to achieve a time saving to the equivalent of 1 FTE
- Moving to a longer cycle for gas servicing has led to a 9% decrease in cost, with a plan to deliver a further 16% decrease – saving circa £13,000 initially, increasing to £23,500 recurring
- An improved repairs process will result in a time saving to the equivalent of 2 FTE (over £35,000) as well as a significant decrease on repairs cost
The client
Johnnie Johnson Housing Trust (JJHT) is a small housing association, with 5000 properties, formed by wartime veteran Johnnie Johnson. Despite being small, JJHT operates across a large geographic area. With a view to adopting a Lean culture, JJHT engaged us to support a review of their Asset Management Department.
The challenge
Following an inspection by the Housing & Communities Agency, JJHT embarked on an organisation-wide transformation programme to improve. This and the growing pressure arising from substantial reductions in rental income, led to the Trust making significant changes to their structure and to reducing resources. The Trust recognised they needed to create and embed a culture of continuous improvement and to continue finding ways to deliver more effective and efficient, value-adding services with a reduced resource. Work began with a review of the Trust’s Asset Management Department.
The approach
The Lean review covered the whole of Asset Management – responsive repairs, planned maintenance, cyclical works and voids, and was split into three phases. A diagnostic was followed by redesign and implementation of the new process and changes in activity to support this new process.
Diagnostic
Most processes were functioning well, but we did find many areas for improvement. The key issues were: significant variation in how processes were operated, poor case management for non-standard demand and concerns around system integration and performance data.
Redesign
Redesigned all processes to establish improved ways of working. This included removal of waste steps and standardising the process.
Implementation
An implementation plan to deliver the new process was created, Information Centres set up and we worked with a system developer to specify system changes.
The benefits
The review enabled us to increase focus on the customer by removing unnecessary approvals and hand-offs that previously meant the customer was forced to wait. As well as this we delivered a project objective of creating standardised processes across the different regions; JJHT fed back that our approach enabled them to more critically challenge what they should do to get better. By developing more effective measures, visualised on Information Centres, we embedded an on-going scrutiny of processes to drive continuous improvement.
“I thought this was a very interesting piece of work, it made us step back and review what we were doing, even if we thought what we were already doing was good, this challenged us and made us think.”
Ian Thomson, Executive Director