Too much work, and not enough resource capacity is a common mantra across all water companies. Inevitably, some work will not get done. So what work should be done (in-house or otherwise)? What should be postponed? What should be canned?

Typically low priority routine maintenance work is not completed, but the choices are not always that straightforward:

• Reactive Customer work or High Priority Maintenance?
• Asset Alarm response or High Priority Maintenance?
• Leakage Detection or Reactive Customer Work?
• High Priority Health and Safety Inspection or Asset Alarm Response?
• Time Constrained Inspection Activities or Reactive Customer Work?

In the distant past, local Operational Managers would make that call. The last 10-15 years have seen many water companies move to a more centralised control of work and use of scheduling tools. In either mode, at best the decisions made by Operational Managers or by the Centre were reasonably aligned to corporate strategy, business drivers and operational needs, at worst he who shouts loudest prevails!

In theory, corporate strategy and agreed business drivers should set the rules against which work and resources delivery plans are made, and form the basis for decision-making in scheduling. In pragmatic terms, how good is the alignment of corporate strategy / business drivers to day-to-day operational decisions regarding resource allocation and work prioritisation?

Ask yourself some questions:

• Are current corporate strategies and agreed business drivers reflected in operational business plans?
• Is the business plan used as a recurring point of reference?
• Is the business plan monitored and updated through the year?
• Is the business plan submitted, and then put on the shelf to gather dust?
• Is the business plan aligned to the forward planning of work and resources? This assumes that forward planning of work and resources is in place.
• Does your work prioritisation schema (P1, P2, P3, P4, etc), and association to types of work reflect what’s important to your business? Does all work have a relative priority?
• Do the business rules relating to the management of resources (ring-fencing, cross-boundary / cross-process working, use of contractors) reflect business plan imperatives?
• How confident are you that your business drivers / desired outcomes stated in your business plan are aligned to the rules set in your scheduling tool?

To help answer any of these questions and improve your operational delivery get in touch with us.