The challenges and benefits of implementing strategic and tactical planning processes. Exploring how the principles of effective demand planning underpin a business’s strategy in meeting the needs of its stakeholders, employees and customers!

1. The Challenges & Benefits of Implementing
Strategic and Tactical Planning Processes and Tools
in Workforce Management

2. In this presentation
• Background to SEAMS
• Asset Management vs Workforce Management
• Strategic and Tactical Planning
– Problems
– Challenges
– Benefits
• Summary
2

3. Enable analytics & data to better inform decision making to
reduce cost, increase profit and balance risk to improve
corporate performance and return on investment
3
SEAMSBuilding Analytic Capability

4. Enable analytics & data to better inform decision making to
reduce cost, increase profit and balance risk to improve
corporate performance and return on investment
4
SEAMSBuilding Analytic Capability

5. Asset Management vs Workforce Management?
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Asset & Project Investment Decisions Dashboard
Management
Accounts
Strategic Asset
Management System
(ERP/EAM/Works
Management/Asset Register)
Financial and
Accounting System
Real-time Data
Capture
Geographical
Information
System (GIS)
Field Force /
Mobile Workers
Ad-hoc
Spreadsheets
and Databases
Asset risk model
in MS Access
Spreadsheet
deterioration
model
Reg. depreciation
register as
document
Condition
forecasting
bespoke app.
Copy
Copy
Copy
Copy
Copy

6. The Problems – In the words of the Market
• Water Company
– Discontent with current scheduling system so planning upgrade
– Increase in backlog of events that impacts customer service
– Overuse of contractors leading to increase in cost
– Peaky demand that needed smoothing (proactive vs reactive)
– Struggling to achieve efficiency targets in operations
• Gas Distribution Network
– Geographic location of gangs inefficient
– A lack of succession planning and training for skills
• Facility Management
– Contracts not being run efficiently
– Taking on too many unprofitable contracts
– Getting hit with penalties due to inefficient resource allocation
– A realisation of a lack of strategic planning and forecasting
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7. The Challenge – Analytics Terminology
7

8. The Challenge – Analytics Tool Landscape
8
Most Field Force Dispatch
Click
Tableau
Cliq
Business Objects

9. Supply and Demand Balance
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People
Hours
Skills
Location
...
Tasks
Duration
Materials
Location
...
Demand Supply
Optimisation
Resource & skills profile
Deployment locations
Training needs & succession
External contractor
requirements
Timing of works
Efficient skills deployment
Balanced reactive vs. proactive
Planned seasonal impacts
Reactive
Incidents, accidents, failures
Pro-active
Replace, Maintain, Plan
Responsive

10. The Benefits – Forward Planning
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11. The Benefits – Our findings
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12. So why is everyone not doing it?
• It often gets put in here
• Leads organisations into the perilous trap…
1. Try do something quick and easy in Excel to “test” value
2. Do this with someone who is not strategic and struggles with analytics
3. No processes put in place to support strategic planning
4. Spreadsheet ends up being of no use and gets lost on C drive
5. Company concludes strategic planning is worthless/limited so don’t
bother progressing further
6. Upgrade to next version of job scheduling tool as we understand that
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The “Too Hard” Box

13. Is my data good enough?
• It is easy to point at data and say it isn’t good enough as an excuse
for doing nothing
• You will be surprised at how much improvement you can get in your
decision making from the smallest amounts of data
• You can wait forever for the perfect data and never move forward
• Let your decision making processes drive your data improvement,
not the other way around
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14. Summary
• Relatively untapped cost and performance efficiencies
• Pitfalls to be aware of and avoid
• Significant challenges
• The benefits make it a worthwhile challenge
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15. 15
Questions?