Archived decisions

Hampshire Fire & Rescue Authority

Performance Review Committee

20^th June 2007

Annual Performance & Activity of Workshops 2006/07

Report of Chief Officer

1

Summary

1.1

This report was requested by the Performance Review Committee as part of the recommendations from the Best Value Review of the HFRS Vehicle Workshops. The report summarises the Workshops performance and includes efficiency savings made between April 2006 and March 2007.

2

Recommendations

2.1

The Performance Review Committee accept the findings of this report and acknowledge the improvement in the Workshops performance during 2006/07.

2.2

The Performance Review Committee request a similar report is produced for 2007/08.

3

Introduction

3.1

The following report looks at all aspects of the Workshop operation and highlights the Workshops performance in the key areas of its operation and the efficiency savings made during 2006/07. It also includes the future direction the Workshop Management Team intend to take to ensure continued performance improvements in 2007/8.

3.2

The Best Value Review of the Vehicle Workshops recommended a number of Performance Indicators for Workshops to measure improvement in its performance. These Performance Indicators now set the benchmark for measuring the Workshops annual performance in key areas (see Appendix 1).

4

Workshop productivity

4.1

Productive hours have fallen by 2,408 hours in 2006/07 compared to 2005/06. This has not affected the overall performance as the amount of work completed has increased. The reasons for fall in productive hours are as follows:

4.1

Overtime

4.1.1

Due to improved work practices the need to use overtime to achieve workload has reduced. The major time saver has been the changes made to three month station servicing. An Allied Trade technician and an engineering technician are sent together to complete a service. The Allied Trade technician assists the engineering technician when required, but also carries out a series of preventative maintenance tasks to the vehicle. This has impacted on efficiency in three ways:

· The previously deployed engineering technician is available to carry out other maintenance tasks.

· The recorded time taken to carry out the 3 month safety service has reduced as the Allied Trade technician only records the time he assists the engineering technician.

· The result of the preventative maintenance seems to be reducing the number of defects the Workshop attend outside of normal maintenance.

4.1.2

The overtime savings were anticipated at the start of the year and the planned overtime budget for 2006/07 was reduced from over £30,000 to under £11,000. This resulted in the revised budget being in surplus by £1,000 at the end of the financial year.

4.2

Out of hours defects

4.2.1

The recorded time for attending out of hours defects has fallen by 639 hours. The main reason for this is the overall reduction in the number of defects for 2006/07. This has not helped the Workshop productivity ratio as the hours available to work has reduced and the overhead cost of providing the out of hours service has remained the same. This is because Workshop technicians are paid an annual allowance to cover out of hours defects and not overtime.

4.3

Non productivity

4.3.1

Workshop non productivity has increased from 4624 hours in 2005/6 to 5119 hours in 2006/07. However, if sickness absence was removed from both figures non productivity would have fallen by 414 hours. The Workshop Manager has met with Occupational Health and Human Resources to discuss sickness absence and possible measures to help reduce the Workshop sickness levels.

4.3.2

A union led stress survey of Workshop personnel identified a number of issues that were causing staff work related stress. To address these issues a number of training sessions have taken place over the last six months to identify the cause of these issues and Workshop personnel are now actively working together to reduce stress levels in the workplace.

4.4

Princes Trust secondment

4.4.1

An engineering technician successfully applied to lead a team for the Princes Trust. HFRS has a working partnership with the Trust and draws on fire personnel to lead teams over a five month period. The technician used the experience to develop his leadership and teamwork skills which have been of benefit to the Workshop.

5

Major Servicing

5.1

The Workshop fulfilled the Fleet Manager's planned servicing schedule for 2006/07. The average time spent by Workshop technicians servicing HFRS vehicles has significantly reduced during 2006/07. The average servicing times of 19 separate service types have been reviewed for 2007/08, and the target times for 17 of them will be reduced, while the remaining 2 stay the same (see Appendix 2 and LPI 83).

5.2

The Workshop line managers will use the PDRS meetings to review Workshops and individual performances for 2006/07 with all Workshop personnel. Appropriate development and/or training will be discussed that will help the individual to achieve agreed improvement targets. Identifying possible individual improvements will improve the Workshops overall performance.

6

Defects

6.1

The overall number of defects fell during 2006/07 by 662 following preventative maintenance measures introduced during the year, which has improved vehicle availability.

6.2

The Workshop has met the very stringent targets set for all categories in both attending and completing defects for 2006/07. There was a steady improvement throughout the year as the Workshop Management Team changed the Workshop routines to meet the needs in this area of the Workshops operation. Category 1 defects (2 hours to attend and complete repairs) will always be the most demanding especially `out of hours' (LPI 81 - LPI 82biii ).

6.3

The Workshop Management Team will look at the success of introducing preventative maintenance as part of the three month safety service and trial other preventative maintenance programmes using the labour savings made from the overall Workshop operation.

7

Customer Satisfaction

7.1

The customer satisfaction forms that have been returned show the Workshop is performing at good or satisfactory with a small number being returned with a poor mark (LPI 84 - LPI 84c).

7.2

The return ratio of the customer satisfaction forms is less than 50% and the Management Team have questioned whether this is the best way to assess how well the Workshop is meeting the needs of all its customers. The Workshop Management Team will look at other ways of developing communication between HFRS stations and the Workshop. However, the satisfaction forms will continue to be sent out after a vehicle has received its major service or other major work completed at the Workshop.

8

Non HFRS work

8.1

This area of the Workshop operation has become an efficient way of utilising the Workshops spare capacity and reducing the Workshops annual cost to the HFRS. The work carried out in 2006/07 produced an income of over £66,000.

9

Workshop Annual Budget

9.1

The Workshops planned annual budget of £1,225,000 for 2006/07 had a surplus of £119,000. This was mainly due to the income received from the increased number of HFRS vehicles the Workshop was asked to fit-out and the additional income generated by non HFRS Work.

9.2

The Workshop Management Team is actively looking at ways to reduce Workshop expenditure and members of staff have visited other similar Workshops facilities and identified possible ideas that can be introduced immediately or when the Workshop operation moves to Eastleigh.

9.3

This year all Workshop personnel have been encouraged to share ideas they have to improve the Workshop performance and a number of ideas are now being developed.

9.4

The new Workshop facility will offer the possibility of improving several areas of the Workshop operation. However, the move to Eastleigh will come towards the end of 2007/08 and any benefit from the move will not be seen until 2008/09.

10

Work Planning

10.1

The Best Value Review recommended that the Workshop improve its planning methods and identify potential workloads for the forthcoming year together with an estimate of resources available to meet the plan. It was decided that Microsoft project would be an appropriate tool to develop the plan.

10.2

A member of the Workshop Management Team was assigned to this project and received training on Microsoft project. After extensive training it was apparent that the high number of person hours required to feed information into the plan severely affected Workshops capacity. The Workshop Management Team agreed this was not the appropriate tool and made the decision to stop using Microsoft Project. Another solution is now being investigated with the Information Systems Manager.

11

Conclusion

11.1

The Workshop has improved its performance significantly in 2006/07 largely due to implementing the changes in work practice recommended in the Best Value Review. The Workshop performance targets helped to focus the Workshop Management Team on the important areas of the Workshops operation. Steady continual improvement is the Workshops Management Team's goal and the key areas identified for improvement for 2007/8 are:-

· Reduction in Workshop non-productivity

· Reduction in major servicing target times

· Reduction in the total number of defects

12

Equality Impact Assessment

12.1

The proposals within this report are considered compatible with the provisions of the European Convention on Human Rights, the Human Rights Act 1998, and the Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000.

13

Background information (Section 100D of Local Government Act 1972)

13.1

The following documents disclose the facts or matters on which this report, or an important part of it, is based and has been relied upon to a material extent in the preparation of the report:

Appendix 1 - Workshop Performance Indicators

Appendix 2 - Service Target Times

Note: The list excludes: (1) published works; and (2) documents that disclose exempt or confidential information defined in the Act.