Service Analysis
Scope of Works – What does success look like?
Establishing baseline data for the current service is critical in understanding the base on which to build change. The attached databank can assisting in gathering useful information to make informed decisions.
(Download the Databank template)
Service Analysis
The SWOT and PESTLE analysis techniques are useful tools for identifying commercial growth opportunities or drawing out where your current issues are. Exploring the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats can be a good way to understand the current service and the wider landscape. An alternative view can be gained by scoping the different issues that might be relevant under the political, economic, social, technological, legal and environmental framings. Both techniques help to build a vision of the current service and identify drivers for change.
From the SWOT and PESTLE action plans, mitigation measures can be explored.
(Download the SWOT and PESTLE analysis template)
Process Mapping
A useful tool is to process map the various aspects of the commercial waste service. By looking at the “as-is” model and comparing with a desired future process (“to be” state), a better understanding of the service and required changes can be established.
Process mapping visually represents a workflow, allowing a team to understand a process and its components more clearly. It can be surprising how complex organically grow services can become and until these are written down, solutions may not be evident. Coupled with the data gathering, it can help to identify processes that can be streamlined or highlight the pinch points in the service that are creating issues.
Recommended processes to capture are:
- the customer journey from initial contact through to service delivery
- how the money flows from customer to authority, including the proportion of unpaid invoices (bad debt)
- operational flow from contract to collections.
Do not forget to include interlinkages such as call centres, delivery teams, crews and stock control.
Resource And Operational Requirements
Skills Mapping
Whilst waste management staff have considerable skills to offer, these may not necessarily be commercially focused as this has not been required in traditional front line service delivery. Often the skillsets required for a more commercially focused commercial waste service require additional levels of understanding in profit and loss accounting, marketing and business development.
By determining the current skills, capabilities and capacities within the team, an assessment of future need can be developed, providing opportunities for upskilling and personal development.
To help LAs assess the likely commercial skills required to support commercial and trading activity, a detailed skills matrix has been developed. This can be adapted to meet the needs of your service as each authority has different demands and types of service. It covers generic skills that are likely to be required at an operational level.
(Download the Skills Mapping template)
(Download the Skills Mapping guidance sheet)
Although any gaps could be filled by making new appointments, commercial capabilities can be delivered by:
- Using skills already available within the LA
- Training staff
- Shadowing and development plans
- Bringing in external experts on a temporary basis to provide advice.
Commercial skills likely to be required for a commercial waste service include:
Service Capacity
Taking the time to review the commercial waste rounds can yield important information about:
- What days of the week/vehicles have capacity
- Where demand is
- What material streams have capacity.
Armed with this information, materials, areas or new customers can be targeted to make rounds more cost effective. Rebalancing rounds can make the service more efficient, but this should be considered against the needs of the customer.
Lead times
As paying customers the expectations and needs should be considered in a different context to household customers. A business may need a commercial waste service to react quickly to service change requests, delivery of new containers or to address collections issues.