 Bounds Green – GNER maintenance depot Winners of London Operational Team of the Year for its programme of Continuous Improvement, Judges Comments were “We look forward to hearing other Train Operators are prepared to learn from GNER's ground breaking approach to Quality”.
Through partnership (trade unions & management), the Bounds Green team have seen significant benefits in both employee and business performance following the first 24 months of the programme, these include : -
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The latest survey of Employee satisfaction table showed the depot rising form 17 th to 3rd
- The examination time for the 91Locomotive has been reduced from 10 days to 3,5 days. The approach to this success has now been rolled out across the 225 teams and significant opportunities have already been identified. Through this process major opportunities to improve the warranty and repair of equipment have been identified. This has enabled the teams to make improvements to stock and equipment levels.
- The net financial impact of these improvements has delivered savings of £400k per year.
The Rail Audit said “the depot is in better condition now than when we handed over to GNER”. An employee said “the transformation is brilliant, it was like working in a scrap yard now its something to look after”
For more information on how the 20 Keys supported GNER's success, contact access2growth on info@access2growth.com quoting Depot.
GNER Call Centre The Call Centre is the most advanced of all GNER areas that feature the 20 keys Continuous Improvement Programme. Under the leadership of the Management Team (Union Representation, Performance Managers and underpinned by the Call centre Manager) the facility has implemented nine of the 20 keys in 18 months. This focus has led to some phenomenal successes, these include: -
- Over 1400 ideas have been raised and implemented by the frontline staff, this has generated financial benefits over £600k. Three such ideas implemented have resulted in:
- A reduction in call length of 20 seconds within the Tele Sales Process
- A 90% reduction in the paper trail within the Business Travel Process which has led to a reduction in lead time from 31 days to 3 hours
- A reduction in the Customer Contact process from 18 days to 4 days
- The Telesales facility at GNER at the beginning of the 2006 financial year set itself an ambitious Business Improvement Target of £700k, 8 periods into the financial year they are on track to deliver.
Since starting the 20 keys programme the Call Centre has improved its benchmark score from 27 Points to 36 points with the leading area Group Travel scoring 41 points. These performances are equivalent to some of the Cranfield Best Factory Award Winners.
Recent Hosts to the 8 th 20 Keys Network Event the visitor's comments were relentless in their praise, example comments include
“ The presentations given by the teams were, professional, knowledgeable, enthusiastic and the employees came across as very proud of their work areas. For more information on how the 20 Keys supported GNER's success, contact access2growth on info@access2growth.com quoting Call Centre On Board Crews A High Impact Project Team made up of 4 on train employees (Chef, Customer Service Manager, Customer Service Leader and Customer Service Assistant) was asked to review and standardise the service delivery process for the GNER train fleet. The aim of the exercise was to develop a Standard Operating procedure (SOP) that had the full support of the On Board Crews.
The process followed included: -
- Pulling together all the existing policies and procedures that were currently used by the On Board Crews, this process identified any missing elements.
- The second stage was to obtain On Board Crew feedback in terms how effective the existing procedures were. This was achieved by Customer Service Managers completing a questionnaire, the aim being to obtain their perceptions of “what actually happens”. This questionnaire was then used to interview various crews to obtain their perceptions. Over 80% of crews were involved in this process.
- Following the feedback the data was collated and a recommendation for Piloting was produced. The recommendation was tested with some of the crews interviewed and after adjustment was finalised for use for the Pilot.
- The test pilot was focussed on 1 HST Service Vehicle and 1 Mallard (MKIV)
- The feedback from train crews was fantastic.
- The Crews involved in the pilot stated how it made their life easier
- A number of health and safety improvements were identified and implemented.
- Financial benefit were released equivalent to savings of over £380k/ annum
- Following the 4-week trial all the feedback was again collated and further improvements made to the final SOP's. These improvements are now being rolled out across the fleet and a comprehensive SOP manual will be placed on each train allowing all on Board Crews to access the “How to Guide”
For more information on how the 20 Keys supported GNER's success, contact access2growth on info@access2growth.com quoting On Board
The 8th 20 Keys UK Networking Event; This years event was hosted By Great North Eastern Railway which was held on October 4 th and 5 th 2006 and was attended by: GNER, Cadburys, Unipart, Citect, Abbotts Diabetes Care, Hilding Anders, Range Joinery, Excelsyn, Domino ODI South Africa and The Denby Pottery Company. The event was an excellent opportunity to see how the 20 Keys to Workplace Improvement has been implemented in a dynamic Call Centre.
The event consisted of four themes
- Tour of the Call Centre Facility. This included a welcoming speech by the Call Centre Manager, a tour of the facility, which included a number of spot-light sessions (presentations) by respective company employees. These sessions again proved very popular with the visitors as it is an opportunity to ask questions of the frontline staff and get their perspectives of the 20 keys programme.
- Presentation from the Bound Green Maintenance Depot. Following on from the nationally recognised Rail award for London Operational Team of the Year in 2004 for their 20 Keys Continuous Improvement Programme, Union and Management representation presented the challenges and developments facing the Depot twelve months on.
- Presentation and Workshops. Johan Benadie MD of ODI south Africa and Joe Booth Chairman of access2growth presented and facilitated a workshop on; the importance of Frontline Management in today's Worlds Class Companies
- Networking, this aspect always proves popular with attendees as it encourages sharing of information between companies and individuals.
If you would like to attend the next 20 Keys Networking event or would like further information on the 20 Keys or this article please contact: info@access2growth.com
GNER win National Rail Award In a ceremony held last night (Thursday, 1st September 2005) at London 's Grosvenor House Hotel, GNER took the accolades at the National Rail Awards which celebrate excellence and achievement in the UK rail industry.
The keenly contested award for London Operational Team of the Year went to GNER's Bounds Green depot in north London for its 20 Keys programme of Continuous Improvement. Of this, the judges said: "As any time-served railwayman will tell you, high staff morale leads to more trains going into service every day, with fewer faults".
The judges were impressed to hear that the 20 Keys continuous improvement programme at Bounds Green had reduced accidents by 40 per cent, cut the number of warranty claims for defects, increased employee satisfaction and reduced costs.
The judges added: "We look forward to hearing that other rail operators are prepared to learn from GNER's groundbreaking approach to quality".
For more information on how the 20 Keys supported GNER's success, contact access2growth on info@access2growth.com
access2growth form Merger with Excelsyn access2growth has announced that it has signed an agreement with Excelsyn, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne , UK . The agreement will see the merging of access2growth's activities in the Pharmaceutical and Speciality Chemical sectors into Excelsyn's Management Consulting service cluster. Excelsyn integrates specialist business consulting, chemistry and engineering to offer a unique range of solutions that enhance performance across the whole pharmaceutical industry supply chain. Excelsyn Management Consulting applies extensive sector and best practice experience to help deliver winning strategies, managed change and improved performance.
Joe Booth, Chairman of access2growth, comments,
" The merger reflects our continuing growth aspirations and will enable us to expand the range of consultancy services that we already provide for our clients" .
The 7 th 20 Keys UK Networking Event The Denby Pottery Company and Hammonds Furniture jointly hosted the seventh 20 Keys networking event held on 20 th and 21 st April which was attended by: Cadburys, GNER, Unipart, Greenwood and Wood, AstraZeneca, Hilding Anders, Rofin Sinar, Domino and Federal Mogul. The event provided a fantastic opportunity to see two 20 Key programmes only nine months into implementation.
The event consisted of three main elements:
- Company visits. This included a welcoming speech by a Company Director, a tour of the two facilities and spot-light sessions (presentations) by respective company employees. As always, visitors were actively encouraged to ask questions during the tours.
- Networking opportunity over dinner. This aspect of the Networking Event is always popular with attendees as it encourages sharing of information between companies and individuals. At this particular event we were delighted that Professor Peter Wickens OBE gave the pre-dinner speech sharing some of his experiences in managing change.
- Workshop. Building on Prof. Peter Wickens' pre dinner speech, Joe Booth, Chairman of access2growth, facilitated a short workshop on understanding the emotional/behavioural factors affecting a successful change programme.
If you would like to attend the next 20 Keys Networking event or would like further information on the 20 Keys or this article please contact: info@access2growth.com |
