CIH Repairs and

Maintenance conference Using repairs data to drive

improvement

Ian Lindsay

HouseMark Associate

Purpose

• Is it important?

• Have we got the right

definition?

• Is the data reported by our

contractors accurate?

• How do we compare?

• What can we do to get

better?

First time fix project

Method

• Why it is a key indicator

• The HouseMark definition

• Data audit

• Local benchmarking - limited

response

• Improvements

• Performance indicators - which are the right ones

• Data - how reliable is it

• Comparison

- definitions

- validation

- with whom?

- why?

• Analysis and improvement

So what about data…?

• The prescription of the Audit Commission has

gone in England

• Responsive regimes look different

- scrapping all but the emergency ‘priority’

- focusing on appointments

- same day repairs

- MOTs / planned on demand

- repairs days/batching response work

• Start from your objectives - customers, VfM, asset

maintenance

Performance indicators

If most customers want:

• Quick response to genuine

emergencies

• Someone to come once and fix

the problem

• That person to come when

they said they would

Then….

• Emergency response times

• First visit fix

• Appointments kept

As well as customer satisfaction

So….

VFM:

• Cost per job or per

property

• Average time to

undertake a repair

Maintain the asset:

• Overall cost of

maintenance

• ?

Repairs Storyboard

Correlations

As cost increases - satisfaction decreases

As time to undertake a repair increases - cost

increases

As time to repair increases - satisfaction decreases

A high first time fix rate

• Decreases cost

• Increases satisfaction

A high proportion of appointments kept

• Increases satisfaction

• But does not impact total cost

A low cost per property increases satisfaction

• With repairs overall

• With the last repair

Other correlations

Key, not just for PIs but also making operational decisions

Could be unreliable because:

• Systems

- capability

- failure

- set up

• People - hearts and minds

- cost e.g. materials

- what work have we done

- job coding

Data reliability

• Who does it?

• Why?

• Defensive benchmarking

- they don’t use the same definition as us

- we can’t trust their data

- we have to benchmark with a specific peer

group

- we don’t have to change!

Benchmarking

• Starts from a desire to improve

• Builds a picture of what good looks like

• Identifies those who might help you get there

• Seems to work if

- you actively seek out those who the data

shows perform well

- you have a group of like minded

organisations

- you marry insights from data and process

Successful benchmarking

Measuring repairs contribution to maintaining the stock

Focus of future work - where is the sweet spot

Improving our overall maintenance strategies

Meeting customer needs

VFM Maintaining the asset

• Be clearer about what data we need and how we’re

going to use it

• Make it auditable/reliable

• Get it in a shape we can use it

• Do the analysis and do something with it!

• Use reliable data as the basis of collaboration for

improved outcomes within the organisation and across

the sector as a whole

Using data to drive improvement

Ian Lindsay

HouseMark Associate

ian@ianlindsayconsulting.co.uk

0771 570 5270

Thank you