Sheffield Homes Case Study

Richard Whittaker

Investment Manager

Sheffield Homes

Agenda

• Background• What We Used to Do• Investment Planning• Problems with Old Approach• Supply Chain management• Partnering• Preparing for the ALMO• The Need • The New Approach • What We Do Now• Benefits of New Approach• Conclusions

Background

• Sheffield is divided into 10 housing management areas looking after 55,000 properties

• Maintenance and repairs are carried out within an environment of £750 to £800m backlog of repairs

• April 1st 2004, Sheffield Homes was launched to manage its housing stock and bring the houses up to the Decent Homes standard

• Sheffield Homes has been created as an Arms Length Management Organisation on behalf of Sheffield City Council.

What We Used to Do

• SIP and CETEP– Mainly traditional single element replacement

schemes

• £14m budget– About 9 contractors– Short term traditional contracts (2+1)

Investment Planning

• Consult with Tenants and Residents

• Determine our city-wide investment priorities

• Produce a three year investment plan

• Keep it a secret

Supply Chain Management

Other Network Providers

Material Suppliers

Sharrow

Client

Problems with Old Approach

• Fragmented• Inconsistency• Short term relationships• Quality of reporting

• Needed to change

Partnering

• Sir Harold Emerson ‘ A Diagnosis of Ill Health’

• Latham ‘Constructing the Team’

• Egan ‘Rethinking Construction’

Partnering Approach

• Active Client Active Contractor (1995)

• Partnering Trial

• Refurbishment Partnering Contractors

• The Three Ways

Maintenance Partnership

• Kier Sheffield LLP

• 10 Year deal

• Responsive, Cyclical and Void repairs

• £640m

Prepare for ALMO

• Bidding Process

• Area D&G 2004/2005

• Area E,P,H 2005/2006

• Other five areas 2006/2007

• Subject to tenants vote and 2 BV inspections

Prepare for ALMO

• Area D&G

• Successful vote/bid £145m

• £28m expenditure 2004/2005

• 1st BV inspection result had to be successful

• November result = 14 week delivery programme

Prepare for ALMO

• Strategy– Long term sick– Cheat

• Mobilisation– 8 Weeks

Prepare for ALMO

• Transitional Works Programme• 2,200 properties• Remodelling properties• Kitchens, bathrooms• Windows• Central heating fits• 55 page Programme of works

Housing Inspection

• Result– Maximum three star rating, with promising

prospects for improvement – From over 700 housing inspections carried out,

only around 20 have won three stars. – Only a few of those for all the service

Procurement• Selected Five Partnering Contractors

– Connaught – Keepmoat– Kier– Lovell East Midland– Mears Group

Decent Homes Investment Programme

14

87 85

44

115

136133132

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

160

2003/04 2004/05 2005/06 2006/07 2007/08 2008/09 2009/10 2010/11

Financial Year

Sp

end

in m

illio

ns

Supply Chain Management

Other Network Providers

Material Suppliers

Sharrow

Client

Supply Chain Management

Asbestos

Kitchen

Bathroom

HM&E

Window

Doors

Client

Supply Chain Management

Ambulance

Planning

Building Standards Private

SectorHousing

Social Services

Schools

Police

Fire Service

Client

This means we can plan to

• Refurbish 55,000 properties to Decent Homes and/or Decent Homes Plus Standards– 250,000 Windows– 300,000 Kitchen Units– 80,000 Doors– 45,000 bathrooms– 35,000 central heating systems– Completion rate = 150 properties per week

The Need• Need to manage and track all information

collaboratively• A City-wide view is required for executive

directors and main board members• An Area-wide view for Area Managers and Local

Board Members• A Contractor wide view for Project Managers• Need feedback to update the OHMS and APEX

systems• Need to work within contractual requirements

What we have to do

• Project manage in a consistent but flexible way

Process Management

• Process manage in an efficient way

• Retail Industries

• Standard Conventions

• Consistent Processes

• Throughout the Supply Chain

Collaborative Software package

• Procure an Enterprise Project Management (“EPM”) solution to manage the project

• Involved Partners in the requirements and selection process

What We Do Now

• Solution consists of Delcam EPM (Microsoft EPM and PS-Team)

• Web-based system, hosted by Delcam and accessible to all Partners via Internet

• All projects, documents and updates are managed by the EPM system

• Partners can still use their own systems for detailed planning and execution of work

EPM Views…

• City-wide View• Area View• Partner View• Microsoft Project Server view (Gantt Charts)

12

$

= Due date

= Work Time

= Cost

Drill into one Task

Show associated documents (with version control) e.g. spreadsheet with the house details (from OHMS) or letters

Show audit trail of activity in that Task

Click on Document to open it in a new window

How Does It WorkSheffield Homes

Export out of OHMS to Excel file (containing house addresses, UPRN’s and details)Create Project placeholder in PS-TeamAttach Excel file to Project in PS-TeamAttach MS Project Professional 2003 template (based upon Microsoft Enterprise Global

Template)Assign Project (“Phase”) to Partner

PartnerDownloads MPP template and XL fileModifies order in XL file to suit, and then loads into project templateSchedules work in MS ProjectRe-uploads MPP file (now scheduled) to PS-Team Project

Sheffield HomesProject Manager Imports MPP Plan into PS-Team (this creates the individual house

tasks)Partner

Logs onto PS-Team project weekly to update activitySheffield Homes

Project manager periodically publishes PS-Team Plan to Microsoft Project Server

Document Management

– Create a document Library File Structure–Create Document Templates–Create circulation list by Library

Email messages are enhanced…

1) Colour coding – red, if you are assigned the task, grey, if you are just listening in on the topic. This makes it easier to spot the more important emails if you tend to receive a lot of messages in a day

2) Each email message has a unique task identifier. This can be used to move messages relating to different topics into specific Outlook folders automatically

3) Information can be found in PS-Team’s knowledge base so there is no need to keep messages permanently in an inbox folder

4) No attachments sent with the email. Instead, hyperlinks inside the message point you to the latest document revision

5) Users simply reply to a task, attach files and re-assign to others

Benefits of New Approach

• Integrated approach

• Collaborative working

• Project Management Flexibility

• Process Management Efficiencies

• You become a cog rather than a spanner

Conclusions

• Decent Homes Investment Programmes are a once in a lifetime opportunity, tenants and residents expect us to get it right.

• Partnering is not just about ‘TRUST’ its about ‘CONFIDENCE’

• Decent Homes Investment Programmes are not Client, Contractor or Supply Chain Driven. They are driven by time

• The content of work is simple it is only made complex by volume

• If we are to succeed we need to work smarter not harder

• Any Questions