using smartphones and smart sensors to connect oxfam's donation infrastructure
TRANSCRIPT
The challenge & relevance to IoC
• Lack of driver ‘visibility’ & understanding• Optimising activity & balancing workload• Scope for being more reactive to opportunities• Fostering greater collaboration between shops
- Can smartphones & sensors benefit decision making in a charity setting
App functionality
- ios for iPhone, iPad
- Server at Uni of Edinburgh
- Smartbin banks report
03:00 and 15:00
- Banks (B), Shops (S), Other
sites (O), Driver (D)
- All sites are active
- Click on sites to view menu
- Messages appear through
push notifications
Trials – Longitudinal app trials
- 21/3 to 28/6 Watford (mon-fri)- 3/5 – 20/9 Dorset (mon-fri)- 5/6 to 13/9 Cambridge (mon-wed)
- 4 drivers, 3 area managers, 10 shop managers, 1 depot manager.
Managing Time & Activity- 83% of managers believed that their planning and/or
decision making had improved from knowing where the driver currently was and would likely be
- All but 1 manager agreed that their understanding of how time was used in the business had improved
- The app could just pass on scheduling problems to other people unless the rules governing its use were not tightly controlled
“It was useful several times to know he was in the local vicinity so I could phone him and ask if he could do extra work but I’m not sure he was to chuffed”
- 25% of messages sent after 17:00 and 19% after 19:00- 67% of managers happy to message out-of-hours
(younger smartphone enabled managers more inclined).
“People communicated in the evenings. We are all quite pressurised by time [during the day]”
“Sometimes one has a ‘eureka’ moment when half asleep and you want to send a message straight away”.
- Few messages left on physical infrastructure during trials
Managing Time & Activity
Re-appraising service needs
Site Currently visited Suggested visitsSnells Wood Every Tuesday Every 3rd TuesdayDatchet Every Friday Every 2nd FridayKingfisher Drive CarPark
40% of Thursdays 20% of Thursdays
Farnham Common Every Tuesday Every 2nd TuesdayAsda Tilehurst 60% of Thursdays 40% of Thursdays
Suggested reductions in bank visits on the Watford round
Scope for shops adopting banks and servicing using volunteers
Optimising bank collections
Area 11,000km2
56 bank sites, 68 shops
Monitored 40 banks at 21 sites
Live demo (9 May-19 July, 2013)
Devised 4-6 vehicle rounds each day
- visited banks when >50% full
- fixed collection days for shops
Understanding activity patterns
0
100
200
300
400
500
Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri
Dwell time forothers activitiesBanks dwelltimeShops dwelltimeTravel time
Quantifying the apps impact
Before the app With the app %Shop dwell time (min)
18.67 15.59 -16.50%
Bank dwell time (min)
25.83 23.40 -9.41%
Before & after analysis – difficult to identify app benefits: (Oct-Nov V Mar-May when yields are significantly greater during the former)
Round orders did change once app implemented and Area Managers were influenced by the real-time information provided
Scope for greater collaboration
- 67% managers agreed they had collaborated more- Lack of engagement by some members over time- Targeting stock to specific outlets and shops sorting for each
other according to specialism could be a way forward- Pressure to meet shop targets can work against collaboration
- Greater live visibility of stock can put pressure on drivers
Conclusions – IoC & ITS in a charity setting
- Live visibility of vehicles & volunteers welcomed- No privacy issues, but drivers can become swamped with
requests & ‘back track’ on round- Competition for prime stock advertised by driver- Driver prediction function only used to estimate arrival times
by a few managers- Setting area/cluster targets and use the app on a more local
level to manage cascade (sorting for others)- Management structure not geared up for live reporting
- Ahead of its time!