January 2015
Recommendations from a major process review by Morrison Low have helped Hamilton City Council Building Control Unit to halve its customer waiting times for inspections, among other benefits.
The Building Control Unit has recently implemented a significant quality improvement programme and commissioned a review by Morrison Low of existing Unit processes and opportunities to make it more efficient and effective. The overall aim is for Hamilton City Council to deliver a world-class building control unit centered on the customer and supported by excellent processes and innovative technology.
Cory Lang, Manager Review and Operations says, “We are highly motivated to achieve our world-class goals. This review delivered tangible results that line up with our customer-centric focus”. The initial impact has been very positive and Lang is confident of continued process improvement.
Lang says: “Waiting times for inspections have dropped from an average of five days down to 48 hours. This allows us to provide a better service to our customers as well as relieving pressure on the Inspections team”.
Morrison Low also identified other work flow improvements along with our usual process review methodology, to gain richer insight and commitment from staff at all levels.
The first was a bottom-up approach, engaging frontline employees in data gathering and the identification of improvement opportunities.
The second was a top-down review that utilised Morrison Low’s close relationship with Professional Building Consultants, a private Building Control Authority, who provided independent ‘best practice’ advice.
Morrison Low combined all this information to provide a mix of recommendations, from ‘quick wins’ through to long-term significant projects that could be rolled out in conjunction with future investment in field mobility technology.
Any resistance to implementation was eased with the early involvement of all employees; and transparent and frequent progress updates by management.
Lang says, “We have further recommendations that we will be rolling out over the next few months, so expect these to improve even further”.