IMPROVING BUSINESS PROCESSES
From colleagues to customers
-Arjan Muntenga
RijksuniversiteitGroningen
Faculty of Management and Organization
Master of Business Administration Operations & Supply Chains
August 2007 Camminghastraat 59 8921PE Leeuwarden amuntenga@hotmail.com +31618190173 s1496905
Supervisors Arriva: O.Oosterhof J. Meijer Academic Supervisors: H. Broekhuis
Preface
In front of you lies the final thesis on delivery reliability improvements within the Bedrijfsbureau of Arriva. The thesis consists of a practical research at the Bedrijfsbureau of Arriva where long term planning schedules are made for the execution of bus transportation throughout the Netherlands. The thesis is written during and after a practical research of six months at Arriva. The outcome of the research has resulted in this master thesis, which is the final accomplishment of the master Operations & Supply Chains within the study Business Administration of the Rijksuniversiteit Groningen.
Conducting the practical research at Arriva as well as writing the thesis has been an enormous instructively experience with which my skills improved significantly.
I want to make use of the opportunity to thank a number of people who have provided useful feedback in improving the presentation of this thesis and its contents. Onno Oosterhof and Jan Meyer for their support from the Arriva. They gave me their support and the freedom to conduct the research my own way. Besides these two official supervisors I want to thank all other employees who co-operated in the research.
Special thanks are due to Manda Broekhuis and Nicky van Foreest for the support from the Rijksuniversiteit Groningen and their detailed comments on earlier drafts of this thesis.
Especially the effort made in reading and criticizing the thesis several times, by Manda Broekhuis is worth showing special gratitude.
At last, but definitely not the least, I want to thank my parents and girlfriend for their support during the last months. Besides others, they made it possible to finish my master.
Management summary
Arriva Nederland provides a variety of public transport throughout the Netherlands. In 2001 Arriva Nederland established a “Bedrijfsbureau” at the head quarter in Heerenveen to centralize its planning activities. In recent years the Bedrijfsbureau has evolved to a very important department of Arriva Nederland. The Bedrijfsbureau is responsible for the production and delivery of long term planning schedules for the daily execution of public transport in all serviced regions in the Netherlands.
The management of Arriva is not satisfied about the performance of the Bedrijfsbureau. Since the actual transportation of passengers heavily relies on the deliveries of the Bedrijfsbureau the management of Arriva is very interested in possibilities for improvements in the delivery reliability of the Bedrijfsbureau.
To give structure to this research, which ultimately provides improvements in the delivery reliability, the following research question is carefully formulated;
How can the delivery reliability of the daily execution processes of the Bedrijfsbureau be improved, considering the specific daily execution process characteristics.
After a brief overview of the company, a research outline is given including the exact research methodology. After a description on the main processes of the Bedrijfsbureau concerning the daily execution an in depth analysis is performed. From the analysis improvements are presented in the last paragraph.
In relation to these improvements in delivery reliability 6 main elements are believed to have significant influence. These main elements, revealed during the diagnosis are;
- process type and characteristics - design of the process
- planning and control - capacity and demand - job design
- process technology
which will reduce the variety and is likely to increase the volumes. On the other hand enough flexibility is guaranteed in adopting a Project approach for special requests.
By designing the processes according this distinction in requests a completely new main process comes into existence. A new process map is drawn to help structuring the activities, interdependencies and form the initial concept for the new planning schedules. By classifying the incoming request a good estimation is made on the process that a request requires. To guarantee that both types of requests are processed fast and accurate a distinction in front and back office activities is proposed on basis of the strategic operational focus of the Bedrijfsbureau and the level of decoupling possibilities. Despite several delicate problems concerning planning the processes several possibilities to be able plan both types of requests are given. By planning specific process steps the desired routing is guaranteed. With the additional advantage that delivery dates are pre-set. By monitoring these dates and adjusting if necessary the progress of the entire process is guaranteed resulting in delivery reliability. By planning specific execution dates throughout a year on which large modifications in time tables are needed anyhow all smaller modifications can be implemented at the same time. The controllability of projects (special requests) and standard requests will increase because of the returning standardized cycle several times a year. Taking this planning method one step further; generating good knowledge on the throughput times of all individual processes contributes to good forecasting methods for the future. Estimation on current throughput times is taken as a starting point for a new forecasting method. A great benefit discovered from this forecast is that the simultaneously handling of two processes reduces the total throughput time with 11 days.
Table of contents
PREFACE
2
MANAGEMENT SUMMARY
3
1
INTRODUCTION
7
2
ARRIVA THE COMPANY
8
2.1
Arriva plc United Kingdom
8
2.2
Arriva the Netherlands
8
2.3
Activities of the Bedrijfsbureau
9
2.3.1
Tender process 9 2.3.2
Implementation process 10 2.3.3
Daily execution 10
2.4
Departmental disciplines
11
2.4.1Transport development 11 2.4.2
Transport planning 11
2.4.3
Management information administration 11
2.4.4
Application management 11
2.5
Research focus
12
3
RESEARCH OUTLINE
13
3.1
Introduction
13
3.2
Research question and objectives
13
3.3
Conceptual model
14
3.4
Theoretical concepts
14
3.4.1
Reliability 14
3.4.2
Planning and control 15
3.4.3
Process design 16
3.4.4
Process type 16
3.4.5
Process technology 17
3.4.6
Job design 17
3.4.7
Demand and capacity 17
3.4.8
Coordination 18
3.5
Research methods
18
3.6
Restrictions
19
4
DESCRIPTION & ANALYSIS DAILY EXECUTION
21
4.1
Process type and characteristics
21
4.2
Description of the daily execution process
23
4.2.1
High level process map 23
4.2.2
Outlined process map 24
4.2.3
Detailed process map 25
4.3
Planning and control
26
4.5
Process technology
32
4.6
Job design
35
5
IMPROVING RELIABILITY
36
5.1
Process type and characteristics
36
5.2
Description of daily execution process
39
5.2.1
High level process map 39
5.2.2
Outlined process map 40
5.2.3
Detailed process map 41
5.2.4
Micro process maps 43
5.2.5
Establishing a front and back office 44
5.3
Planning and control
47
5.4
Capacity and demand
52
5.5
Job design
54
5.6
Process technology
55
6
CONCLUSION & DISCUSSION
60
6.1
Research question and objectives
60
6.2
Discussion
64
7
APPENDICES
67
7.1
Appendix 1: Organization chart Arriva Nederland.
67
7.2
Appendix 2: Organization chart Arriva OV
68
7.3
Appendix 3: Organization chart Arriva Region
69
7.4
Appendix 4: Organization chart Arriva Bedrijfsbureau
70
7.5
Appendix 5: Regions contractual transportation
71
7.6
Appendix 6: Detailed process Map daily execution process
72
7.7
Appendix 7: Input and output of Management information
78
7.8
Appendix 8: proposed detailed process map daily execution process
79
7.9
Appendix 9: Micro process map example
80
7.10
Appendix 10: General throughput times (Microsoft Office Project)
81
7.11
Appendix 11: Proposed planning method (Microsoft Office Project)
81
7.12
Appendix 12: Data flows related to Hastus
82
Introduction
This research is performed at Arriva Nederland. Arriva Nederland provides a variety of public transport throughout the Netherlands. In 2001 Arriva Nederland established a “Bedrijfsbureau” to centralize its planning activities. In recent years the Bedrijfsbureau has evolved to become a very important department of Arriva. The Bedrijfsbureau is responsible for the production and delivery of long term planning schedules for the actual daily execution of public transport in all serviced regions. Since the actual transportation of passengers heavily relies on the deliveries of the Bedrijfsbureau the management of Arriva is very interested in possibilities for improvements in the delivery reliability of the Bedrijfsbureau.
This thesis provides proposals for the management of Arriva to improve the delivery reliability of the Bedrijfsbureau.
Arriva the company
In this chapter the history of Arriva Nederland BV is outlined briefly. The activities and organizational structure of Arriva Nederland BV are explained.
1
Arriva plc United Kingdom
Arriva plc is one of the largest transport services organizations in Europe, which operates a fleet of nearly 13,000 vehicles in Europe. Arriva plc employs nearly 33,000 people and provides more than one billion passenger journeys every year. Arriva plc companies operate an extensive range of services including busses, trains, commuter coaches and water busses.
With 6,400 vehicles and over 13,000 employees in mainland Europe, Arriva provides an extensive range of services including busses, trains, commuter coaches, taxis, water busses and fully accessible demand responsive vehicles in Europe. At this very moment Arriva operates passenger services in seven mainland European countries; Denmark, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and Sweden - in addition to aforementioned UK.
2
Arriva the Netherlands
Arriva Nederland, one of the aforementioned European mainland companies of Arriva plc originated from this English company. Arriva Nederland is founded at the end of 1998 to direct the Dutch transport services organization. Arriva Nederland started with the acquisitions of two bus companies. It bought Vancom Nederland in January 1998, the first and to date only municipal privatization, and purchased Veonn and Hanze in December under a part privatization of the Dutch state-owned transport company Connexxion. From 1998 till 2002 Arriva Nederland carried out the existing concessions of the two bus companies.
In 2002 Arriva Nederland won two large tenders to operate bus services in central Holland, which had been operated by competitors, and became the first private operator to win a franchise away from the state-owned incumbent. In December 2003 Arriva Nederland again proved to be successful in bidding for a large tender to operate public transport services in the city and provinces of Groningen and Drenthe. These services were already run by Arriva Nederland by means of the existing concession and comprised nearly half of the business's contracts in the northern region of the country. The new contracts started in June 2004 and run for three and a half years with an option to continue for another two years. Nowadays Arriva Nederland has grown to be one of the largest players in the public transportation market with several specific transportation disciplines.
by means of the needed resources to service the several particular geographical markets, which is a typical M-form organization. The departments of Arriva Nederland are structured through a Matrix form which is a hybrid structure, in which the M-form and the U-form are combined.
To be able to create good propositions for tenders as well as to be able to actually deliver the agreed transport in an awarded period, in 2005 Arriva Openbaar Vervoer decided to create a central Bedrijfsbureau in which several disciplines are working together to support other Arriva departments during the tender process, implementation and daily execution of public transport.
This centralized Bedrijfsbureau is the department of focus of this research. The Bedrijfsbureau is operating under the primary department Openbaar Vervoer (OV). As can be seen in the organization chart of the Bedrijfsbureau this department includes five disciplines; Transport development, Transport planning, Management information administration, Application management and Rail development. At this very moment, Arriva provides public transportation in seven different zones; Groningenstad-Groningen-Drenthe (GGD), Zuidoost Friesland, Noordwest Friesland, Waterland, Rivierenland, Drechtsteden-Alblasserwaard-Vijfheerenlanden (DAV) en Leeuwardenstad.
3
Activities of the Bedrijfsbureau
The Bedrijfsbureau is performing a wide variety of activities concerning three main processes; tendering, implementation and daily execution for public transport purposes. These three main processes are briefly outlined below to create an overview of the activities of the Bedrijfsbureau. Although an improvement in the delivery reliability of all three processes is desirable, this thesis is focused on the daily execution process.
1 Tender process
Every contractual agreement for public transport starts with an invitation for competitive tendering. For winning a tender a transport company has to turn in a transport plan in which all transportation during the contractual length is explained. The competitive tendering process is recorded in the Transport Act 2001 and stipulates that, by 2007, all regional bus transport must be awarded to contractors through a competitive tendering process. This represents a good opportunity for Arriva to grow its business throughout the years. One of the main criteria of winning tenders is to be able to forecast the amount of transportation needed during the contractual period and to forecast the accompanying costs.
Although the responsibility for tenders lies within the Commercial Department of Arriva the Bedrijfsbureau is always involved sideways. At the start of a tender the project manager of the commercial department forecasts the amount of work placed on the Bedrijfsbureau. The activities and workload are depended on the kind of tender.
When Arriva wins a tender the responsible tender team will proceed with the implementation of the tender. The implementation team consists of as many tender team members as possible because of the specific knowledge which is already gained on the region during the tender. The responsibility for an implementation always lies within the Bedrijfsbureau and therefore won tenders can place great amounts of workload.
3 Daily execution
The daily execution process makes up the largest part of the activities performed by the Bedrijfsbureau. The processes are all related to the creation, reshaping, upgrading and fine tuning of long term planning schedules for regions; called packages. These packages are long term schedules for weekdays, weekends, vacations, and for specific periods in a year. This long term planning is used as the initial concept with which regions have to provide the public transport. In other words when the Bedrijfsbureau is not able to deliver the long term planning for whatever reason, the public transport in the regions can not be executed. During a year several occasions can exist for which it is necessary to modify the entire or partial content of packages (including the long term planning schedules). Every time requests for changes in public transport enter the Bedrijfsbureau it has to be evaluated to what extend these changes influence the current packages. Whenever changes have to be made for whatever reason and entirely new packages have to be created all formerly agreements have to be reserved again. The Bedrijfsbureau is performing the aforementioned processes on a continuous basis. This is the result of turns in public transportation, changing wishes of end customers, additional orders of contractual constituents (or customer platforms) and the outrageous influence of bus drivers. Important to note here is that when Arriva fails to provide public transport for whatever reason; the contractual constituent can treat high penalties. Besides this, Arriva is convinced that the company suffers a lot from public transport that is not performed because of unsatisfied customers and a deteriorated reputation which in its turn results in a competitive disadvantage. This emphasizes the desire of the management to improve the delivery reliability of the Bedrijfsbureau.
4
Departmental disciplines
1 Transport development
Within the Bedrijfsbureau transport developers are creating and improving transport plans. The development of a transport plan is necessary because of the ongoing influence different stakeholders have on the transport plan. The wide variety of stakeholders requesting for changes makes that transport plans are modified almost continuously. For example adjustments on behalf of the contractual constituent can originate from consumer platforms, traveler organizations and municipalities. Secondly infrastructural changes in a city or region can result in a need to modify the existing transport plan. But also bus drivers, Dutch Railways, Rover, end customers and other Arriva departments can have their influence on the transport plan and the related time table. The transport developer is assisted by several transport planners who perform calculations and the actual modifications in the planning tool.
2 Transport planning
The main task of the transport planners is the development and delivery of packages for long term regional planning. Transport planners perform their tasks in a planning tool called Hastus. These packages consist of a time table, blocks, duties and rosters. The time table is delivered through the transport developer and planners are responsible for the delivery of efficient and costs minimizing blocks, duties and rosters.
Besides developing packages planners spent their time on modifying and optimizing existing time-tables, blocks, duties, and rosters.
3 Management information administration
Management information administration is responsible for the correct and in time delivery of all management information to internal and external customers. Information for internal usage, e.g. driven kilometers, driver usage, maintenance and fuel costs is used for supervision on the primary process. Information for external purposes consists of quantities related to the delivered transportation, with which the contractual constituent can monitor whether or not the contractual agreements are met. For example information on trips, departure times, bus failure, violence figures and received complaints is provided.
4 Application management
5
Research focus
The Bedrijfsbureau is involved in three different processes. The introduction on the processes in this chapter revealed that improving the delivery reliability of all three main processes is far too ambitious and beyond the scope of one thesis. Therefore a choice is made to focus on one process of the Bedrijfsbureau. Because the responsibility for the tender process lies within the Commercial Department and this main process is not suitable for proposing improvements on the delivery reliability. Because the process for implementations is similar to (a part of) the process of daily execution, and therefore proposals for improvements on the delivery reliability in processes for daily execution consequently will influence processes for implementations positively as well it is chosen to focus on proposing improvements for increased delivery reliability for daily execution processes.
Research outline
1
Introduction
As brought up in the introduction and company description of this research it is very important to improve the delivery reliability of the daily execution processes. In this chapter a substantiating on the subject, the problem statement and the conducted research is given. First of all the problem statement is made comprehensible by means of introducing the research objective, research question and sub questions. Next a conceptual model is proposed to conduct this research. The elements of the conceptual model are explained with which the method of research is defined. This chapter is ended with an overview of the restrictions of the research.
2
Research question and objectives
The desire for improvements in the delivery reliability is redefined in a problem statement which consists of a research objective, research question, sub questions and restrictions (De Leeuw, 2003). Next the problem statement and its elements are described.
The management of Arriva wants insight in the possibilities for improvements in the delivery reliability of the daily execution process of the Bedrijfsbureau. They assume that improving the delivery reliability of daily execution process of the Bedrijfsbureau is essential for the company to satisfy end customers. The derived research objective is:
Propose possibilities for improvements on the delivery reliability of the daily execution processes of the Bedrijfsbureau of Arriva.
The definition of the research objective of this thesis is reformulated in the derived research
question:
How can the delivery reliability of the daily execution processes of the Bedrijfsbureau be improved, considering the specific daily execution process characteristics.
Accompanying sub questions to the research question are: 1. How is the daily execution process designed?
2. How is the daily execution process planned and controlled?
3. Which factors concerning the daily execution process influence the delivery reliability?
To clarify the research objective a conceptual model is used in which the researched relations between planning and control and process design and the delivery reliability is visualized.
Figure 1; Delivery reliability influenced by planning and control, the process design and other factors
4
Theoretical concepts
1 Reliability
The Relex Software Corporation (2007) formulated a general description on reliability which is used throughout this research. According to this company reliability is a broad term that focuses on the ability of a product to perform its intended function. Mathematically speaking, assuming that an item is performing its intended function at time equals zero, reliability can be defined as the probability that an item will continue to perform its intended function without failure for a specified period of time under stated conditions.
When the description is reflected on the activities of the Bedrijfsbureau it is clear that the delivery reliability of the Bedrijfsbureau can be measured by means of the probability that a package (long term planning schedule) will continue to perform its intended function without failure for a specified period of time under stated conditions. More important than the amount of schedules that are delivered in time, the delivery reliability of the Bedrijfsbureau depends on the degree of content of the planning schedules that meets the previously agreed specifications as well.
Whenever the Bedrijfsbureau is not able to deliver a schedule in conformity with agreements, bus transportation is not warranted. When transportation is not warranted major problems occur; penalties are treated, passengers are dissatisfied, and the Arriva image is damaged. Moreover, it is of significant importance to the company that the Bedrijfsbureau is able to deliver correct packages which can be correctly used during a certain period of time.
With this, the assumption of the management of Arriva that the delivery reliability of the Bedrijfsbureau is very important to the company is justified.
2 Planning and control
After it becomes clear what the customers demand and with which capacity the Bedrijfsbureau is able to satisfy this demand it is necessary to investigate how operations are planned and controlled within the constraints of the current process design of the Bedrijfsbureau.
Figure 4; Planning and control reconcile the supply of an operation’s services with demand (Slack, Chambers, and Johnston, 2004)
3 Process design
According to Zeithaml (2000) service blueprint is defined as “a picture or map that accurately portrays the service system so that the different people involved in its development can understand and deal with it objectively regardless of their roles or their individual point of view “. It depicts the process of service delivery, roles of customers, roles of service employees, and visible components of service. Blueprint is a two-dimensional picture of the service process. In a blueprint horizontal axis represent the chronology of actions conducted by the customer and provider of the service. The vertical axis distinguishes between different areas of action separated by different lines (Fitzsimmons and Fitzsimmons, 2006).
In the next chapter a blueprint is drawn for the current service process of the Bedrijfsbureau which is used to analyze the appropriateness of the current design. In the chapter on the new design of the process, which includes all possibilities for improvements in the delivery reliability of the Bedrijfsbureau, the blueprint is adjusted to illustrate the proposals for improvements.
During the research on the influence of the design and planning and control on the delivery reliability other factors to influence the delivery reliability are revealed. Firstly these factors are evaluated with managers, the research constituent and the assessor of the Rijksuniversiteit Groningen. An agreement is made on the factors to investigate more in depth. These factors are individually addressed next.
To be able to identify the general approach used within the Bedrijfsbureau to manage its processes it is important to firstly identify the process type. In service companies these process types are held to be professional services, service shops and mass services (Slack, Chambers, and Johnston, 2004). Slack, Chambers, and Johnston (2004) explain that differences between operations, even in the same industry, are explained largely by the different volume-variety positions of the operations. The position of an operation on the volume-variety continuum shapes the general approach it takes to managing its processes. A good understanding on the specific way of organizing the operations to cope with its volume-variety characteristics is used as starting point to analyze the current fit between the volume to variety characteristics and the way processes are managed within the Bedrijfsbureau.
Figure 2; Service process types, (Slack, Chambers, and Johnston, 2004)
5 Process technology
information and customers in order to add value and fulfill the operations strategic objectives (Slack, Chambers, and Johnston, 2004). Froehle and Roth (2002) made a distinction between several modes of technology-mediated customer contact, in which every mode represents technology’s contribution to the service encounter. The actual Process technology and the contribution to the service encounter are researched in the next chapter.
6 Job design
Besides the usage of technology, systems, procedures and facilities the manner in which an organization’s human resources are managed has a profound impact on the effectiveness of its operations function as well. Some theory is available on research of HRM practices such as job design and training which directly affects the operational performance. A study performed by Paul and Anantharaman (2005) on the relationship between job design and company performance is used to make a more general assumption on the job design within the Bedrijfsbureau.
7 Demand and capacity
Figure 3; Strategies for Matching Capacity of and Demand for Services (Fitzsimmons and Fitzsimmons, 2006)
Note that the actual figure includes several elements to control supply and demand that are not applicable to the Bedrijfsbureau. The elements that are not applicable to the Bedrijfsbureau are distinguished by their red color. The explicit relevance of the blue elements is attended in the paragraph on supply and demand in the next chapter.
8 Coordination
5
Research methods
In main lines this research is set up around answering the three sub-questions. For this purpose every sub-question is researched independently after which the answers are combined to formulate proposals for improvements on the delivery reliability of the daily execution process.
How is the daily execution process designed?
An intensive study is performed to trace all activities necessary to produce the daily execution services. For this purpose the entire process is modelled in the Arriva process modelling architecture; Aris Business Designer. During the modelling process it became clear that interdependencies could not be modelled in Aris and therefore the models of this research are made in Microsoft Visio 2002 as well. Intensive contact with all employees, interviews with managers and employees of other Arriva departments and analysis of existing process models have resulted in the process models as proposed in Chapter 4.2.
How is the daily execution process planned and controlled?
During the process modelling a good understanding on planning and controlling the activities for daily execution came in existence. Specifically the many contact moments with the operational manager have contributed to a more in depth understanding on the planning of processes and the control of activities. Specifically the coherencies and dependencies with other Arriva departments became clear only during this stage of the research. To gain insight in the individual perceived controlling and planning activities structured conversations with many employees took place.
Which factors concerning the daily execution process influence the delivery reliability?
The factors to influence delivery reliability, besides planning and control and process design, are revealed during the research and are chosen because of their importance within the company. The importance of the factors is agreed in close collaboration with both the constituent and the assessor of the University.
6
Restrictions
· The thesis should be on a scientific level and written in English (Great-Britain). · The thesis should not exceed 60 pages.
· The thesis should be performed within a time schedule of 88 working days.
· The period of research is from 1st June 2006 up to and including 25th August 2007. · The research will be conducted at Arriva Openbaar Vervoer Heerenveen, the Netherlands. · The field research can, if necessary, be done at all operating departments of Arriva
Nederland.
· The focus of the research will be on bus transportation. Because of the fact that the Bedrijfsbureau only directly is involved in this type of public transport. Arriva Touring and Taxi are organizational independent departments with no direct relationship with the Bedrijfsbureau. Possible relationships with these departments will be occupied in the research in the same manner as external companies/clients.
· Although Arriva Train is positioned within Openbaar Vervoer (OV) in the organizational chart, because of its specialized operations and physical exclusion of the Bedrijfsbureau (situated in Leeuwarden) it will be occupied in the research in the same manner as external companies/clients.
Besides the mentioned restrictions the thesis has to be shaped considering several rules and regulations have to be taken into account. These can be found in the Msc. Business Administration manual.
Description & Analysis daily execution
To be able to propose possibilities for improvements in delivery reliability the way processes are designed and managed is researched. Firstly, an analysis is performed on the design of processes of the Bedrijfsbureau after typifying the process type. Secondly, all processes are blueprinted, by means of different aggregation levels, in a high, outlined, and a detailed level process map. Next, the effort made to plan and control all processes is researched and analyzed. After this capacity requirements and placed demand are considered The process technology and the job design that are used to perform the activities and have an important influence on the Bedrijfsbureau are explained Finally employee specific job characteristics are considered.
1
Process type and characteristics
Figure 5; Service process types (Slack, Chambers, and Johnston, 2004)
represents a position for an operation on which performance is optimal. Whenever an operation deviates from this diagonal it means that the operations flexibility is not in line with the necessary degree of flexibility in the processes. In the figure below the current position of the operations concerning the daily execution of the Bedrijfsbureau is marked with the clear red circle. The place of the circle indicates that these operations are deviated from the “natural” diagonal and that the processes are more flexible than seems to be warranted by their actual volume-variety position. This deviation has a negative influence on the performance of processes, including the delivery reliability. This is mainly caused by the very large influence that is given to the internal customers. Operational departments for example can largely influence the production of new blocks and duties by means of their participation and in the past managers of other departments have proven to have rights to overrule decision making within the Bedrijfsbureau.
Figure 6; Product-process Matrix, (Hayes and Wheelwright, 1984)
The emphasis of the service process is on the attention given to the customer instead of guaranteeing that all customers receive the services they need.
1. Too much flexibility is given to customers which has a negative influence on the performance, including delivery reliability.
2. Services provided by the Bedrijfsbureau are too customized. Customer requests are remunerated without considering the impact on throughput times or delivery promises.
Description of the daily execution process
To gain insight in the processes and the order in which they are executed a blueprinting approach is used to map the daily execution processes of the Bedrijfsbureau. Because of the four different disciplines involved and the large amount of executed sub processes the blueprinting consists of three different aggregation levels. Firstly the main processes on a high level are explained. Second a closer approach is generated and an outlined process map is drawn. The most detailed mapping is done by including all performed activities and all information flows of the Bedrijfsbureau.
1 High level process map
Figure 7; High Level Process Map
The need for a change in an existing time table - or in one of its components - always starts with a request from a stakeholder. When a request is placed it is discussed with the contractual constituent and the concerned Region Manager. The requests are mostly raised to the transport developer of the concerning region. Very often, other stakeholders, besides the contractual constituent and the Region Manager, have to be consulted as well. The transport developer decides which parties to involve in this external consultation process. When a request is remunerated the internal harmonization starts. The emphasis of this process lies in the acceptance of new blocks, duties and rosters of the operating departments. Once this internal harmonization is established the actual modifications can be performed. When the new time-table, and all its related components, is ready it can be used for the daily execution in the region. After predetermined periods management information is reported to both internal departments as well as the contractual constituent. The execution of processes never takes place in a successive order, but always includes a certain overlap of simultaneous performance.
Outlined process map
Figure 8; Outlined Process Map
The request of a stakeholder for modifications in a time-table - or one of its components – always initiates a process of consultation (A) in which, besides the transport developer, the contractual constituent and the concerned Region Manager are involved. Besides these parties all the other stakeholders (1) who will get affected by the planned change are invited to discuss the change as well. This discussion about changes is done because contractual constituents demand this.
When the planned change is agreed by all external parties, the change has to be evaluated internally (B). This is done in changing compositions of teams consisting of Region Managers, Production Managers, transport developers and transport planners, in which officially only the Region Manager has the officially authorization to accept modifications. After the internal discussion (2) on the planned changes the transport plan, an official document which is one of the main elements of the contractual agreements, has to be modified (3) by the transport developer.
modified by means of creating new routes and modifying existing routes in Hastus (4). When the time-table is adapted to the new requirements blocks, duties and rosters have to be rescheduled and therefore the Production Manager makes an inventory of the wishes and demands of the concerned operating departments (5). When the wishes and demands for blocks, are clear the modifications can be performed in the main planning tool; Hastus (6). After this the duties, necessary to fill in the blocks efficiently, have to be generated -once again considering the wishes of drivers - (7). Finally rosters have to be made to make sure drivers do not have to drive the same route too many times (8). Once blocks, duties and rosters are made, the transport planner responsible for the public information can start correcting all the information that has to be modified (9). Often blocks and duties have to be modified several times to both meet efficiency requirements and operating department wishes. A consultation process with the operating departments (5) usually takes several weeks and is therefore started before blocks, duties and rosters are made. Consequently public information has to be modified as well. Very often, this results in too late delivery of the public information.
3 Detailed process map
Because of its size the detailed process map can be found in a Microsoft Office Visio 2003 document. The detailed process map is composed of the same main processes as the higher level process maps. The consideration of all processes can be found in the same appendix as well.
1. No process design. No standardization in working methods and procedures. 2. No (standardized) approvals on delivery dates or delivering conditions. 3. No typified process type.
Additional:
· The lack of FO/BO results in difficulties with standardization and routing.
· No guidelines exist for the measurement of neither sub process output nor the performance during processes.
· There is no uniformity on the delivery of time table related information or the format of this information.
· Because of the lack of agreements on standard procedures for the execution of requests, short term planning is hard to establish.
Planning and control
Planning and control activities provide the systems, procedures and decisions which bring together the resources of the operations and the requirements of the customer (Slack, Chambers, and Johnston, 2004). The reconciliation of resources and requirements within the Bedrijfsbureau is made explicit next.
Planning
Within the Bedrijfsbureau one operational manager plans the operations. The “production” process of Bedrijfsbureau services can be defined as resource-to-order; resources are then planned and allocated only when a request (order) is placed. The biggest problem within the Bedrijfsbureau concerning planning is that there is no standardized planning. Especially the long term and medium term planning activities are not performed on a regular basis. This is caused by the difficulties of forecasting. Within the Bedrijfsbureau very little effort is put in forecasting because of the problems related to conditions necessary for forecasting demand. First of all the Bedrijfsbureau is not capable of discovering or recording data concerning demand which is necessary to make a good forecast on future demand. This leads to great difficulties in gaining knowledge on throughput times of individual processes (Only recently requests are scheduled in MS Project). Secondly, it is very hard to forecast the moment in time on which requests will be placed.
This is caused by the earlier mentioned wide variety on customers. E.g. demand occurring whenever the contractual constituent requires changes in the current transport plan is not announced in advance, moments in time on which stakeholders require changes can not be determined in advance, and the demand placed by internal requests is not planned. Besides the exact time it is hard to identify the amount of workload a future request will place on the employees. Difficulties on planning future demand are also caused by the fact that a request can mean that the entire process has to be performed, or that the request can relatively easily be fulfilled by simply performing one or a few activities in separation of the rest of the process. The amount of processes to be executed for a request is hard to identify and even harder to forecast.
1. No standardized planning methods are available within the Bedrijfsbureau. In which necessary activities for a change are planned.
2. No effort is put in forecasting. Data on past demand is not recorded and therefore no patterns in demand can be predicted for the future.
3. When requests (orders) enter the Bedrijfsbureau no assessment on generated workload is performed.
Additional:
· Expected changes are not scheduled and therefore demand is not considered in advance. No distinction is made between expected and occasional requests.
· Difficulties occur on short term planning activities because of the absence of long and medium term planning, the disability to forecast, and the unpredictability of incoming requests.
· Short term planning is often performed on basis of delivery deadlines only; without considering throughput times of sub processes.
· The execution sequence and duration of necessary processes are not defined before a request is accepted.
Control
According to Slack, Chambers, and Johnston (2004) planning and control requires the reconciliation of supply and demand in terms of volumes, timing and quality.
The manner in which work is allocated to employees can be defined as infinite loading. Infinite loading is an approach to loading work which does not limit accepting work, but instead tries to cope with it (Slack, Chambers, and Johnston, 2004). The reason is that limiting load is expected to be prohibitive. Although in case of the Bedrijfsbureau it is clear that not all requests are prohibitive, some definitely are. E.g. new packages not available in time result in regions unable to provide bus transport and ultimately in end customers becoming extremely unsatisfied. In short segmenting requests could significantly contribute to good planning. Currently no difference is made in the importance of honouring a request. Incoming requests (orders) are sequenced FIFO (First in First out), meaning requests are processed in order of arrival.
delivery dates as well. Because. In fact the earlier mentioned flexibility given to the stakeholders in several sub processes is causing longer throughput times.
The lack of a good distinction between levels of different complexity of requests increases the difficulty establishing reliable planning as well. Because every request is treated independently, no good consideration on other work in progress is established. Whenever the necessity exists for adjustments during the processes, these adjustments have to be initiated and processed by the involved employees themselves. A negative aspect of such control is that an individual employee is not able to overlook all processes and thus has not got the ability to make the right adjustments. Because of the absence of one controller for the entire process, often sub processes are started to early, without considering the preceding sub processes being completed.
1. No difference is made in the importance of honouring a request. Therefore the amount of workload is not controlled by refusing or postponing less important requests.
2. Hardly any guidelines are set for the point of entry of requests. Requests entering the department on several places increases unpredictability and complexity.
Additional:
· The flexibility provided to stakeholders increases the difficulty of meeting delivery dates. · Customers are able to constantly influence the input of processes. Throughput times are
largely depended on these influences. Coordination
The earlier described shortcomings on planning and control also have their implications on the coordination of activities within the Bedrijfsbureau. Malone and Crownston (1991) describe coordination as the act of managing interdependencies between activities. In this perspective the interdependencies between other departments and the Bedrijfsbureau, and internal departmental coordination activities are considered.
coordinated by a transport developer and sometimes processes are externally coordinated e.g. Region Manager, Production Manager, Implementation Manager.
Because of the lack of good and standardized methods for coordination there is much uncertainty and dissatisfaction amongst employees of the Bedrijfsbureau. They have to cope with continually changing coordinators, coordination methods, and employee initiatives. Most of the time employees do not know who has which authorities.
1. The necessity of a coordination pattern of a change (project) is not determined. No establishment of project teams.
2. No teams are formed. Employees are picked at random, on basis of availability to execute activities for requests. Personal characteristics and skills for making best combinations to work on a request. This leads to underperformance during the processing of a request.
Additional:
· Coordinating interdepartmental activities/ becomes extremely difficult because of the lack of standard rules and procedures. For example contact moments are not predetermined, decision taking is not transparently, and responsibilities are unclear.
Capacity and demand
The Bedrijfsbureau has to be able to provide enough capacity to satisfy current and future demand. The way in which processes are managed contributes significantly to an appropriate balancing between the demand and capacity. Note that capacity is referring to the value-added activity over a period of time that the process can achieve under normal operating conditions (Slack, Chambers, and Johnston, 2004).
The requirement for a service always occurs from a request for changes in the current transport plan or time table. During a contractual period, which normally lasts for four years, many moments exist when such requests are placed. Requests for changes can be initiated by several different persons or departments inside or outside the organization. Firstly the contractual constituent can demand a change in the current transportation. Secondly organizational departments (representatives of the drivers) can demand modifications and thirdly the Region Manager - financially responsible - can demand modifications as well. Finally several other stakeholders, e.g. municipalities and public transport platforms, from outside the organization, can request for modifications in the transportation as well.
distinction between small and large changes the demand is not segmented in different levels of complexity. These problems lead to extra difficulties in assigning employees to a job.
1. A wide variety of customers place requests. Because of the unpredictability of the moment in time at which customers place their requests large fluctuations in demand occur.
2. The differing complexity of requests is not determined, this hinders precise future workload forecasts.
Regarding capacity usage the Bedrijfsbureau is facing several problems. First of all the activities that are performed within the Bedrijfsbureau are very specific which means only skilled employees can perform the activities. Besides knowledge on used technology employees have to have region specific knowledge as well. The degree of technological knowledge of transport planners varies too much and therefore employees are not interchangeable. Employees are performing tasks for specific regions for a long period of time. They are not gaining knowledge on other geographical areas and therefore employees are not able to support each other when necessary. The knowledge of employees of the different disciplines is sub process specific, which also means that performing (some of) each others tasks is difficult. Employees are not interchangeable between disciplines and sub processes can only be performed within a specific discipline.
1. Employees do not possess the same amount of technological knowledge. They can not perform each others activities.
2. Employees do not possess identical regional knowledge. They can not perform each others activities.
3. The knowledge of employees of the different disciplines is very specific. Exchange of employees between disciplines to create capacity for specific activities is not possible.
Process technology
Within the Bedrijfsbureau much technology is used for the execution of processes. Because of the significance of these systems in the processes and working methods they will be made more explicit next. Every system overview is ended with a summary of encountered issues in the technology being used.
Hastus
The most important software tool is Hastus. Hastus is used as the main planning tool in which transport planners can insert and modify time-tables, blocks, duties and rosters. Hastus is an often used tool in the public transport sector and therefore is used by many competitors as well. Hastus is developed to be used as long term planning system. The basic HASTUS system provides the tools required for the production of efficient vehicle timetables and operator assignments. Other integrated modules offer solutions for mapping, customer information, daily transit operations, and performance analysis. The underlying integrated Hastus database, which has access to other systems within Arriva through provided integration tools, offers a complete source of transit operations data. Activities performed in Hastus are:
- Creation of stops, routes and insertion of times - Creation of time-tables
- Create blocks (rides, which are performed with one bus) - Create duties (the rides of a driver)
- Create rosters (duty patterns)
Transport planners of Arriva have access to optional modules in Hastus such as;
- Minbus; tool to increase the efficiency in time-tables (reduction of busses) - CrewOpt; tool to increase the effective usage of personnel (reduction of FTE’s) - Roster; calendar tool to increase the efficient planning of divergence packages The usage of the Hastus tool implies that production planners have to gain knowledge on this tool. The employees have to create specific rule sets including Collective Labour Agreements, regional agreements and even operating department specific agreements. These rule sets are made for every region and oftenly even for individual operating departments.
Within the Bedrijfsbureau a few significant shortcomings in the usage of Hastus are identified. These shortcomings and supplementary short explanations are enumerated below.
2. Hastus data is continuously adjusted. The delivery of consistent and qualitative good data from the Hastus database is not warranted. Modifications can be performed randomly by all transport planners and are not exchanged. The high number of transport planners modifying data results in a continuously changing database.
3. Data input is not uniform. The differing background (employees have been working at several different former transport companies) of the employees establishes different working methods resulting in data errors. The past has proven that the willingness to conform to uniform working methods is not optimal.
4. Hastus data used for valid packages is not protected or backed-up. During the validity of packages Hastus data is often modified, and no back-up of original data available. Very often errors in Hastus tools occur because the underlying data are modified incorrectly.
Additional:
· The acquaintance of transport developers with Hastus is insufficient. Certain processes are performed by hand while Hastus functionality can perform these processes automated.
· Specific Hastus knowledge is hardly shared and therefore not safeguarded. Some employees are able to gain more knowledge on Hastus than others. Personal skills, different degrees of accessibility to Giro Inc. (Hastus producer) and gained knowledge at a former employer play a significant role.
DIS
Another important program used within the Bedrijfsbureau is DIS. DIS is designed for short term planning with the purpose to be the guideline for the actual execution of the transport. DIS is fed with Hastus data, by means of packages including the required files. The conversion of Hastus files into packages is performed within the Bedrijfsbureau by the application managers. They deliver the packages, through DIS, to the operating departments in every region where regional production planners use them for the actual execution of the transport. They can mutate all possible changes in routes, bus usage or driver employment but they not make use of these abilities. In short, necessary modifications on behalf of short term planning schedules are done by planners of the Bedrijfsbureau. This means Hastus data has to be modified, converted to packages and delivered again to the region. Within the Bedrijfsbureau a few significant shortcomings in the usage of DIS are identified:
2. The acquaintance of production planners with DIS is insufficient. Often changes in DIS, on behalf of the daily execution, are not performed in the right manner or are not performed at all because of ignorance.
Additional:
· Delivery of packages is not guaranteed to be two weeks in advance of the day of execution. Therefore operational departments do not have sufficient time to perform all necessary activities concerning short term planning.
· Often errors occur during the conversion of Hastus files into DIS packages. In case of errors the files are given back to the transport planner for correction.
Data warehouse
Another system used within the Bedrijfsbureau is Data warehouse. This program is fed with data from several other systems within Arriva, including Hastus and DIS data. Data from Data warehouse are used by Management Information Administration to extract information from for management information.
Within the Bedrijfsbureau a few significant shortcomings in the usage of Data warehouse are identified. These shortcomings and supplementary short explanations are enumerated below.
1. No uniformity is established for the management information that is made available for contractual constituents. Every constituent receives specific reports. The construction of differing reports has implications on the processes of the Bedrijfsbureau which are not fully understood.
Additional:
· Errors uncovered in Data Warehouse are reported to transport planners without considering the causes of these errors. Because of the lack of knowledge on Date Warehouse, transport planners are not able to prevent future errors.
OVR and Arriva internet
1. Knowledge on the application is not secured. There is only one employee who has knowledge on these applications.
Additional:
· The lack of and too late delivery of overviews of changes result in problems for the delivery of digital customer information which has to be provided in advance as well.
· There is no unambiguous structure for the providing of public information. Formats for internet sites and public utterance do not exist.
6
Job design
The way an employee performs his job on a daily basis is largely influenced by the task responsibilities and attitude of the employee. Although the job descriptions of the Bedrijfsbureau give direction to these responsibilities several problems concerning job design are observed:
1. Responsibilities are unclear, and not mutually agreed nor documented. Afterwards hardly anyone can be held responsible for his actions.
2. No distinction in specific knowledge of employees is made by means of authorization. Errors, resulting from badly performed modifications, often occur.
Additional:
· Some employees are performing tasks for a small region others are performing the same tasks for large regions. This results in a too great variety in workloads.
· Tasks are not included in job descriptions. Employees with the same job descriptions are performing entirely different tasks.
5 Improving reliability
This chapter includes several proposals with which the delivery reliability of the Bedrijfsbureau is improved significantly. The proposals are related to the analysis in the preceding chapter. To guarantee a good understanding on the proposals the order of the paragraphs is slightly different from the preceding chapter.
1
Process type and characteristics
The general approach in which Bedrijfsbureau processes are managed are typified as Service Shop (Slack, Chambers, and Johnston, 2004) in the analysis. Although the Service shop approach seems the most appropriate approach for the Bedrijfsbureau to effectively perform its processes, there is a misfit with its volume to variety characteristics. The volume of the operations is low and the variety of the operations is high, which negatively influences the delivery reliability of the daily execution processes of the Bedrijfsbureau. To increase the volumes and reduce the variety a better distinction in incoming requests has to be made. Currently every incoming request is processed as a special request and therefore high variety is caused. Consequently this high variety negatively influences the volumes processed. A distinction between special and standard requests is very well suitable for the Bedrijfsbureau.
Figure 9;Process types (Slack, Chambers, and Johnston, 2004)
The handling of special requests is more complicated and therefore recommended to be handled as
individual projects. Special requests require processes dealing with highly customized, discrete
Figure 10;Process types (Slack, Chambers, and Johnston, 2004)
The great advantage of adapting a project approach for special requests, when performed correctly, is that the delivery reliability is improved significantly.
According to Graham and Longman (2006) the main criteria for defining quality are being on time, within budget, and to specification. But they also notice that meeting these quality indicators is far less important than achieving the project’s core objective. They claim that the three indicators can never be equally important to the customer and that one or, at most, two of the three measures must take precedence. In case of the Bedrijfsbureau meeting customer specifications and delivering in time would increase quality and more specific the delivery reliability.
Only by adopting two types of approaches for request types reliable delivery of services is guaranteed. The distinction between two types of incoming requests will have a positive influence on the delivery reliability. This is mainly because of the improved planning and control possibilities of both request types. Meaning the way planning and controlling activities can be adjusted to the type of request.
1. By adopting a method in which standard and special requests are divided the amount of flexibility given to customers is reduced without reducing the quality. Standard request can be processed faster in standardized processes. Special requests are handled as projects and handled as such.
2. By involving the customer in projects processes become more customized, but less susceptible for continuous adjustments. Customers can define their own request, after which a good consideration on the impact on throughput times is made and delivery dates can be promised.
Description of daily execution process
By having concluded that no process design was available to the Bedrijfsbureau a good process model is developed in the preceding chapter. Analysis of this model revealed several possibilities for improvements. These proposals are elaborated in three aggregation levels below. The main goal of the maps is to establish a clear view on the proposed possibilities for improvements in the design of the current process.
1 High level process map
The problems presented in chapter 4 are the immediate cause for the necessity to design the processes of the Bedrijfsbureau in a different way. The proposed distinction and processing of two separate types of incoming request in the preceding paragraph, e.g. standard and special requests, is elaborated next.
Figure 11; Future High Level Process Map, Bedrijfsbureau Arriva
request is marked as special or standard. Standard requests are pushed forward to the back office to someone who is capable of handling the request as soon as possible. Special requests are handled as projects by means of the process steps; establishing a project team, define the project, advice region managers and finally the actual execution of modification. The processes of handling both standard and special requests are elaborated next.
2 Outlined process map
One of the activities in the front office is the classification of incoming requests. This classification is done on basis of the possibility to directly handle a standard request in the back office or the necessity to start a project to handle a special request. Standard requests are pushed forward to the back office directly, where the necessary modifications are performed directly (D).
Special requests have to be handled in close collaboration between both front and back office employees and customers. For special requests establishing a project team (A) is of essential importance: transport developers are responsible for the establishment of this project team, and should make a decision on parties to be involved (1). Once the project team is formed, the actual project and its goal(s) should be defined (B). This is done by discussing the initial request (2) and considering the pros and cons. The actual request has to be carefully formulated and has to be approved by the applicant. When the agreement of the applicant is received a project plan has to be written (3) by the team members. During the creation of the plan the most important person to advise to (4) is the Region Manager (C), since he is held responsible for the actual implementation. When the project plan is written the operating departments have to be involved (5). In the last processes (D) the actual modifications in the time table (6), blocks, duties and rosters (7) and the correction of public information (8) are performed.
3 Detailed process map
To exactly describe the necessary process changes a more detailed process mapof the proposed design is made as well. This detailed process map includes the processes of the four disciplines of the Bedrijfsbureau and all relations to other departments or external organizations. The detailed process map is composed of the same main processes as the higher level process maps.
Classification of incoming requests
Establishment of a project team
When a special request enters the Bedrijfsbureau it is pushed forward by the front office. The concerned transport developer will be charged with the correct completion of the request. Firstly the transport developer has to estimate the impact of the request; e.g. which impact has the request on other stakeholders (contractual agreements), which impact has the request on the current performance, which impact has the request on internal processes. Once the transport planner has an idea of the impact of the request he is able to oversee whether or not the request has to be elaborated by a project team. When it is decided to elaborate the request, the transport developer has to address departments and disciplines of Arriva, as well as the requester, who should be involved in the project (1).
Defining the project
When all project members are available the request and its consequences have to be discussed (2). Important is to involve all stakeholders in this discussion. When the request leads to unconquerable complaints of other stakeholders, the differing interests have to be carefully evaluated. The request still can be turned down during this discussion process. Once the team members agree on the necessity of executing the request a project plan has to be written (3). The extent of this project plan depends on the impact of the request. The actual written project plan involves the benefits that will be gained by implementing the plan, but also the possible disadvantages are considered. During the creation of the project plan team members use their expertise to advise one another and discuss several possibilities.
Advise Region Manager
Once the project plan is written, a thorough advice can be given to the responsible Region Manager. Transport developers should be consultative in a proactive and innovative manner. They are very suitable to suggest a composition if improvements to all stakeholders, whenever a request of one of these stakeholders is placed.
