Wim:
00:00:00
The Flow Efficiency is the ratio of time a task is actively being worked on
Wim:
00:00:04
to the total time it spends in the system.
Wim:
00:00:06
An MSP example is a ticket might be worked for an hour, but it's in our
Wim:
00:00:12
system for 200 hours, 300 hours.
Wim:
00:00:15
So you can just divide that and see how efficient the system is.
Wim:
00:00:18
You're not counting number of tickets.
Wim:
00:00:20
You're looking at the individual ticket or perhaps the project and
Wim:
00:00:24
how much time has been entered on it.
Wim:
00:00:25
And what's the total elapsed time from start to finish?
Wim:
00:00:28
So that Office 365 migration, perhaps the technicians entered 20 hours on it,
Wim:
00:00:33
but it was over two months, which is, you've got to calculate the number of
Wim:
00:00:36
hours and days over two months, over 60 days, and then you'll see, oh, it's
Wim:
00:00:41
only like a half percent efficient.
Wim:
00:00:43
And our goal is to get closer to 100%.
Wim:
00:00:45
As soon as it's approved, start it right away.
Wim:
00:00:48
Get it done.
Wim:
00:00:49
, we're looking purely at the work being done.
Wim:
00:00:51
So, if you take this, apply this example to a car factory, to go to
Wim:
00:00:54
a Tesla car going to the factory, is I'm sure they're looking for like 99.
Wim:
00:00:59
9 percent efficiency.
Wim:
00:01:00
That car is never sitting still.
Wim:
00:01:02
There's always something being done on it.
Wim:
00:01:04
It's actively being worked on, produced, until it's out the door
Wim:
00:01:07
and being shipped to the customer.
Wim:
00:01:09
And we, so we don't look at the people on it.
Wim:
00:01:11
The people might be idle.
Wim:
00:01:12
But the work is being maximized, and for velocity, getting through that flow,
Steve:
00:01:18
Thank you, that helps, because I was just about to give you a hard
Steve:
00:01:21
time about, technician utilization.
Steve:
00:01:24
and knowing that, we should only be able to get what, 80 or 90%
Steve:
00:01:28
utilization out of a technician before they're just making up figures.
Wim:
00:01:33
that's high, 80 or 90 is high, like we've, we never get our,
Wim:
00:01:36
anybody on our team to that level,
Steve:
00:01:38
what are you finding your teams at?
Wim:
00:01:39
probably like 65, and that's taking into account vacations and
Wim:
00:01:43
sick time and everything, right?
Wim:
00:01:44
But of the time we pay them, they're probably 65 percent utilized.
Wim:
00:01:47
but we focus less on it, we just really focus on the flow of the
Wim:
00:01:50
work, keeping the work in progress down, keeping stuff, getting stuff
Wim:
00:01:53
done, improving that velocity.
Wim:
00:01:55
And if they're working the priority of the tickets that's been defined by the
Wim:
00:01:58
team or by a manager, then the utilization is really out of their hands anyways.
Wim:
00:02:03
They just got to be focused on doing that one thing at a time and on to the next.
Wim:
00:02:06
And what it is, not their problem.
Wim:
00:02:08
And so I've seen is that we've been so focused in the past on the utilization,
Wim:
00:02:12
but our throughput is suffering.
Wim:
00:02:13
Our work in progress is suffering.
Wim:
00:02:14
The quality is suffering and we're losing clients.
Wim:
00:02:17
And so by taking this flow perspective on it, it's helped with the by
Wim:
00:02:21
product is better utilization and, and better revenue, better profit.
Wim:
00:02:24
but we've got to focus on the flow and then the other things, just trust
Wim:
00:02:27
that those, those will come through.
Wim:
00:02:28
We've got to take care of the clients and be quick, not only at responding,
Wim:
00:02:31
but also at resolving those issues.
Wim:
00:02:33
with good quality and how it's done, doesn't matter.
Wim:
00:02:36
So we don't focus much on billable hours anymore.
Wim:
00:02:38
we look at our total project hours because that's non recurring
Wim:
00:02:41
revenue and that's the extra money.
Wim:
00:02:42
Like the recurring covers or costs and the project billable hours are important.
Wim:
00:02:46
but on a day to day basis, it's, are the people getting the task completed?
Wim:
00:02:50
Because we can enter as many billable hours as we want, but if we're not
Wim:
00:02:53
getting the work done, the client's not happy, and we've got to come in
Wim:
00:02:56
and patch up relationships, or they don't give us more work, or they leave.
Wim:
00:02:59
So we really focus on the work being done effectively, flowing through really well.
Steve:
00:03:04
with flow efficiency, how often should we be
Steve:
00:03:07
monitoring this as management?
Wim:
00:03:08
This is pretty much daily.
Wim:
00:03:10
So we're looking at, on the Kanban board, we'd be looking at the in
Wim:
00:03:13
progress column, and are these tickets actually being worked?
Wim:
00:03:17
The technician is saying it's in progress.
Wim:
00:03:19
Have there actually been time entries today?
Wim:
00:03:21
Otherwise, we're fooling ourselves.
Wim:
00:03:22
We're calling it in progress, but it hasn't been touched today.
Wim:
00:03:24
So, what are they working on?
Wim:
00:03:25
On something else?
Wim:
00:03:26
So, we don't want that work fitting, waiting anywhere.
Wim:
00:03:28
It's like the expression of, waiting fruit, if you leave fruit
Wim:
00:03:31
on the counter, what happens?
Wim:
00:03:32
Goes bad pretty quick, especially in the warm weather.
Wim:
00:03:34
So, we want to, and nothing should be sitting and growing
Wim:
00:03:37
hair on it, that's for sure.
Wim:
00:03:38
. so you can do it with the Kanban boards and those metrics.
Wim:
00:03:41
I've seen some mock ups, like one of my favorite books, which I recommend,
Wim:
00:03:44
is called Making Work Visible by Dominika de Grande, and she has some
Wim:
00:03:48
really nice mock ups of that in her book of visualizing these time thieves.
Wim:
00:03:53
So work waiting is like a time thief, it's stealing our time.
Wim:
00:03:55
We're gonna high work in progress is a time thief.
Wim:
00:03:58
She's got a nice graphic showing a timeline of the the the work is being
Wim:
00:04:01
touched for ten minutes, waits a day.
Wim:
00:04:04
Touched for ten minutes, waiting a day.
Wim:
00:04:06
So there's graphics that could be generated like that.
Wim:
00:04:08
I haven't seen too many tools for that against PSA data.
Wim:
00:04:11
I think people get the concept if they see that diagram, like,
Wim:
00:04:14
oh wow, look at our time entries.
Wim:
00:04:15
It's been touched in like half hour, quarter hour increments here and there.
Wim:
00:04:19
How can we do this in one sitting?
Steve:
00:04:21
can you give me a real life example of how the flow efficiency has, kind of
Steve:
00:04:26
changed the way you think about your MSP and, how you, , make strategic changes.
Wim:
00:04:31
One thing that's come out of this is we used to have a lot of
Wim:
00:04:34
projects in process and you kind of jump between all these projects.
Wim:
00:04:37
You give them a little bit of love here and there, but not getting them done.
Wim:
00:04:40
Not even pushing them forward, like we're spending time and trying
Wim:
00:04:43
to get up to speed with where we were a week or two weeks ago.
Wim:
00:04:46
Now we're going to take a view of, let's start this and finish this in like a week.
Wim:
00:04:50
Let's just push, push hard on this project and then on to the next project or client.
Wim:
00:04:54
And that's just made it a lot efficient, a lot more accurate and better on the team.
Wim:
00:04:58
Because you're, you're wasting so much time remembering what you did
Wim:
00:05:01
before or what somebody else had done.
Wim:
00:05:03
Um, so we try to focus on one project at a time, one ticket at a time.
Wim:
00:05:06
And we're a lot more efficient that way.
Wim:
00:05:08
Because when you're only working on one thing, it's pretty easy.
Wim:
00:05:10
When you're juggling a lot of things, it's just mentally overwhelming to do that.
Wim:
00:05:13
And that's, that's why things are waiting is because people are, your whip is high.
Wim:
00:05:16
So that if you look at this particular ticket and it's waiting for like
Wim:
00:05:19
two days or a week, it's because the people are not doing nothing.
Wim:
00:05:22
They're not tooling the thumbs.
Wim:
00:05:23
They're busy doing another ten things in that gap.
Wim:
00:05:25
So by doing one at a time, actually all get done, completed quicker.
Wim:
00:05:29
And that first one gets done quicker as well.
Wim:
00:05:31
Yeah.
Wim:
00:05:31
And there's some neat, team building exercise that can be done
Wim:
00:05:33
around this as well with teams.
Wim:
00:05:35
Um, I can share those separately.
Wim:
00:05:36
Of, yeah, just showing the importance of the single piece flow, getting
Wim:
00:05:40
stuff out one thing at a time.
Steve:
00:05:42
what kind of misconceptions or mistakes do MSPs make when
Steve:
00:05:46
considering flow efficiency?
Steve:
00:05:48
Besides the mistake that, you've alluded to in, other episodes, that this is
Steve:
00:05:53
all, , very much like lean manufacturing.
Steve:
00:05:56
Can Ban stuff that you are, taking and, turning into something for an MSP.
Steve:
00:06:03
Not that it can't be done.
Steve:
00:06:04
It's just not the way most MSPs operate.
Steve:
00:06:07
So, when an MSP is saying, okay, I want to start taking this manufacturing
Steve:
00:06:13
approach and using Can Ban, what kind of mistakes might they make when
Steve:
00:06:17
getting started with flow efficiency?
Wim:
00:06:19
Well, it's the old habits, old thinking dies hard.
Wim:
00:06:23
And trying to combine that will sabotage the success of it.
Wim:
00:06:27
So...
Wim:
00:06:27
I think focusing on time utilization of each engineer will be a
Wim:
00:06:31
threat to improving the flow.
Wim:
00:06:33
Because our technicians could be at that 80 percent billable,
Wim:
00:06:36
but yet our flow is horrible.
Wim:
00:06:37
Flow efficiency is bad.
Wim:
00:06:39
So we've got to focus on the work rather than on the people.
Steve:
00:06:42
And I think that would be the hardest for me, because, , we were
Steve:
00:06:46
talking about technician utilization, and, you're saying that you don't even
Steve:
00:06:51
worry about utilization in your MSP,
Wim:
00:06:53
It's there, but as a secondary or tertiary kind of thing.
Wim:
00:06:56
But primarily, is the work getting done?
Wim:
00:06:59
Are we performing?
Wim:
00:07:00
Is there output?
Steve:
00:07:01
yeah, and I guess I'll, . rephrase that.
Steve:
00:07:03
If tech utilization across the board's at 20%, then you know you've,
Steve:
00:07:08
overstaffed, and, if you need to make some cuts, you could, hypothetically,
Wim:
00:07:13
Potentially, yep.
Steve:
00:07:14
but, , it's not like you're sitting there and looking at tech
Steve:
00:07:18
utilization on a daily basis.
Steve:
00:07:20
That might be something you're looking at more monthly or quarterly.
Steve:
00:07:24
, because you're more focused on some of these other productivity
Steve:
00:07:27
metrics that, , align better with, the way you do your business.
Wim:
00:07:31
Definitely we de emphasized the billable utilization percentages and such.
Wim:
00:07:35
It's stressful, it's controversial, doesn't necessarily impact
Wim:
00:07:39
the results and performance.
Wim:
00:07:40
Because people can be busy, but are they productive?
Wim:
00:07:43
So we want to ban the expression of busy, like hashtag ban busy,
Wim:
00:07:47
and focus on productivity.
Wim:
00:07:49
What are they producing?
Steve:
00:07:50
I gotta say, that's something I'm even guilty of is I make myself
Steve:
00:07:54
busy, but I'm making myself productive.
Steve:
00:07:57
So I can't wait to read the Phoenix Project because I think
Steve:
00:08:00
that's going to change my life.
Wim:
00:08:01
Yeah, so there's one graph in the book.
Wim:
00:08:03
I can't remember the page number, it's in one of my, uh, slides and presentations.
Wim:
00:08:07
but there's a graph showing if somebody's, let's say, 20% utilized
Wim:
00:08:11
their response time is awesome.
Wim:
00:08:12
They're doing really well.
Wim:
00:08:13
Even like 30, 40, 50 percent is you can ask them to do more.
Wim:
00:08:16
They get it done.
Wim:
00:08:17
But when you get to 80 percent or 90%, that response time
Wim:
00:08:19
is like through the roof.
Wim:
00:08:20
It's this, this big curve that goes up to the top of the graph.
Wim:
00:08:23
And if somebody's 100%, nothing's getting done.
Wim:
00:08:26
So, we don't want our people busier than like, seventy or eighty
Wim:
00:08:29
percent of their working hours.
Wim:
00:08:31
So, that might, if you look at.
Wim:
00:08:32
Compared to what they're paid, that might only be 60, 50 to 60% if the response time
Wim:
00:08:36
and resolution time is really important is people gotta be there and available.
Wim:
00:08:40
So even when we hired a dispatcher a year, two years ago, is her
Wim:
00:08:43
definition of providing value is like being busy all day.
Wim:
00:08:46
'cause that's.
Wim:
00:08:46
What brought her energy or just feeling good is be busy all the time.
Wim:
00:08:50
We're like, no, we don't want you so busy that you can't respond
Wim:
00:08:53
to when a request comes in.
Wim:
00:08:54
Like when a customer calls, you've got to be available.
Wim:
00:08:56
We always want people to be available.
Wim:
00:08:58
The work is flowing, nothing hangs up.
Wim:
00:09:00
And so we can't have any bottlenecks or any risk of a bottleneck
Wim:
00:09:03
because somebody's running at 90%.
Wim:
00:09:05
So we've got to carve that back or add more people.
Wim:
00:09:07
so I'm a believer in having more than enough capacity.
Wim:
00:09:10
So that work keeps going.
Wim:
00:09:11
It's like the highway.
Wim:
00:09:12
It's, that extra lane can make a huge difference on it so that
Wim:
00:09:15
it's not running jam packed.
Wim:
00:09:16
A lot of other analogies that
Wim:
00:09:18
wim-kerkhoff_3_10-25-2023_084053: could
Wim:
00:09:18
be used there.
00:00:00
The Flow Efficiency is the ratio of time a task is actively being worked on
Wim:
00:00:04
to the total time it spends in the system.
Wim:
00:00:06
An MSP example is a ticket might be worked for an hour, but it's in our
Wim:
00:00:12
system for 200 hours, 300 hours.
Wim:
00:00:15
So you can just divide that and see how efficient the system is.
Wim:
00:00:18
You're not counting number of tickets.
Wim:
00:00:20
You're looking at the individual ticket or perhaps the project and
Wim:
00:00:24
how much time has been entered on it.
Wim:
00:00:25
And what's the total elapsed time from start to finish?
Wim:
00:00:28
So that Office 365 migration, perhaps the technicians entered 20 hours on it,
Wim:
00:00:33
but it was over two months, which is, you've got to calculate the number of
Wim:
00:00:36
hours and days over two months, over 60 days, and then you'll see, oh, it's
Wim:
00:00:41
only like a half percent efficient.
Wim:
00:00:43
And our goal is to get closer to 100%.
Wim:
00:00:45
As soon as it's approved, start it right away.
Wim:
00:00:48
Get it done.
Wim:
00:00:49
, we're looking purely at the work being done.
Wim:
00:00:51
So, if you take this, apply this example to a car factory, to go to
Wim:
00:00:54
a Tesla car going to the factory, is I'm sure they're looking for like 99.
Wim:
00:00:59
9 percent efficiency.
Wim:
00:01:00
That car is never sitting still.
Wim:
00:01:02
There's always something being done on it.
Wim:
00:01:04
It's actively being worked on, produced, until it's out the door
Wim:
00:01:07
and being shipped to the customer.
Wim:
00:01:09
And we, so we don't look at the people on it.
Wim:
00:01:11
The people might be idle.
Wim:
00:01:12
But the work is being maximized, and for velocity, getting through that flow,
Steve:
00:01:18
Thank you, that helps, because I was just about to give you a hard
Steve:
00:01:21
time about, technician utilization.
Steve:
00:01:24
and knowing that, we should only be able to get what, 80 or 90%
Steve:
00:01:28
utilization out of a technician before they're just making up figures.
Wim:
00:01:33
that's high, 80 or 90 is high, like we've, we never get our,
Wim:
00:01:36
anybody on our team to that level,
Steve:
00:01:38
what are you finding your teams at?
Wim:
00:01:39
probably like 65, and that's taking into account vacations and
Wim:
00:01:43
sick time and everything, right?
Wim:
00:01:44
But of the time we pay them, they're probably 65 percent utilized.
Wim:
00:01:47
but we focus less on it, we just really focus on the flow of the
Wim:
00:01:50
work, keeping the work in progress down, keeping stuff, getting stuff
Wim:
00:01:53
done, improving that velocity.
Wim:
00:01:55
And if they're working the priority of the tickets that's been defined by the
Wim:
00:01:58
team or by a manager, then the utilization is really out of their hands anyways.
Wim:
00:02:03
They just got to be focused on doing that one thing at a time and on to the next.
Wim:
00:02:06
And what it is, not their problem.
Wim:
00:02:08
And so I've seen is that we've been so focused in the past on the utilization,
Wim:
00:02:12
but our throughput is suffering.
Wim:
00:02:13
Our work in progress is suffering.
Wim:
00:02:14
The quality is suffering and we're losing clients.
Wim:
00:02:17
And so by taking this flow perspective on it, it's helped with the by
Wim:
00:02:21
product is better utilization and, and better revenue, better profit.
Wim:
00:02:24
but we've got to focus on the flow and then the other things, just trust
Wim:
00:02:27
that those, those will come through.
Wim:
00:02:28
We've got to take care of the clients and be quick, not only at responding,
Wim:
00:02:31
but also at resolving those issues.
Wim:
00:02:33
with good quality and how it's done, doesn't matter.
Wim:
00:02:36
So we don't focus much on billable hours anymore.
Wim:
00:02:38
we look at our total project hours because that's non recurring
Wim:
00:02:41
revenue and that's the extra money.
Wim:
00:02:42
Like the recurring covers or costs and the project billable hours are important.
Wim:
00:02:46
but on a day to day basis, it's, are the people getting the task completed?
Wim:
00:02:50
Because we can enter as many billable hours as we want, but if we're not
Wim:
00:02:53
getting the work done, the client's not happy, and we've got to come in
Wim:
00:02:56
and patch up relationships, or they don't give us more work, or they leave.
Wim:
00:02:59
So we really focus on the work being done effectively, flowing through really well.
Steve:
00:03:04
with flow efficiency, how often should we be
Steve:
00:03:07
monitoring this as management?
Wim:
00:03:08
This is pretty much daily.
Wim:
00:03:10
So we're looking at, on the Kanban board, we'd be looking at the in
Wim:
00:03:13
progress column, and are these tickets actually being worked?
Wim:
00:03:17
The technician is saying it's in progress.
Wim:
00:03:19
Have there actually been time entries today?
Wim:
00:03:21
Otherwise, we're fooling ourselves.
Wim:
00:03:22
We're calling it in progress, but it hasn't been touched today.
Wim:
00:03:24
So, what are they working on?
Wim:
00:03:25
On something else?
Wim:
00:03:26
So, we don't want that work fitting, waiting anywhere.
Wim:
00:03:28
It's like the expression of, waiting fruit, if you leave fruit
Wim:
00:03:31
on the counter, what happens?
Wim:
00:03:32
Goes bad pretty quick, especially in the warm weather.
Wim:
00:03:34
So, we want to, and nothing should be sitting and growing
Wim:
00:03:37
hair on it, that's for sure.
Wim:
00:03:38
. so you can do it with the Kanban boards and those metrics.
Wim:
00:03:41
I've seen some mock ups, like one of my favorite books, which I recommend,
Wim:
00:03:44
is called Making Work Visible by Dominika de Grande, and she has some
Wim:
00:03:48
really nice mock ups of that in her book of visualizing these time thieves.
Wim:
00:03:53
So work waiting is like a time thief, it's stealing our time.
Wim:
00:03:55
We're gonna high work in progress is a time thief.
Wim:
00:03:58
She's got a nice graphic showing a timeline of the the the work is being
Wim:
00:04:01
touched for ten minutes, waits a day.
Wim:
00:04:04
Touched for ten minutes, waiting a day.
Wim:
00:04:06
So there's graphics that could be generated like that.
Wim:
00:04:08
I haven't seen too many tools for that against PSA data.
Wim:
00:04:11
I think people get the concept if they see that diagram, like,
Wim:
00:04:14
oh wow, look at our time entries.
Wim:
00:04:15
It's been touched in like half hour, quarter hour increments here and there.
Wim:
00:04:19
How can we do this in one sitting?
Steve:
00:04:21
can you give me a real life example of how the flow efficiency has, kind of
Steve:
00:04:26
changed the way you think about your MSP and, how you, , make strategic changes.
Wim:
00:04:31
One thing that's come out of this is we used to have a lot of
Wim:
00:04:34
projects in process and you kind of jump between all these projects.
Wim:
00:04:37
You give them a little bit of love here and there, but not getting them done.
Wim:
00:04:40
Not even pushing them forward, like we're spending time and trying
Wim:
00:04:43
to get up to speed with where we were a week or two weeks ago.
Wim:
00:04:46
Now we're going to take a view of, let's start this and finish this in like a week.
Wim:
00:04:50
Let's just push, push hard on this project and then on to the next project or client.
Wim:
00:04:54
And that's just made it a lot efficient, a lot more accurate and better on the team.
Wim:
00:04:58
Because you're, you're wasting so much time remembering what you did
Wim:
00:05:01
before or what somebody else had done.
Wim:
00:05:03
Um, so we try to focus on one project at a time, one ticket at a time.
Wim:
00:05:06
And we're a lot more efficient that way.
Wim:
00:05:08
Because when you're only working on one thing, it's pretty easy.
Wim:
00:05:10
When you're juggling a lot of things, it's just mentally overwhelming to do that.
Wim:
00:05:13
And that's, that's why things are waiting is because people are, your whip is high.
Wim:
00:05:16
So that if you look at this particular ticket and it's waiting for like
Wim:
00:05:19
two days or a week, it's because the people are not doing nothing.
Wim:
00:05:22
They're not tooling the thumbs.
Wim:
00:05:23
They're busy doing another ten things in that gap.
Wim:
00:05:25
So by doing one at a time, actually all get done, completed quicker.
Wim:
00:05:29
And that first one gets done quicker as well.
Wim:
00:05:31
Yeah.
Wim:
00:05:31
And there's some neat, team building exercise that can be done
Wim:
00:05:33
around this as well with teams.
Wim:
00:05:35
Um, I can share those separately.
Wim:
00:05:36
Of, yeah, just showing the importance of the single piece flow, getting
Wim:
00:05:40
stuff out one thing at a time.
Steve:
00:05:42
what kind of misconceptions or mistakes do MSPs make when
Steve:
00:05:46
considering flow efficiency?
Steve:
00:05:48
Besides the mistake that, you've alluded to in, other episodes, that this is
Steve:
00:05:53
all, , very much like lean manufacturing.
Steve:
00:05:56
Can Ban stuff that you are, taking and, turning into something for an MSP.
Steve:
00:06:03
Not that it can't be done.
Steve:
00:06:04
It's just not the way most MSPs operate.
Steve:
00:06:07
So, when an MSP is saying, okay, I want to start taking this manufacturing
Steve:
00:06:13
approach and using Can Ban, what kind of mistakes might they make when
Steve:
00:06:17
getting started with flow efficiency?
Wim:
00:06:19
Well, it's the old habits, old thinking dies hard.
Wim:
00:06:23
And trying to combine that will sabotage the success of it.
Wim:
00:06:27
So...
Wim:
00:06:27
I think focusing on time utilization of each engineer will be a
Wim:
00:06:31
threat to improving the flow.
Wim:
00:06:33
Because our technicians could be at that 80 percent billable,
Wim:
00:06:36
but yet our flow is horrible.
Wim:
00:06:37
Flow efficiency is bad.
Wim:
00:06:39
So we've got to focus on the work rather than on the people.
Steve:
00:06:42
And I think that would be the hardest for me, because, , we were
Steve:
00:06:46
talking about technician utilization, and, you're saying that you don't even
Steve:
00:06:51
worry about utilization in your MSP,
Wim:
00:06:53
It's there, but as a secondary or tertiary kind of thing.
Wim:
00:06:56
But primarily, is the work getting done?
Wim:
00:06:59
Are we performing?
Wim:
00:07:00
Is there output?
Steve:
00:07:01
yeah, and I guess I'll, . rephrase that.
Steve:
00:07:03
If tech utilization across the board's at 20%, then you know you've,
Steve:
00:07:08
overstaffed, and, if you need to make some cuts, you could, hypothetically,
Wim:
00:07:13
Potentially, yep.
Steve:
00:07:14
but, , it's not like you're sitting there and looking at tech
Steve:
00:07:18
utilization on a daily basis.
Steve:
00:07:20
That might be something you're looking at more monthly or quarterly.
Steve:
00:07:24
, because you're more focused on some of these other productivity
Steve:
00:07:27
metrics that, , align better with, the way you do your business.
Wim:
00:07:31
Definitely we de emphasized the billable utilization percentages and such.
Wim:
00:07:35
It's stressful, it's controversial, doesn't necessarily impact
Wim:
00:07:39
the results and performance.
Wim:
00:07:40
Because people can be busy, but are they productive?
Wim:
00:07:43
So we want to ban the expression of busy, like hashtag ban busy,
Wim:
00:07:47
and focus on productivity.
Wim:
00:07:49
What are they producing?
Steve:
00:07:50
I gotta say, that's something I'm even guilty of is I make myself
Steve:
00:07:54
busy, but I'm making myself productive.
Steve:
00:07:57
So I can't wait to read the Phoenix Project because I think
Steve:
00:08:00
that's going to change my life.
Wim:
00:08:01
Yeah, so there's one graph in the book.
Wim:
00:08:03
I can't remember the page number, it's in one of my, uh, slides and presentations.
Wim:
00:08:07
but there's a graph showing if somebody's, let's say, 20% utilized
Wim:
00:08:11
their response time is awesome.
Wim:
00:08:12
They're doing really well.
Wim:
00:08:13
Even like 30, 40, 50 percent is you can ask them to do more.
Wim:
00:08:16
They get it done.
Wim:
00:08:17
But when you get to 80 percent or 90%, that response time
Wim:
00:08:19
is like through the roof.
Wim:
00:08:20
It's this, this big curve that goes up to the top of the graph.
Wim:
00:08:23
And if somebody's 100%, nothing's getting done.
Wim:
00:08:26
So, we don't want our people busier than like, seventy or eighty
Wim:
00:08:29
percent of their working hours.
Wim:
00:08:31
So, that might, if you look at.
Wim:
00:08:32
Compared to what they're paid, that might only be 60, 50 to 60% if the response time
Wim:
00:08:36
and resolution time is really important is people gotta be there and available.
Wim:
00:08:40
So even when we hired a dispatcher a year, two years ago, is her
Wim:
00:08:43
definition of providing value is like being busy all day.
Wim:
00:08:46
'cause that's.
Wim:
00:08:46
What brought her energy or just feeling good is be busy all the time.
Wim:
00:08:50
We're like, no, we don't want you so busy that you can't respond
Wim:
00:08:53
to when a request comes in.
Wim:
00:08:54
Like when a customer calls, you've got to be available.
Wim:
00:08:56
We always want people to be available.
Wim:
00:08:58
The work is flowing, nothing hangs up.
Wim:
00:09:00
And so we can't have any bottlenecks or any risk of a bottleneck
Wim:
00:09:03
because somebody's running at 90%.
Wim:
00:09:05
So we've got to carve that back or add more people.
Wim:
00:09:07
so I'm a believer in having more than enough capacity.
Wim:
00:09:10
So that work keeps going.
Wim:
00:09:11
It's like the highway.
Wim:
00:09:12
It's, that extra lane can make a huge difference on it so that
Wim:
00:09:15
it's not running jam packed.
Wim:
00:09:16
A lot of other analogies that
Wim:
00:09:18
wim-kerkhoff_3_10-25-2023_084053: could
Wim:
00:09:18
be used there.
