Chapter 1 - Where is your money really going?

 Sue and Simon unpack Chapter 1 - Where is your money really going? from our book "Every Second Counts: How to Achieve Business Excellence, Transform Operational Productivity, and Deliver Extraordinary Results."
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Transcript

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Analyzing Time and Money in Business

Speaker 1 0:05

Welcome to the Productivity Podcast . Today we're going to talk about Chapter One in the book , our book . Every Second Counts , which is around . Where is your money really going , sue , who is the main author , if I'm being honest , joins me yet again , hi , sue .

Speaker 2 0:21

Hello .

Speaker 1 0:22

So before we just kind of , at a high level , work through Chapter One , do you want to talk about the way the book was structured and your thoughts on how people should use it ?

Speaker 2 0:33

The book's intended as something that you dip in and out of to answer questions , and the chapters are actually based around sort of the 10 questions that we get asked most often . So the intention was that if it's a question you're asking yourself about your operation , you can dip into that chapter . There's a bit of background and context around what's happening , kind of how you can find out more about it , how to think about it . There's also , then , some case studies that show how people in a range of industries and sectors have tackled a similar issue , and then there's also a quick win section . So , without you having to do bring experts like us in , without having to work with anybody else , then there's some suggestions for how you could make a start yourselves . So it's intended to be really practical . I'm facing this question challenge , right . Let's have a read of the chapter and see how it helps me .

Speaker 1 1:28

Okay . So for those that are old enough to remember , it's not going to be Jack and Ory . You're not going to be reading it , although audio books are a popular thing now , so maybe there is an option . If I'm reading it , probably you get to sleep quicker , but yeah , it's not designed to be that . So these are kind of synopses of each chapter . Let's dive in then chapter one . Where is your money really going ?

Speaker 2 1:50

So this is based on the question that we get asked that there'll be a lot of businesses where they allocate budget to you know , stores , restaurants , warehouses , shift time , whatever so but they don't actually know how they're spending the time . So they might know what the hours are , but they don't know within that how time is spent . So it's talking about the techniques that we use , which is efficiency study , to look at overall where time is spent . So what the portion of time is spent with customers , how much of a portion of time is spent on the core tasks that really drive a difference , how much is spent on things like admin or meetings , or things that are perhaps filling time but might not necessarily have value , depending on the role in the sector that you're looking at .

Speaker 1 2:41

So questions , key questions , it could help you answer . Then there's a few that I'll reel off . How much time are you spending with customers versus complete in head down tasks quite relevant at the moment in a rising cost challenge . How much admin does your team do ? What extra work do areas manage to give you , give your teams ? How much down taxing is there when team , when the team numbers on shift , outstrip the work they do ? How long do you spend moving in counting stock ? Where is my ineffective time by time of day ? So lots of quite big Fundamental business questions that , in a world where everybody's striving for cost , I think I just , at the time of recording today , published a Guardian article on LinkedIn around Brewdog and some others , capital , I think , moving away from the real living wage Because they can't afford the differential anymore . So they're kind of moving back to national living wage or somewhere some greenest in the middle . So really relevant , any other good uses that it that it brings ?

Speaker 2 3:46

Well , the other thing is it looks at kind of how you can use benchmarking and obviously We've got lots of benchmark dates that we can then share with people when we've done these studies . So it's really interesting to know that , if you're aware house what proportion of you tap your time you spend , for example , counting stock versus picking stock and and versus kind of how other people , similar businesses , would do , it is interesting you know customer time , food prep time if you're a restaurant , cafe .

Speaker 1 4:17

And the case study in this chapter is really interesting . So example one a business providing expert B2B service found that only 10% of total time was spent on the part of the service that their clients valued .

Speaker 2 4:28

Yeah .

Speaker 1 4:29

So 90% of the time doing stuff that either was non-value add or that their clients didn't didn't value . So Again , big figures on big payroll members . So small percentage shifts and changes in those . Some quick wins , easy to get at , which is explained in the book . Others clearly need more expert help and the benchmarking helps you align .

Speaker 2 4:51

But Well , the great thing about Understanding where your money spent , it allows you to really target and focus reference effectively , because we've all worked in businesses and know that actually having enough time and the internal capacity to drive change Is it's one of the things that limits your ability to do it . So you want to make sure , if you do it making changes , you focus in them where they have in the biggest impact . So , understanding , if this is something that's half a percent of my time versus 10% of my time , you're going to have to go to 10% one , because even if you totally eliminate half percent time one , you've only changed half percent , whereas if it's something that's taken up 10% of your time , you've got a much bigger scope to have an impact on your business .

Speaker 1 5:35

Yeah , I remember somebody once telling me that they were really proud . No , I felt a bit bad actually because it felt like a burst of bubble , but they were really proud that they cut it half an hour process in half so down to 15 minutes . Great and great bit of work . You know , really solid analysis , really solid methodology , really solid new process . Then got to the kind of crunch of brilliant . So how often do you do it ? And the answer was once a month .

Speaker 2 5:59

So say 15 minutes a quarter .

Speaker 1 6:01

They couldn't realize the benefit of . And then , when you actually looked at the data in terms of what chapter one's all about , if they made a 10 second change on one of the highly repetitious processes , it had been off the scale . So again , big Savings in time don't necessarily correlate to an actual realizable saving or something that at scale gives you anything that's tangible . And yeah , that kind of sticks with me that one of you know I kind of I did burst the bubble a little bit and they probably walked off a little bit . The flake would . But the theory was good , the the process , the implementation was brilliant . Just the scale wasn't worth the effort they put in . And actually this was a retail example . The store team didn't really value it because it was half an hour once a month and it just got done . It being 15 minutes , one for a month , just got blended into all the other stuff that had to happen . So sorry I won't name names , but if I did burst your bubble on that one I apologize profusely , but hopefully it kind of sharpened the focus .

Speaker 2 7:01

It's also interesting to look at if your business that handles stocks there's a retailer , say that stock coming in , how much time you spend putting stock to the shelf , versus the proportion of how much time you spend kind of in replenishment , which is then a function of how much stock you then have to push the back shop , which is double handling . So obviously if all your stock goes in just in time direct shelf which is the holy grail , that kind of it's tricky to get to then you only touch , ideally you touch things . You take it from the back door onto the shelf and wouldn't touch it again until the customer moved it and took it away and paid for it . The more your kind of bringing stock backwards and forwards , the more stock you've got in the back , the more your accounts are awkward , the more your stock figures are tricky . But actually the amount of work involved in double handling , those can really increase your massively increase your cost to sell that particular item .

Speaker 1 7:58

Again , I suppose , caveated in a world where people are looking for cost efficiencies . So again , some people are going to more deliveries , less quantity . Others , where they're trying to reduce transport costs , will be going to less deliveries , more quantity , which has a massive impact on that in terms of your touches . You're replaying your overstock shelves , however that works for you . So again , no right or answer . Sometimes the savings have unintended consequences , upstream or downstream in the cycle . So that's a good synopsis of chapter one . We'll be back to talk about chapter two . I think you just want to mention the productivity forum before we close .

Speaker 2 8:38

See , yes , so we . I don't know how many we'll have run this time .

Speaker 1 8:42

I think this is number nine , is it or is it ? Might even be number ten . Look , kind of lockdown . Got in the way a little bit , but I'll do them us .

Speaker 2 8:49

Yeah , so there's um , we have once a year we get together clients and people that want to join us to discuss all things productivity , really . So I know from my time having worked in kind of what can feel like quite a niche area in in an operation , that you're the person that's trying to find the opportunities for doing things differently . To be in a room full of other people that are all doing the same thing as you , just in other organisations great way to share ideas , great way to find out some yeah , I tried that , if you're going to do it , don't do this those sorts of learnings and case studies , presentations . So that's back where we've been for the past few years at the conference centre in Birmingham , which is next to the Motorcycle Museum , just by Birmingham International , and the date is September the 12th this year , so hopefully people want to come along to that .

Speaker 2 9:47

We've already got quite a few registered over a hundred over a hundred , so it's near incapacity and we always have a good turnout and if you want to register , there's a link to it on our website yeah , we'll publish a link in the show notes as well to make it even easier for you .

Speaker 1 10:02

But , yeah , get , get registering if you want to attend . We don't allow kind of independent contractors , we don't allow software vendors , so it is very much the people doing the jobs . Loads of time for networking . We have people like Dan Whirl you've seen talking about footfall . Dan's coming back this year to give us kind of a state of the nation in terms of how we're spending our money , where we're spending our money retail parks , shopping centres , grocery , fashion , online so that's always great context to kick the day off . And another couple of speakers that we're not announcing yet . So , really exciting .

Case Studies and Best Practices

Speaker 1 10:38

Lots of case studies and again , we had some great speakers last year from the likes of Poundland BP Restore that shared their journeys and their stories and they're probably the most powerful ones because , you know , it's not a sales pitch , it's about sharing best practice , learning everybody identifying opportunities . I think one of the biggest bits of feedback we get is I feel comforted that I'm in roughly the same place as others . You know , I've not . I've not missed something , but actually I've learned something today at the same time . So , yeah , do register . Places are limited . We're nearing capacity . It feels like a long way away , but at the time we're recording we're kind of nearing the second week of fed and before we know it will be through Easter , then in the summer , and then we'll be there . So look forward to seeing you and we will be back soon . Soon for chapter two yes , see you soon .