Benchmarking Community Of Practice

Learning about the improvements made as a result of DHS’s Motor Vehicle Collisions and Claims Performance Project was the main focus of this meeting.  Stephen Grech, Manager Business Review and Evaluation at DHS described this project for us.  Please refer to the presentation Stephen provided for the previous post on this site.

Stephen and Sue Williams will explore the feasibility of rolling this study out to other government departments as the BMK CoP’s first benchmarking study.  An initial meeting will be held with the Manager of Fleet Services, DTF.  Sue will report back to our next meeting.

Next Meeting

12 Noon until 1.30 pm, Thursday 7 August

Room 1, level 19, 121 Exhibition Street

As you can see from the last post members of the Benchmarking Community of Practice (BMK CoP) looked at undertaking several joint benchmarking exercises across the VPS. 

Working with DHS on that department’s motor vehicle collisions and claims performance project appears to be the most suitable option for the moment.  This project was managed by Stephen Grech and he is willing to take part in this benchmarking exercise. 

Stephen presented the findings of this project to the VPSCIN in December 2007 and a copy of the presentation is attached.

vpscin-motor-vehicle-case-study-12th-dec-07_final-review2

We are interested in your comments on this benchmarking exercise.  In the meantime we are meeting with Stephen Grech to discuss this further.

It is envisaged the BMK CoP, which is virtually a cross functional team, will be engaged in the study to provide solutions to the findings in conjunction with relevant departmental officers.

Community members met this week over a brown bag lunch and discussed options to follow up as a joint whole of Govt benchmarking project.

The two options most likely were joining in with an American Productivity & Quality Centre study around recruitment and selection and leveraging off the good work being done with Human Services (DHS) around the management of their vehicle fleet.

It was decided that a benchmarking exercise based on the work within DHS was the most practical option given some concerns were expressed as to the degree of difficulty there would be to engage HR people in the APQC exercise.

Next months meeting will have Stephen Grech from DHS speaking on their motor vehicle project and how to organise benchmarking partners.

The next meeting of the group will be on Thursday July 3 from 12:00 - 1:30pm and will be hosted by the Dept of Justice - level 17, Rooms 2a+b, 121 Exhibition St.

The Justice contact will be anne.m.o’hehir@justice.vic.gov.au

Contact Anne at least three working days before the event to ensure your name is left at ground floor reception.

New members welcome.

The BMK group met today and particpated in an on-line demonstration of how to administer this new blog and the new wiki that are now set up.  Those members of the community who wish to contribute to the site on a regular or semi-regular basis are in the process of being provided with full access to do so.

At this stage the blog will be a central repository for documents, articles, case studies, news, information and community notifications. Importantly it will be the public face of the community and a means of sharing what we do across departmental boundaries.

The wiki will serve as a place for working on common documents (removing the need for multiple email versions) and provide discussion threads and a number of other features. The wiki will remain a private resource for community members only.

For members that do not have access yet, contact frank.connolly@police.vic.gov.au to organise.  We will also demonstrate how to use each tool at an upcoming community luncheon.

The next meeting of this community will be on June 5 at the Dept of Sustainability & Environment.

New members are welcome.

The agenda for the meeting is attached:bmkcop June Agenda

For details contact susan.williams@dse.vic.gov.au

On April 3, the newly formed whole of Govt Benchmarking Community of practice met and shared a productive sessioin with the Australian Continuous Improvement Group (ACIG).

The primary focus of the session was an overview of the first four steps of the Benchmarking cycle presented by Gerard Colla of ACIG. In this overview Gerard outlined a number of valuable tips and traps associated with each of the steps key amongst his observations were:

• Start small, a small win is better than no win
• Be clear with definitions, make sure everyone has a common understanding
• Choose appropriate partners to benchmark with
• Choose a process/service that is relevant and manageable
• Three months is about the typical timeframe for a smaller benchmarking project

A copy of Gerard’s ppt. is attached: vps-cin-benchmarking-cop-presentation

Many thanks to Gerard from ACIG for his presentation and expert knowledge and Sue Williams of DSE and Jo Stephenson of DOI for organising the session.

The purpose of this new weblog is to provide an online collaborative space that participants across a range of government depts and beyond can share their knowledge and experiences in benchmartking and to provide a single platform on which collaborative effort can be designed.

For information on community activity and how to contribute to this site, contact

susan.williams@dse.vic.gov.au or frank.connolly@police.vic.gov.au