How we work
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We provide you with a change management strategy that will dramatically drive up performance.
Vanguard Scotland Ltd has been working with service organisations from the public and private sectors since 1997. We offer them an effective change management strategy that produces excellent performance and service delivery using the Vanguard Method.
On this page we’ll highlight the results our clients have achieved working with us. We’ll also give you an idea of our approach to clients and how we’re different from other consulting firms.
What results can you expect from our support to your change programme?
You will have a more effective staff training that will produce results. Your staff will be better trained and equipped to deliver what really matters to your customers.
You will create capacity to do more value work without having to put in additional resources. Creating capacity to do more value work, and just the value work, will give you the opportunity to grow your business and deliver outstanding service to your customers.
You will learn how delivering improved quality actually drives costs down and pushes efficiency up thereby achieving ‘more for less’.
You will see significant results in performance with this change programme in a short time that will have long term success. Your staff will participate more actively since they'll be involved right from the start. To ensure sustainability, we'll show you the method and transfer that knowledge to you so you can continually improve your performance even after we leave.
Your staff will be rewarded with a working environment that eliminates barriers that stop them from doing what they’re there to do i.e. delivering quality service. This will result in improvement in your staff morale and lower turnover. Happier staff translates to happier customers.
You will use your leadership skills and your time more effectively at the work place. This change programme will enable you to act and make decisions based on knowledge that you gather about how the work works.
You will have a more meaningful way of looking at your performance and capability to deliver what matters to your customers. You will use measures that help you improve performance continuously.
Our Guiding Values
Help you create value for your customers. What distinguishes you from your competitors is your ability to deliver a higher quality of service in the eyes of your customers.
Pull not Push. Good customer service is designed around customer demands rather than expecting customers to fit the organisation’s processes. You can design an optimal response to your customer’s needs if you understand what matters to your customers, the variety in these responses and how predictable they are. The results are lower costs and improved customer satisfaction. If you want customers to pull value from your system you need to understand the nature of demand coming into your system.
Act on the system not the people. Acting on the system is the best leverage organisations have if they want to improve performance. Deming said 95% of performance is down to the system and only 5% is down to your people. To get massive improvement, we will show you how to act on the system.
Our Approach
Outside in – customer approach
When you learn to take a systems view, starting outside-in (from your customer’s rather than your organisation’s point of view), you can see the waste caused by the current organisation design, the opportunities for improvements and the means to realise them.
Vanguard Model – tried and tested model that delivers results.
Vanguard has pioneered the translation of Taiichi Ohno’s ideas behind the Toyota Production System - for Service Organisations.
Service is different to manufacturing. In simple terms there is inherently greater variety in customer demand, hence the need to design work to absorb that variety.
Vanguard's change management programme helps service organisations avoid the pitfalls of ‘tools’ developed for ‘lean manufacturing’ since they do not translate well for organisations like yours - Service Organisations.
You'll be engaged in a unique Method for Service Improvement. Unlike the traditional 'Plan, Do, Check' model we believe that the place to start is ‘Check’.
The 'Check' process helps you understand and see the ‘what and why’ of current performance, build the case for change and redesign your service ‘flows’ to only do the ‘value work’. Your team is actively involved in carrying out 'Check' and in a short time they will see what is wrong and will want to fix it.
Change Management Thinking – challenging
It is management thinking that determines the system (how the work works) and the system determines performance.
Change the way you think about the design and management of work and you can change the system. When you design your system to do ‘what matters’ to your customers, you will improve service, reduce costs and increase staff morale.
Transfering learning
When we leave you, you'll be equipped with the ability and knowledge to ensure sustainability and continuous improvement.
Delivering results (examples)
Organisational
Employee turnover reduced from 28% to 11.7%
(organisation norm: 25%)
Absence rate – average 6.81 days per employee to 4 days
Financial
Housing Benefits – Cost reduction of £454,000
Customer
Housing Repairs – the time to carry out repairs fell from 228 days to 12 days
No access first time round dropped from 40% to 15%
Physiotherapy – Waiting time reduced from 14 weeks to 4 days
Now that you know how Vanguard Scotland work, please click here to see the range of services we provide.