Client Problem

A Government Department responsible for assessing and approving applications from the public was struggling to meet demand. The high volume of incoming applications of varying complexity exceeded the processing capacity of the Department’s workforce. The result was a growing backlog of unassessed applications, poor Department KPI performance and pressures which distorted staff and system behaviour such as a tendency to process easier applications ahead of older or more important applications.

The Department had been unable to accurately predict the workforce size and structure to efficiently process applications in order to meet the legislated KPI target. The Department commissioned the Business Modelling Project to address the issue. SMS was selected to deliver the project.

SMS Approach

SMS engaged with the client to form a small integrated project team. The urgency of the problem resulted in a mandate that the project team deliver within 6 weeks. An approach was developed which would enable key objectives to be satisfied rapidly, whilst still ensuring an appropriate degree of rigor and a comprehensive set of deliverables. The approach taken was:
 

• Plan approach and assign responsibilities
• Develop requirements
• Design, build and test modelling solutions 
• Run scenarios
• Report and present results
• Transfer knowledge to the department to enable continuation of a modelling capability

Recommendation

Based on findings resulting from detailed research and interpretation of existing data, the team was able to identify factors contributing to the large and increasing backlog of work on hand. This information was used to create models to predict system behaviour, which enabled the department to better understand the key internal and external drivers. Several potential future scenarios were examined via the models, which enabled the department to plan their future workforce structure. The models also provided insight into questions such as:
 

• What is the likely impact on Department performance of changed external factors such as an increase in incoming workload or legislation change?
• How might internal management decisions affect overall system behaviour?
• Where might a business process improvement initiative yield the greatest return?

Outcome

The project delivered on-time, on-budget and on-quality. Key deliverables were:

• A report recommending the future department workforce structure, which was accepted by the Department Director and key stakeholders
• Static MS Excel based models for predicting short term workload backlog behaviour
• A discrete event simulation model using TIBCO software for optimising future workforce structure and enabling Activity Based Costing.
• Planning, requirements, analysis, methodology and training artefacts to enable the department to maintain and grow their business modelling and simulation capability.