CWD Case Studies

Case Study 1 - A High Street Bank

Case Study 2 - A Public Service Organisation

A High Street Bank

The Bank's branch network has been divided into 17 regions with each region being responsible for its own staffing requirements under the control of the Regional Personnel Manager. With staff costs forming a high percentage of the bank's total costs it is important to ensure that staffing levels are correct. The system introduced by the bank to ensure this is based on the CWD work measurement standards

Approximately 600 tasks have been identified in banking branches which comprise approximately 6000 separate work elements. By the use of CWD, standards have been produced for these work elements. By collecting volume counts from the branches the workloads and hence staffing requirements can be evaluated.

It is, of course, impractical to count 6000 recording items for each branch on a monthly basis but by activity sampling and applying frequencies into the standards for each branch, the monthly volume count was reduced to approximately 40 management information items per branch.

Each branch receives a printout of their workloads against staff availability, staff availability being the staff that are actually available for work after allowances for sickness, holidays and training. The regional Personnel Manager receives a copy of the reports for branches in their region. They also receive a printout listing the branches in the region, in size order, so that the workloads in branches of similar size can be compared. As branches operate under different local conditions, it can be difficult to compare one branch with another. The Regional Personnel Manager is aware of the local difficulties at the branches and makes adjustments, if necessary.

In addition to providing figures at branch or regional levels throughout the organisation, profiles can be established to assist in research and development planning. As well as providing statistics for staffing levels, CWD assists the Bank in providing costings for products and systems and justifying system changes or capital expenditure.

By the correct application and interpretation of the results from CWD, together with ancillary data, the Bank has been able to ensure that resources are effectively employed.

A Public Service Organisation

In general the clerical units in this industry are fairly small and the tasks undertaken extremely variable. Consequently no major excercise of the type described above with its continuing reporting system has been undertaken, not being viewed as economically worthwhile. However, CWD is used in many aspects of the review work undertaken by Management Services.

It is often used in O & M reviews to check data which has been collected by diary sheet or job assessments. For example, it was established that the major task in a work unit was 'processing invoices' and information collected indicated that 35% of the working time was spent on this activity. The calculation of the time using CWD to process an invoice was applied to the number of invoices processed by work units. Thus the performance and likely staffing of work units could be evaluated. As a result it could be determined whether there was a need for further detailed investigative work.

It has become a significant aid in assessing clerical workloads in advance of the introduction of computer systems. An added benefit is that by establishing standard times for tasks, it assists in ensuring sufficient training is provided prior to the introduction of the system.

Thus, it can be seen, that the range of CWD applications is varied and that it is a valuable technique for Management Information.

These case studies illustrate the practical application of CWD in two organisations. They illustrate the flexibility of being comprehensive enough to form the basis of staffing evaluation and control systems in a nationwide organisation or to enable evaluation of single tasks in smaller work units.

What is CWD?

		It is a well established technique for analysing and quantifying the majority of commercial activities.
		It is a data system that is easily understood, quickly applied and readily accepted.
		It is an accurate system of values, the application of which is only limited by the nature of the activity and the requirements of the organisation.
		It is a dynamic system which is regularly reviewed and updated to reflect current working trends and technological advances.
		It is unusual in that users are actively encouraged to contribute to improvements and enhancements