Royal Mail/CWU Joint Statement on Indoor Workload Tool - Planning Value & Version 8 Update
No. 119/22
15th March 2022
Dear Colleagues,
Royal Mail/CWU Joint Statement on Indoor Workload Tool – Planning Value & Version 8 Update
Discussions have been taking place with Royal Mail over many months regarding the Indoor Workload Tool (IWT) and the change from version v7.5 to v8.0 to better reflect current processes and ways of working in Delivery Offices.
Many of the PV’s in the current version of IWT (v7.5) no longer reflect how the operation works and the system needs to be more agile so that as Royal Mail introduces new products and services.
The tool can then be updated quicker without having to make costly code changes. In addition, within IWT there is currently a limited amount of data analysis of what happened in previous weeks and some traffic data isn’t available until after the WRM is scheduled to happen. This means offices are making decisions without the most recent data and having to use excel for more detailed analysis.
Furthermore, as part of the Productivity Joint Working Group activity it was identified that there was an historic error in the calculation of workload for unloading Parcels which was recently identified during a joint RM & CWU audit as part of the productivity deep dives. This error has meant that offices have been credited too many hours for Receiving, Handling and Sorting Parcels, resulting in RM potentially planning their resource incorrectly. The release of version 8 of IWT will correct this.
Both parties recognise that the move to version 8 of the IWT is one of the biggest changes for many years to the system and its core planning and further believe that the update will assist in improving local unit’s ability to resource correctly, efficiently and with a greater level of transparency in line with mandatory Weekly Resourcing Meetings.
Therefore, we have agreed the attached Joint Statement which includes all of the background information, fully explains what IWT is, the rationale for the changes, what is not included at this time and is subject to ongoing discussions and finally the next steps and future reviews.
We have been clear in the Joint Statement that the use of IWT v8 will not change the total target work hours for a unit and that Unit managers and reps should continue to work together to determine the resource level required, to cover their forecast workload and achieve the unit’s overall WIPWH target.
In addition, to help give us further confidence that units base data and recording of hours is accurate, we have agreed that through each Weekly Resource Meeting managers and reps should use it to process and validate the Configuration data in IWT to ensure it is up to date and accurate and where errors are identified update this data.
Included in the Joint Statement at Annex A, is a full list of all values that are affected by this version release. In addition, we have also ensured at Annex B that a ‘joint checklist’ has been established to assist local DOMs and CWU Reps to ensure that the local AutoIWT (Indoor Workload Tool) data for their unit is accurate and up to date.
We have also agreed that the validation exercise will form part of discussions at all relevant Strategic Involvement meetings to ensure it has been completed.
In respect to all the above we have identified circa 40 units that have the greatest associated impact as a result of the changes linked to IWT v8. As such it has been agreed that for a 4-week period that they will be subject to reviews as part of the RM/CWU Systems JWG to ensure that all aspects of the Joint Statement are reviewed and outputs from the release of v8 are accurate. The key point is that it will not change the total target work hours for a unit.
We have also agreed that we will jointly be monitoring the changes to ensure the impact is fully understood and will provide ongoing support and guidance, ensuring that any feedback is captured and reviewed. Going forward, any changes required to IWT through ongoing maintenance and future version controls will form part of the continuing discussions via the National Systems JWG and subsequent updates will be issued as and when developments occur.
Any queries to the content of the above please contact the Outdoor Department reference 540 , email address: njones@cwu.org
Yours sincerely,
Mark Baulch
CWU Assistant Secretary
Comments