- Chief Exec support
- Led by procurement
- Took one year to really get going
- Collaboration between FM & procurement critical
- Savings of £30K in one 2 month period.
With 60% of NHS carbon emissions coming from the supply chain, the NHS are looking at ways to reduce purchasing in the first instance. Warp it creates a convenient marketplace where staff can check if anybody else already has an item surplus.
Pie chart showing NHS Carbon emissions.
Andy Hay of NHS Lothian and NHS Tayside Procurement, specialise in Business Assurance and Sustainable Procurement. As with most large organisations bureaucracy and processes can always be improved. Andy said
“Wasteful procurement and waste costs are not acceptable.”
In large organisations behaviour change does not happen overnight.
Collaboration between departments
Highlighting the need for departments to work together Andy said
Warp it is owned by Procurement, but Facilities are really the key players in making it a success and they have been great.
Senior support
Andy acknowledges that there has to be somebody willing to take the lead, but emphasises the importance of top down influence, he said;
I think I am the “Warp-it Guy” (amongst other things), our chairman supports this and we have exec support – this makes a big difference.
Success does not happen overnight. It takes time and patience to change behaviour in large organisations.
“It took a wee while to get going but now we have reached a kind of critical mass with people wanting to use it and avoid buying new. Sharing with public sector partners too has been a great opportunity too to feel part of something bigger”
Close collaboration on resource use between partners.
Hinting at the need to overcome cultural practices within the NHS Andy said;
Fear of giving stuff away is one of the most challenging issues. It doesn’t feel natural to public sector budget holders, but throwing stuff away is worse!
Highlighting some of the benefits Andy said;
The system lets people do the sharing without needing a matchmaker, or a warehouse. It shows that we intend to reuse which is a key part of the Procurement Journey. When staff want to buy something we want them to think “Do I need to buy this in the first place?”
Andy followed this up by saying
The system has great Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and the User Interface is nice and clean.
Being somewhat of a techy when asked “What could be improved?” Andy said
Looking forward to the app!
Looking into his crystal ball Andy said about the future 1-5 years;
I think it can go further, the loaning of resources is probably my next challenge. Then what next? Loaning staff resources maybe?
