At Stock Right Now, our expertise lies in transforming van stock management and enhancing first-time fix rates, delivering exceptional results for businesses and housing associations across the UK and beyond. Our consultancy services are built on proven methodologies that streamline repairs, reduce costs, and elevate customer satisfaction.

Our journey began in 2009 when we applied the Vanguard Method to Portsmouth City Council’s repair service, demonstrating how to complete repairs at the exact time tenants requested and ensure vans were always stocked with the right materials. This innovation led to significant reductions in operational costs, boosted morale, and enhanced overall service quality.

Since then, Stock Right Now has refined this approach, successfully working with organisations such as Stoke City Council, Incommunities Housing Association in Bradford, and Flagship Housing in East Anglia. In each case, we have implemented tailored strategies to optimise van stock and repairs processes. For instance, we set up Flagship Housing’s entire repair and materials provision from scratch, delivering a top-tier in-house service.

We’ve also helped Great Places Housing Association double their first-time fix rate, gaining visibility and control over van stocks while reducing stock value by over 50%. Our expertise extends internationally, with interventions such as our work with Clúid Housing in Dublin and more recently, Coastal Housing in South Wales, where we utilised our Stock Right Now App to improve repairs systems.

At Stock Right Now, we pride ourselves on replicating success across various sectors, ensuring our clients achieve significant improvements in efficiency and service delivery. Our consultancy service is backed by years of experience, a deep understanding of van stock optimisation, and a commitment to driving results.

For more information on how we can help your organisation achieve similar success, please contact us on (+44)08001448462

Since 1987, John Seddon developed both systems thinking and intervention theory, combining the two to create the Vanguard Method. Uniquely, this method’s sole purpose is to transform organisations by changing management thinking and helping this translate into a better system. It significantly improves performance, lowers costs, increases customer satisfaction and improves staff morale – What’s not to like?

Click the Vanguard logo to learn more about them.

Vanguard check and redesign of Water Recycling responsive repairs operating model from initial call to problem resolved

Key Timelines

• Identification of issues impacting on performance of operation within 10 days.
• Identification of better ways of working during 4 weeks of experimentation.
• Delivered new ways of working with measurable benefits for staff, customer and business within 12 weeks.

Challenges

• To expose & reduce the 37% of calls from customer into the call centre as a result of not doing something or not doing something right - we call this Failure Demand (a failure of the system to do something or do something correctly, and it eats up capacity and drives in costs).
• Reduce the number of visits where they attended but did not fix (for whatever reason).
• To better understand what mattered to the customer and redesign operation to deliver what matters while reducing costs.
• To improve customer journey from reporting of a repair to resolution.
• To make changes sustainable and ensure internal capability to undertake further improvements.
• To embed a better way of using data to learn & improve performance

Achievements

The Results

Note: During the trial demand was normal, but capacity was reduced due to abstractions)

• The work sent to outside contractors reduced by 9% and shows the lowest consistent 5-month period for 4 years.
• End to end time from a customer reporting a repair to it being completed, is the lowest consistent 5-month period it has been in 4 years (we are doing the right work quicker).
• The mileage travelled by the operatives has shown the lowest 5-month period in 4 years (we are not driving to jobs multiple times).
• The number of jobs completed at day one from reporting, has shown the highest 5-month consistent period in 4 years.
• The number of jobs completed at day 3 or more from reporting, has shown the lowest 5-month consistent period in 4 years.
• The number of customer chases (people calling to find out the progress of a repair) has shown the lowest 5-month consistent period in 4 years.
• The number of customers compelled to call or write in to say 'thank you’ has shown the highest 5-month consistent period in 4 years.

What the Anglian team thought

As a manager of an operational team I now look forward to going to work every day – for me after the best part of 30 years in this industry it’s the most thought provoking and engaging trail I have ever been on" 
Chris (Collection Manager)

"I don’t regret a minute of it, and I will carry on doing it, they have shown me ways of working that I never thought were possible" 
Steve (Dig Gang Member)

"The customers are a lot happier at the end of the day and some are really shocked as to how quickly we get to them"
Mark (Front line worker)

"This new way of working is different to how it was before, or has ever been"
Katherine (Improvement Manager)

“I have no idea how I’ve ended up with so much time… but I’m spending less time checking and sorting our problems and more time in the field and thinking about improvements and the future” 
Chris - (Collection Manager)

“In the past I have always had to defend change. For the first time I see them (staff supervisors and frontline managers) absorbing the change and taking it forward” 
Katherine (Improvement Manager)