Text: Peter Bekkering

Three years ago the separate facility departments of the Custodial Institutions Service (DJI) were merged into one facility company. In order to manage the inventory properly, it had to be inventoried first.

Peter Holtrop is Facility Manager for the Judicial Institutions Service (DJI), Cluster Northwest, and Manager ESF Bureau North at the Ministry of Justice. DJI has both correctional facilities (CF) and offices in its portfolio. When Holtrop looks at the offices, he signals that DJI is still catching up in many ways. “We have desks that are not adjustable, and the flex space ratio of 0.7 is only a recent development. ”

The current organisational set-up of facility company DJI is only three years old. Before then, each CF and office had its own director and its own facility services department. Holtrop: “This meant that the office furnishings depended heavily on the director’s choices. There was no straightforward policy. ”

Structural Change

The structure changed three years ago when DJI was designated as one of the four Concern Service Providers. Together with Rijkwaterstaat, FM Haaglanden and the Tax Authorities, they are responsible for the entire facility services in central government. From that moment on, there was one facility company within DJI with seventeen clusters. Each cluster has several locations and was subsequently assigned a facility manager.

One of the problems in the new setup was that there was no overview of their furnishings at DJI. It was therefore necessary to conduct an inventory, but at the same time also look at the condition of the furnishments. Where did we have three categories: good, moderate or bad. The results are then processed in an executive report, which is created for each cluster. Holtrop: “We wanted it to be as short as possible to avoid disruptions in our organisation. A one-time observation that does not compromise on quality. It was therefore decided to do an inventory on building and storey level, instead of on room level. This consideration was an important decision in the preparation of this process and a recommendation for anyone who wants to get started. We clearly indicated at what level our information needs were and Measuremen proceded to  present an accurate project planning with a complete hour estimate based on this, in order to arrive at a good balance between lead time and information density. In total, fourteen employees of Measuremen spent eight months in 2018 on the established inventory and coordination. In 2019, eleven employees measured approximately one third of the total scope during one month.

In 2019, Holtrop was asked to do the inventory management. One of the first choices Holtrop made was to not work with chip barcodes. “That is related to my experiences within DJI: we drag a lot from one department to another and often throw away what we do not like. I have therefore proposed to do the inventory at building level instead of departmental level. And to make sure we keep the front and back doors closed. “He explains the latter:” There is also a shift of inventory between buildings. To ensure that this runs smoothly, we are working together with an agency, the Bureau Inventory Management and Order Desk (BIBB). “The BIBB has two parts: Marketplace and Inventory Management. Holtrop: “I founded Marketplace because as DJI we believe that reuse or refurbishing should be more important than new purchases. Initially, finance was the main motive, but in recent years, reducing CO2 emissions and circularity have become increasingly important. It is now handled differently with old desks and other furnishings: they were previously disassembled and thrown away, now they are placed on Marketplace, whether or not after they have been refurbished. And so “the back door is closed”. If something turns out to be non-replaceable, it will be auctioned through the intervention of the tax authorities. When something is in such a bad state that it has to be thrown away, we provide proof to the Tax Authorities. With that we will receive official permission to throw something away.” All these actions are updated in the administration so that the management of inventory remains in order.

In time, The Marketplace has delivered the desired result. Holtrop: “That we can now map this out is only possible because we conducted an inventory at first.” He then zoomed in on the results: “In 2019, we saved 517,702 kilos of CO2 thanks to Marketplace, 12,800 resources were moved to new locations inside and outside DJI and 133 desks were refurbished and installed within DJI. In addition, a net saving has also been realised. And in fact, the picture of CO2 savings is even better than expected: we only calculated this over a limited scope: office chair, conference chair, sitting desk, sitting desk, conference table and sliding door cabinets. Those furnishings make up about half of the total. Holtrop has now mapped the inventory using observations from Measuremen and has drawn up an integral replacement plan for the next three years. “The starting point is that we will replace everything that is of moderate or bad quality over the next three years. Then we made an order list and plan.. Due to the large size – 60 locations – phasing is necessary. The BIBB facilitates this by keeping track of the internal movements of furnishings. In addition, the BIBB takes care of restocking the inventory. We first look at what we have left, afterwards BIBB orders what we still need. That way we also “closed the front door”, everything comes in via the BIBB. ” As a result the BIBB knows, in addition to the number of furnishings that go out of the locations, which furnishings also arrive at the locations. Because of this all changes in inventory numbers are tracked. This gives the BIBB an up-to-date insight into the exact numbers and locations of the inventory. Now that it is in order via BIBB, Holtrop wants to conduct an additional observation together with Measuremen. “With such an observation, we want to check whether everything is still in order. Then we want to take the next step in 2021: how do we safeguard this? From an administration standpoint we can do this by means of an inventory. And when observing, we want to replace a complete survey with a representative sample. Instead we would be doing test samples instead of a full survey. That is also much more practical, because in the end we are talking at 60 locations with almost 300,000 items. ”