Vicky Smart Email and Phone Number

Responsible for driving and delivering a productive and cost effective programme of works whilst ensuring compliance against legislation. The creation of a new planning team within the business which allowed new processes and procedures to be created thus enabling the planning and scheduling of operational teams alignment with the specific contractual needs. The processes captured all changes to original work scopes and provided the needed compensation events to support payment applications. These contracts cover the whole of Scotland so this was challenge geographically but with the development of the system the team travelling times were reduced significantly by receiving required plans etc. electronically, this has been critical to the delivery of the frameworks. Both of these contracts were NEC3.

A new long term contract award for mainland Scotland managing waste water repairs, surveys, domestic and commercial blockages, this award was a 365/24/7 framework and was new to the business. No existing teams or management had experience within this sector. I was responsible for managing all jobs within the necessary KPI/KPC dependent on location, job type etc and provide the relevant supporting documentation to the client. All of these meet the contracts SLA’s.Volumes were on average 260 – 300 jobs per week and all of these had the appropriate sales assigned. After successfully implementing the operational processes and procedures I completed a cost to value process control to allow all jobs to be monitored and managed through various sub contractors and the uplift process where appropriate.Management and control of 17 sub contractors for the contract was key for making the contract a success, management of the team consisted of 8 members of staff who scheduled the works and my support to each employee was critical so they could gain an understanding into the financial aspects of the contract so we knew our cost/sale and profit basis. This was an NEC3 contract

The role of Planning Engineer on the gas mains replacement contract across the Central belt of Scotland covered a vast area from Berwick Upon Tweed through Edinburgh city centre and onto Falkirk, Stirling and Glasgow.this role required immense commitment and attention to detail due to the complex nature of the works and the locations in city centre’s I completed detailed surveys of new proposed works to evaluate from a business point of view if the work will be beneficial financially, these surveys required corresponding with the client, members of the public and also coordinating the works with the local authority and arranging road closures etc. Using my previous experience I assisted with providing operational information and creating proposal programmes for tender, this allowed the financial sector to create the pricing plan effectively with a good working knowledge on the restrictions which may have occurred. Following on from the new Transport Scotland Act I had to be flexible within the legislation and also be available to provide support and advice to other managers in the company,

This role was an opportunity to develop my knowledge on the operational side and completed a supervisor’s course in the gas industry. This allowed me to identify the operational requirements are for specific jobs and what modern techniques can be used, I also provided all supporting documentation including third party plans for all teams and the client direct, along with collating, reviewing, controlling and coordinating the relevant highways notices.

My main role was minimizing the financial impact of Traffic Management Act (Section 74 legislation). Fulcrum Connections were the client we were working on behalf of, this was a full time role in itself considering the nominated district was from Berwick upon Tweed through England including Newcastle, Sunderland, Leeds and the remaining part of Yorkshire. Our working capacity was approx 22 teams completing between 250 – 300 individual jobs per week. I successfully reduced the financial implication from almost £4.2 million to £1.7million in one year, this was a substantial achievement but still required extensive work to maintain this level of commitment and improve this every week. I managed and the office which included the management of 28 staff which all undertook several different roles in different areas of the business.

Due to my previous experience my knowledge of planning was now considerable; I was able to provide valuable information to my planning team. A new system/database was created called Street works, it had to be adapted and modified using my experience to ensure the system provided us the support to manage the business and the client needs. The system had to maintain accurate records and be flexible to adapt to legislation changes considering the notice requirements we had to work to, this system allowed me to report the potential charges, overruns and invoices etc. which may have been applicable through the section 74 legislation. The team members in the office used this system on a daily basis the information accuracy was key as it could have major financial implications. The running of the office had to be organised and professional this included providing support and training to all the team members, stationary ordering, and PC servicing along with other ad hoc duties as and when required

Working for a contractor on behalf of Fulcrum Connections gave me the opportunity to control and make changes to processes’ which needing improving for both sided, I was responsible for planning in gas connections to both domestic and commercial properties which involved accurate job durations (taking into consideration the connection point, road crossings, pipe sizes etc.) the jobs then had to be assigned to a specific team which was qualified and capable of completing the job. NRSWA notice’s (section 74) were submitted for all jobs in sufficient time to meet with the Transport Act

Communication lines were directly between the customers and contractors to ensure that works were planned within the required timescales and completed to the customers’ satisfaction. Information given to me from the service and mains teams on the districts had to be accurately transferred into the system called TeAR which controlled the national database for Asset ID’s of the gas pipes in the network. Training for any new members into the team was a role I adapted to ensure that the information input and collated was as accurate as it could be and this included explaining the gas industry terms and legislation.