Situation
In this context, the COO turned to OWT to launch a centralized initiative to map to processes his organization. The following goals were set:
- Identify, evaluate and document key business processes ("IST")
(Ist-Zustand") - Develop of solutions to improve the key processes in order to meet the above challenges ("SOLL")
- Establish a process optimization methodology and culture throughout the company
This initiative was disruptive in scope and ambition for the company as few business units documented their processes (none with an end-to-end approach). Common representation rules and software tools for process documentation were missing. Furthermore, there was no culture of continuous process improvement and performance tracking (KPIs).
Approach
Based on our long-standing expertise in transforming organizations, OWT used a pragmatic approach leveraging our refined brown-paper methodology. Each process review contained 5 key steps:
Define the process scope, improvement lever and associated target gains (KPIs).
Conduct interviews with managers and run-throughs with all process participants.
Map the "as-is" process on brown-paper hanging on the wall, including process' pain points, improvement ideas and related current initiatives.
Run workshops to draw the ideal target process "to-be". Define the target process using internal and external experts' advice, as well as competitors' assessment.
Build an action plan with short, medium and long-term improvements, prioritized given their complexity and expected benefit.
OWT team kick-started the initiative leading two pilot processes and involving multiple units. This first phase was followed by new processes optimized by the business units themselves. When needed, our team helped defining the target solution from a technical point of view (specifications), and managing the implementation. In parallel, OWT conducted the selection of a process mapping tool and defined a mapping methodology for the group to digitally map, store, retrieve and re-use processes across the organization.
The two-month pilot phase helped us to achieve broad acceptance of the methodology throughout the organisation. Today, 6 months later, more than 10 end-to-end processes have been reviewed and more will follow. Communication with IT has improved dramatically as business teams now present suggestions for improvement with a clearly defined business case and end-to-end perspective.
The process mapping tool recommended by OWT is currently being rolled out and will accelerate the shift toward a new process-oriented era.
