November 2013 | LEAN operations for Excellence and efficiency

02 Nov November 2013 | LEAN operations for Excellence and efficiency

A financial institution has started an overall programme to transform its operational business processes in each unit in the spirit of LEAN. LEAN is a methodology to improve performance by scanning operational processes and activities and finding ways to improve them, from an efficiency and effectiveness perspective. The objective was to become more efficient, save unnecessary expenses, improve productivity by focusing on what matters most and improve the quality of the key activities.

Situation:
A financial institution has started an overall programme to transform its operational business processes in each Bank unit in the spirit of LEAN. LEAN is a methodology to improve performance by scanning operational processes and activities and finding ways to improve them, from an efficiency and effectiveness perspective. The objective was to become more efficient, save unnecessary expenses, improve productivity by focusing on what matters most and improve the quality of the key activities.

Solution:
Optimis was engaged to lead this project. We built a project team with internal people and we deployed a review methodology. Each business process were scrutinized with internal stakeholders (focus groups) in order to find possible ways to improve: quality of the process and the deliverables, productivity (focus on what matters most and eliminate unproductive habits), cost savings where possible and redefine roles & responsibilities of staff if needed. We also conducted an overall staff survey (on this topic) to gather ideas for improvement. After gathering all ideas for improvements, we did a consolidation by business process and a prioritization of the topics to finally come up with suggestions for change, including recommendations for implementation. Significant targets in specific process quality improvement, cost saving, role & responsibilities change were set.

Results:
As a result, the organization has started to implement the 200+ ideas (from major change activities, to small improvements in operational activities) and has already significantly improved a number of activities. The process quality/efficiency and the financial results are already impacted by the initiative and the end of the change implementation is planned for Q1 2014.