Business process audit: where time and money are lost
We begin a business process audit with measurements: how long the cycle takes, how many times a document is sent back for rework, how many people “touch” one request. The most common losses:
- waiting — a request sits on someone’s desk for days awaiting approval;
- unnecessary approvals — five signatures where one with an amount threshold would do;
- manually moving data between spreadsheets, messengers and the accounting system;
- rework due to vague requirements at the input;
- duplication — different departments doing the same work.
Methods we use
- the Lean approach and the 7 types of waste;
- finding bottlenecks (theory of constraints);
- analysing cycle time and waiting time at each step;
- ABC prioritisation: what gives the biggest effect with the fewest changes;
- standardisation and rule-based delegation of approvals (amount threshold, document type, department).
The to-be process
We design the target process together with the owner and the people who do the work — otherwise it won’t be accepted. We cut steps, run independent actions in parallel, set deadlines and escalation rules, and decide what to automate.
Rolling out changes
- a pilot in one department or branch;
- adjustments based on the pilot results;
- automating the process in Folck;
- training people and reinforcing new behaviour — training and gamification;
- measuring before / after metrics.