Process optimisationEveryone is busy.

So why is your customer still waiting?

For companies where everyone is busy and the work still takes too long. We measure where it waits and cut the lead time there.

Somewhere the work is standing still. We find that spot and clear it.

Book an intro call

Free, 30 to 60 minutes: first ideas and an honest assessment of whether we can help.

Lead time from 20 days to 5, measured across the entire value stream (Energy). Read the full case

How it works

From the first call until it runs

1
First call
free, 30 to 60 minutes
You tell us where things are stuck. You get first ideas you can try right away, and an honest assessment of whether we can help you. If we can't, we tell you.
2
Measure
We measure where the work gets stuck and lay the org chart, the process map and the system landscape on top of each other. That is where we look for the cause.
3
Change it together
We change what holds the work up, in the organisation, the workflow or IT. We only leave once it runs without us.

Our approach

Where the work waits

In almost every organisation we see, everyone works at the limit, and things still take a long time. Usually that comes down to the waiting time between the steps. We make it visible, measure it and make it smaller. Often the cause lies outside the workflow: in an approval a system enforces, or in an ownership that separates two departments. That is why we look there too.

You see where your work gets stuck, along the whole path from order to delivery.
You know how often your work is handed over. Every handover between two responsibilities costs time and quality.
Your teams work on fewer things at the same time. Less at the same time means shorter lead times.
Only what hits your bottleneck gets automated.

References

Measured, not estimated

Throughput!

All references

A process is only improved once a number shows it: lead time, defect rate, rework or time-to-market.

Whatever does not hit the bottleneck, we leave out.

From 20 days to 5

Energy

The bottleneck: the approvals. Every configuration waited for several departments that had to sign off one after another.

The cause: an agile operating model in which the approvals had stayed in the old line organisation. (organisation)

Our solution: We reviewed the operating model, removed the approvals that slowed things down, streamlined the end-to-end process with BPMN and Lean, and cleaned up the portfolio.

Key result

Lead time from 20 days to 5. It has stayed there ever since.

Organisation Process

Read the full case

Process platform with API

Banking and finance

The bottleneck: the interfaces. Each unit had its own process logic and its own, often manual connections to the surrounding systems.

The cause: The units had each digitalised their workflows on their own. There were no shared building blocks. (IT)

Our solution: A generic process platform with one interface that all units use, plus highly available systems for the services behind it.

Key result

One interface for all units and fewer manual connections to the surrounding systems.

Process IT

Read the full case

Let's look together at where your work gets stuck.

Book an intro call

Result

The bottleneck

A bottleneck moves as soon as you elevate it. That is why we leave behind more than a faster workflow: we also leave the measurement that shows you at any time where it currently sits. Without us.

On day one we tell you which number you will measure us by.
What counts is how fast your work flows. High utilisation is not a goal.
We automate last. Automate a bad process and you get a fast bad process.

Tools

Our toolkit

These are the tools we use most in process optimisation. Which one we use is decided by the bottleneck.

Value stream mapping: Shows where the work waits, from order to delivery.
Theory of Constraints: Decides where an improvement is worth making at all.
Flow metrics: Lead time, cycle time and throughput show whether work really flows faster.
BPMN: Makes workflows visible so that the business and IT see the same picture.
Lean and Kaizen: Slim down the workflow in small steps that the team carries on itself.
Quality gates: Secure quality at fixed points in the workflow instead of checking it at the end.