The client was one of the five largest web printing firms in the United States. The culture of the organization was such that the division president felt the need to introduce a more participative management style. The decision was made that the development and implementation of a closed loop reporting system would be the appropriate vehicle to introduce this organizational change.
Over a period of several years, various consulting organizations had implemented numerous separate reporting systems, primarily for the purpose of managing production and productivity. At the end of each reporting period, senior management invariably got a surprise: rarely did periods, during which the daily, weekly, and period-to-date numbers looked good (or bad), turn out as expected. Too frequently did management and, through the invariable “trickle down,” supervision suffer the rude awakening and embarrassment of reporting a profitable period throughout the period only to have to admit to the corporate offices that they had actually incurred a loss.
Assembling a team combining seasoned consultants and client staff became the first order of business. The client personnel ranged from supervisors-in-training to area managers to a division vice president. After training “the staff” in various problem solving techniques, the team tackled its mission.
A productivity improvement program for the Department of Health Services of county in the western United States lasted seven months with two full-time consulting staff and two full-time resources from the county’s Department of Organizational Development.
Department Overview
The Department of Health Services primarily provides indigent health care to county residents. The approach included working with county employees to develop and implement specific recommendations for productivity improvement. The scope of this program included Accounts Payable, Data Processing, Claims Processing, Income Recovery, Long-Term Care, and Utilization Review functions of the Department.
Project Overview
Two goals were established for this program. The first is a commitment to a participative approach to productivity improvement. The second is to train Organizational Development staff. The strategy for this program was to select an area of the County to be used as both the initial implementation area and the training ground for the Organizational Development staff.
Five individuals from the Office of Organizational Development were selected to participate on this project. This group received extensive training in the techniques mentioned above. Also receiving training was the management team from each of the areas within the Department of Health Services. The Department of Health Services was divided into twelve areas. Within each area, focus groups were established to develop and implement specific recommendations for productivity improvement.
The methodology employed was included:
- flow-charting all essential work processes;
- mapping all major processes to uncover potential reengineering opportunities;
A productivity improvement program for the Department of Correctional Health Services of the Justice and Law Enforcement Agency of a county in the western United States required ten months and two full-time consulting staff.
As with the Health Services Agency program, two goals were established for this program: the first, a commitment to a participative approach to productivity improvement; the second, to train Organizational Development staff.
Three individuals from the Office of Organizational Development were selected to participate on this project. This group received extensive training in the techniques mentioned above. Also receiving training was the management team from each of the areas within the Department of Correctional Health Services. Focus groups were established in each of sixteen project areas to develop and implement process improvements and organizational changes.
Department Background
1. Correctional Health Services provides medical and psychiatric services at eleven sites within the County jail system. This includes five outpatient medical clinics serving the adult population, two outpatient medical clinics serving the juvenile population, a twenty-three bed infirmary for intermediate care, two sixty-bed inpatient psychiatric units, and an intake area to assess arrestees’ medical condition before they are accepted into the jail system. CHS also operates a dental clinic, a pharmacy to distribute medications throughout the jail system, and a radiology room for taking and developing x-rays.
2. Nine of the eleven sites operate twenty-four hours per day, seven days per week. The two juvenile sites operate sixteen hours per day, seven days per week.
The subject facility is one of the largest manufacturing or processing facilities under one roof in the world. Its staff of nearly two thousand people operate some of the most highly-automated and computer-integrated equipment in the world on two million square feet (roughly forty-six acres) of floor space under one twenty-seven acre roof. Its annual output represents one-fifth of the total annual domestic cigarette output. It processes over 800,000 pounds of tobacco daily.
Virtually every step in the processing is computerized for maximum precision in process control and product quality assurance. Except for quality sampling, no human hands touch the tobacco. The degree of automation presented numerous challenges in training the floor supervisors and in the design of the managing systems. The consulting project began as construction was ending and continued through the completion of the start-up phase to the beginning of full, steady-state operation.
Within the scope of the project were the following major objectives:
- To develop and install the methods, procedures, and managing techniques necessary for achieving high efficiency, quality, and output from this “state-of-the-art” facility; and
- To refine the traditional organizational duties and responsibilities as well as the staffing levels of all plant personnel in order to improve utilization and productivity of these resources.
The two-year involvement was separated into two distinct projects: Production/Maintenance and Quality Assurance. Each of the objectives was specifically addressed in each project area. The resulting “product” acted as a prototype for the management techniques and organizational structure for the remainder of the client’s manufacturing organization.
The client is one of the largest textile manufacturing organizations in the United States. Their division outside Charlotte, North Carolina is one of the four largest thread manufacturing facilities in the United States. For a number of years, the textile industry in the United States has faced increasing pressure from foreign competition. The basis of this competition lies not just in price but in perceived quality. The division president, new to the position, requested a review and recommendations in the following areas:
- the general culture of the organization: as a group, what are their goals and what do they feel will be the major improvement areas; and
- the state of the total quality system of the division.
In order to obtain an accurate view of the organizational culture and climate, we prepared two surveys: one for management and supervision, the other for the hourly work force. The hourly survey consisted of sixty questions in a multiple choice format. The questions were arranged to deduce measures of the reliability and internal consistency of the answers. It was administered plant-wide but completion of it was voluntary and anonymous. The survey for management and supervision was neither voluntary nor anonymous; however, the results were reported to upper management on a composite basis only. Each individual was given an interpretation of the results, in private.
The Public Defender provides legal defense services for the county’s indigent and those unable to otherwise afford legal counsel. The Public Defender initiated the project to work with his staff to develop and implement specific recommendations for productivity improvement. Project staff reviewed all work processes for clerical support and investigators.
This project defined the tasks of the three major groupings of employees: legal secretaries, records clerks, and investigators. This was the first time work measurement techniques measured actual work within the Public Defender’s offices supplemented by employee input. The value of a study of this technical nature is to align the support staff required to the current staff levels of attorneys they assist.
During the project, all work activity was identified in each of the departments included. Department management then reviewed the submitted activities to eliminate redundant items. Some of these redundancies resulted from different interpretations of “the same” job by different individuals. Department staff collected a minimum of three weeks’ data by recording daily occurrences of each activity. The majority of areas recorded four to five weeks’ data and made changes to the task lists during the early weeks to enhance the listed tasks. While the employees recorded task activity volumes, project staff observed and determined the average time required to perform each task. The task observation phase gave project staff personal contact with each staff person and provided an opportunity for project staff to verify task steps. It also reassured the employees that project staff would pay careful attention to each performed task.
The following is a consolidated overview of the various mining industry projects involving eProcesses Consulting since 2006 in iron ore and gold mines in North America, South America, and Africa.
The project began with an analysis of the historic financial and operational data and the core processes. The analysis yielded best demonstrated performance, effective capacity, and average performance for each process and functional area. The analysis revealed performance gaps and a list of recommended projects.
Goal alignment assessed the extent to which executive level goals and objectives aligned with each level lower in the organization. A list of projects emerged as necessary for attaining the combined goals and objectives of the organization. Project management facilitated the achievement of each of the organization’s goals for the fiscal year.
Engineers and supervisors received training in Six Sigma, Lean, and Kaizen tools and techniques. The projects they did concurrent with the training added to the skill set of the individuals and contributed to the organization’s operational and financial improvement and goal attainment. The training prepared the organization to sustain a culture of continuous process improvement.
The improvement areas included increased equipment availability, increased yield per blast and blasts per shift, faster lab turnaround, better processing yield and capacity, and increased equipment and people utilization.
With the president of the client organization the primary contact person, a four-year series of engagements developed and implemented a new strategy for organizing and operating the clerical functions and improve white-collar productivity of a 23-location insurance company.
Overview of the Client
The client was a non-General Fund, quasi-governmental state agency that serves as the provider of last resort of workers’ compensation coverage for employers within the state. Although it is a state agency, the client competes freely with and is required to conform to all the regulation of conduct of other insurance companies. It insures approximately one-half of the eligible employers and between 20% and 40% of the eligible workers in the state.
The client is intended to serve a “regulatory” function solely by demonstrating superior performance in state’s workers’ compensation insurance marketplace.
The client can be thought of as an insurance company with both “home office” departments/functions and field offices that provide the vast majority of the direct contact between the client and both its insured policyholders and the injured workers of those policyholders.
Included within the scope of the Office Services project were all clerical activities in the field offices. These activities included: mail services; computer operations; personnel functions; policy coverage verification; word processing; filing; data entry and check processing; and bill paying. These activities are vital to the functioning of the field offices. With the exception of personnel, the performance of each of these activities by a support or clerical person is intended to allow the technical or professional staff to devote the majority of their work day to more highly-skilled job duties.
Problem: Transition from brick-and-mortar to Internet model with need to clarify organizational mission, define and implement processes satisfaction.
Solution: Assisted in the selection of CRM (Clarify) and Telephony hardware and software (Interactive Intelligence) to create a web enabled contact center. This Webcenter included webchat, VoIP, multimedia and skills based routing. eProcesses created all process flows, workflows, and included the creation of all software training (leader lead as well as CBT) for Clarify and Interactive Intelligence.
We introduced a management system which included 7 components, consisting of Expert Behavior Models, Barrier Removal, Continuous Improvement Meetings and other effective management practices.
Results: Fully-functional customer contact center implemented on time for site launch. Shortly after site launch, client decided to modify its business model to become an Application Services Provider rather than a B2C financial services site.
With the president of the client organization the primary contact person, an 8-month engagement reviewed the work processes associated with generating and managing the client’s cash flow.
Overview of the Client
The client was a non-General Fund, quasi-governmental agency which serves as the provider of last resort of workers’ compensation coverage for employers within the state. Although a state agency, the client competed freely with and conformed with all the regulation of conduct of other insurance companies. It insures approximately one-half of the eligible employers and between one-fourth and one-fifth of the eligible workers in the state.
Included within the scope of the Cash Flow project were five Home Office departments and the 24 field offices. The Home Office departments included: Insurance Services, Credit and Collections, Data Processing, Fiscal Services, and Underwriting/Marketing. These departments perform such functions as premium determination, premium billing, payroll report processing, payment processing, and cash management. At the time of the engagement, the client had 1,660 staff, supervisory, and management personnel assigned to functions or departments associated with cash flow (of 7,174 total non-Executive staffing).
The specific areas of study were:
- Application and initial premium processing in the districts, including sales and underwriting.
- Premium and payroll report processes in the Credit & Collections and Insurance Services.
- Payroll audit processes in the districts.
- Payroll audit processes in Insurance Services.
- Policy cancellation and collection activities, districts, and Home Office.
Project Overview
