The client

A large multi-national company in the healthcare field wanted to improve a customer service process.  Customers expected a 48-hour turnaround, whereas the company’s performance ranged from 16 days to 7½ months.

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Challenges

• Many different departments and individual stakeholders were involved.

• Creating an environment where participants were candid about the process, i.e. disclosing rework loops and other embarrassing inefficiencies, or portraying illogical aspects as they should be rather than how they are in reality.

 

Solution

• The session began with a broad discussion on issues and challenges with the current process that resulted in the time lags.

• Day One:  Current process was mapped.

• Day Two:  A recommendation for an improved process was mapped.

 

Results

• Once the current process was mapped, it was a revelation to participants how complex and complicated it was.  Never before had they understood the reason the process took so long.

• The group also realized that not a single person in the organization was aware of all the steps of the process from end-to-end.  Each department was only familiar with its respective steps.

• The “old” process had 262 steps, and turnaround time ranged from 16 days to 7½ months.

• The new process had 80 steps with a turnaround time that met customers’ expectations.

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