Business leaders know that process improvement reduces costs and increases customer satisfaction. Therefore, businesses follow process improvement methodologies or deploy tools such as process modeling, process mining and RPA to discover, modify and automate their processes. However, it can be difficult for process experts and business analysts to understand the different process improvement approaches and the results they should expect.
Read our process improvement approaches guide for a categorization of process improvement approaches so you can rely on a framework to structure your process improvement initiatives. In this article, we share typical process improvement project results and case studies. Our aim is to provide benchmarks so business analysts and leaders can set targets for their own initiatives.
What are the typical project results?
Process improvement solutions help businesses define weaknesses and take action to solve these problems. In the case studies we collected, the most common project results that we came across are as follows:
1- Improved efficiency: Most businesses increase the efficiency of their processes by adapting process improvement methodologies. After defining their problems, companies eliminate unnecessary steps in processes, reduce their costs, and shorten process times. As a result, they achieve faster processes and higher quality output with fewer resources.
For example, in a process mining case study, a manufacturer leveraged a process mining software to analyze the procure-to-pay processes. It is claimed that the manufacturer could:
- Reduce maverick buying and saved $60,000 in reworking cost by detecting and managing deviations, mismatches and early payments.
- Improve purchase order and invoice processes by automating 75% of line creation and delivery activities. As a result, the company decreased the invoice registration and approval time.
2- Enhanced customer satisfaction: The increasing quality of output and faster processes can also reflect on customer satisfaction. Process improvement solutions help businesses reduce waiting time and focus on customer value. For example, it is claimed that by adopting the Kaizen methodology, Tata Steel has shortened its response time and delivered more on-time orders to its customers.1
3- Harmonization of different teams/processes: For large companies, handling different processes simultaneously can be a big challenge. Teams should be informed about what others do, and processes need to work in sync to avoid problems. With process improvement solutions, businesses can have a full understanding of all their companies and align different processes successfully.
Here is an extended list of case studies which are collected from different resources. You can filter the list by the process improvement solution, service provider, industry, or process and investigate the achieved results.
Company | Country | Solution | Vendor | Industry | Process | Results |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
3M | United States | Lean Six Sigma | Manufacturing | Manufacturing | • Saved approximately $30 million per year by redesigning, or recycling and reusing waste materials | |
Aegon | UK | Lean Six Sigma | Catalyst Consulting | Insurance | Customer services | • Stopped the annual cost of £20M on external contract resource |
Afrisam | South Africa | Process Mining | QPR | Construction & Materials | Risk management | • Improved overall process efficiency |
Akzonobel | Netherlands | Process Mining | Celonis | Chemicals | Purchase-to-Pay, Accounts Payable, and Order-to-Cash | • Identified that 18% of process have manual changes |
Alliander | Netherlands | Process Mining | Lexmark | Utilities | Purchasing | • Gained insights into the complexity of the process |
Allianz Indonesia | Indonesia | BPM | Camunda | Insurance | Legacy applications processes | • Successful support in 6 different time zones |
Amag | Switzerland | Process Mining | QPR | Automative | Finance & controlling | • Improved KPI measures |
Ana Aeroports de Portugal | Portugal | Process Mining | Process Sphere | Travel & Leisure | Service process | • Identification of unoptimized steps |
An automobile manufacturer | Japan | RPA | Argos Labs | Manufacturing | Online app testing and monitoring | • Reduced quality assurance effort |
Bancolombia | Colombia | RPA | Automation Anywhere | Financial Services | Back office processes | • Reduction of labor and errors |
A blue-chip, international organization | Global | BPM | Torque Management | IT service | • Increased customer satisfaction by 62% |
|
BridgeLoan | South Africa | Process Mining | QPR | Insurance | Loan processes | • 40% faster process |
Caverion | Finland | Process Mining | QPR | Construction & Materials | Ad hoc service process | • Improved cash flow |
City Union Bank | India | RPA | Antworks ANTstein | Finance | KYC automation | • 66% reduction in effort |
Collins Bus Corporation | United States | Lean | Transportation | Manufacturing | • Reduced downtime |
|
A consumer finance company | Agile | PM Solutions | Finance | Project management, stakeholder governance, business analysis, and quality assistance | • Rejection rates of work submitted for QA testing dropped from 30% to 5% over six months |
|
CooperVision | United States | Lean Six Sigma | Catalyst Consulting | Manufacturing | Production | • 75% improvement in productivity |
Dell EMC | United States, India | RPA | Automation Anywhere | Technology | Various processes including invoicing process, renewal quote generation | • $2M savings per year |
DeutscheBahn Cargo | Germany | BPM | Camunda | Logistics | Logistics | • Optimization of European rail freight transport |
DuBois-JohnsonDiversey | United States | Lean | Chemicals | Production | • Energy saving by 60% |
|
EDEKA | Germany | Process Mining | Celonis | Retail | IT service | • Simplified process |
EY | Global | RPA | Professional Services | Crawling through meeting registrations and finding individuals that have not booked their air tickets | •50% reduction in effort |
|
HP | Brazil | RPA | UiPath | Technology | Invoice tax accounting and reporting sub-processes automated | • 85% reduction in effort leading to $100k cost savings |
An industrial machinery company | Global | RPA | PM Solutions | Utilities | Supply chain, materials management | • Increased delivery speed by 66% |
A US insurance company | United States | BPM | PM Solutions | Insurance | Portfolio management, IT | • Elimination of approximately 100 non-value-adding projects |
Juniper Networks | Global | RPA | Automation Anywhere | Technology | Invoice generation | • Error reduction |
Kahiki Foods | United States | Value Stream Mapping, Six Sigma | Food & Drinks | Production | • Reduced wasted resources by almost 70% in six months |
|
Line mobile communication app | Japan | RPA | Argos Labs | Technology | Mobile app testing and monitoring | • Reduced quality assurance effort |
Lockheed Martin | United States | Lean | Aerospace & Defense | Chemical and hazardous waste management | • Reduced work scope and elimination of unneeded work |
|
Mercedes Benz Brazil | Brazil | Lean, Kaizen | Automative | Production | • 10-20% reduction in HPU (Hour per Unit) in manufacturing |
|
Merchants Insurance Group | United States | BPM | PM Solutions | Insurance | Portfolio management | • Improved on time project delivery to 80% |
Metsä Board | Finland | Process Mining | QPR | Forestry & Paper | Supply chain | • Identification of the bottlenecks |
Microsoft | United States | Six Sigma | Technology | Various processes including sales, customer service | • Reduced errors - the sigma level improved by over 2σ in less than one year |
|
Nokia | Finland | Process Mining | QPR | Telecomunications | Order-to-Cash and Process-to-Pay | • Harmonization of different processes |
npower | UK | RPA | Blue Prism | Utility | • $10M savings per year |
|
One of Big 4 | Global | RPA | Automation Anywhere | Professional services | Tax returns, business intelligence | • $18m savings p.a. |
PGGM | Netherlands | Process Mining | Fluxicon | Insurance | Process improvement | • 66% time savings expected |
A global pharmaceutical company | Global | BPM | Flowforma | Pharmaceutical | Artwork management | • 60% efficiency improvement |
Piraeus Bank | Greece | Process Mining | QPR | Banking | Consumer loan | • Identification of the bottlenecks |
A US regulatory body | United States | BPM | Torque Management | Government | Quality management | • Reduced cycle time by 50% |
Siemens AG | Germany | Process Mining | Celonis | Personal & Household Goods | Service process | • Automation of ordering channels |
Stant | United States | RPA | Automation Anywhere | Manufacturing | Invoice matching, manual invoice creation, approval workflow, data validation, exception & metrics reporting, general ledger coding | • 80% invoice straight through processing achieved |
Starbucks | United States | Lean Six Sigma | Food & Drinks | Customer services | • Reduced waiting time |
|
Synergy | Australia | RPA | Automation Anywhere | Energy | Transactional billing process | • $2.3m annual value savings |
Tata Steel Europe | UK | Kaizen | Construction & Materials | Production, order management | • Improved product quality |
|
Telco | Germany | BPM | Interfacing | Telecomunications | Production, process documentation, IT service management | • Increased efficiency |
Telefonica O2 | UK | RPA | Blue Prism | Telecommunications | 15 processes representing 35% of back-office transactions | • Reduced need for FTE growth |
TreasuryOne | South Africa | RPA | Automation Anywhere | Financial Services | Back-office operations, including | • Error reduction |
Tui Ora | New Zealand | BPM | Flowforma | Various processes including payroll allowance, purchase requisitions HR staff change | • 75% improvement in productivity |
|
University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Trust | UK | RPA | Blue Prism | Healthcare | Patient self check-in | • 50% reduction in effort |
Vodafone | UK | Process Mining | Celonis | Telecomunications | Source-to-Pay | • Increased perfect purchase orders from 73% to 85% |
VTB | Russia | Process Mining | Celonis | Banking | Loan processes | • Shortened throughput time by 30% |
Walgreens | Global | RPA | Blue Prism | Retail | Various processes including worker's compensation claims | • 73% reduction in effort |
World Vision | South Africa | Process Mining | QPR | NGO | Performance management | • Shortened performance evaluation process |
Zig Websoftware | Netherlands | Process Mining | Fluxicon | Technology | Housing allocation processes | • Identification of three major bottlenecks |
Further Reading
If you want to learn more on process improvement, these articles can also interest you:
Check out comprehensive and constantly updated list of process mining case studies to process mining real-life examples and compare them to process improvement case studies.
If you want to manage and improve your processes, check out our data-driven and up-to-date list of vendors for:
- Workflow management software
- Business process management software
- Low-code/No-code development platform
- Onboarding software
- Process mining
- Business process automation software
If you still have questions about process improvement, we would like to help:
External Links
- 1. “Process Improvement – A continuing initiative.” Tata Steel. 2008. Retrieved at May 17, 2024.
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