55 Process Improvement Case Studies & Project Results

Cem Dilmegani

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Different types of process improvement solutions

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.

Updated at 03-12-2022

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 • Paid back the cost in training investment within the first six months
Afrisam	South Africa	Process Mining	QPR	Construction & Materials	Risk management	• Improved overall process efficiency • Identification and better visualization of risks • Real-time performance montioring
Akzonobel	Netherlands	Process Mining	Celonis	Chemicals	Purchase-to-Pay, Accounts Payable, and Order-to-Cash	• Identified that 18% of process have manual changes • Improved SRM efficiency from 40% to 70% in one year • Reduced costs
Alliander	Netherlands	Process Mining	Lexmark	Utilities	Purchasing	• Gained insights into the complexity of the process • Elimination of unnecessary steps • Standardization of the process • Discovery of the need of staff re-training
Allianz Indonesia	Indonesia	BPM	Camunda	Insurance	Legacy applications processes	• Successful support in 6 different time zones • Harmonization of different processes
Amag	Switzerland	Process Mining	QPR	Automative	Finance & controlling	• Improved KPI measures • Improved operating efficiency by focusing on underperforming targets
Ana Aeroports de Portugal	Portugal	Process Mining	Process Sphere	Travel & Leisure	Service process management	• Identification of unoptimized steps • Elimination of non-value-add tasks which speeds up the process • Quick identification of problems and improvement opportunities
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 management	• Increased customer satisfaction by 62% • Improved IT capability by 1.8 levels
BridgeLoan	South Africa	Process Mining	QPR	Insurance	Loan processes	• 40% faster process • Reduction in manual work • Quick reaction to possible problems in process
Caverion	Finland	Process Mining	QPR	Construction & Materials	Ad hoc service process management	• Improved cash flow • Removal of bottlenecks • Faster invoicing
City Union Bank	India	RPA	Antworks ANTstein	Finance	KYC automation	• 66% reduction in effort • 7x improvement in turn around time • Reduction in errors
Collins Bus Corporation	United States	Lean		Transportation	Manufacturing	• Reduced downtime • Reduced costs by using resources more efficiently
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 • 400% improvement in the throughput of task completions over time
CooperVision	United States	Lean Six Sigma	Catalyst Consulting	Manufacturing	Production	• 75% improvement in productivity • 70% reduction in quality defects
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% • Reduction in water usage by 80% • Waste stream was cut by 85-95%
EDEKA	Germany	Process Mining	Celonis	Retail	IT service management	• Simplified process • Reduced cost • Increased process quality
EY	Global	RPA		Professional Services	Crawling through meeting registrations and finding individuals that have not booked their air tickets	•50% reduction in effort • 20% reduction in air travel ticket prices
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% • On-time integration of the automation initiative with more than 18% under budget • Improved inventory accuracy • Increased productivity
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 • Reduced costs • Harmonization of production processes of different foods
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 • Reduced facility size by 1/3 • Reduced chemical storage capacity to 2% of it's original size • Reduced costs
Mercedes Benz Brazil	Brazil	Lean, Kaizen		Automative	Production	• 10-20% reduction in HPU (Hour per Unit) in manufacturing • 300% increase in deployment processes
Merchants Insurance Group	United States	BPM	PM Solutions	Insurance	Portfolio management	• Improved on time project delivery to 80% • 758% revenue growth in the ﬁrst two months
Metsä Board	Finland	Process Mining	QPR	Forestry & Paper	Supply chain	• Identification of the bottlenecks • 60% increase in order lines & volume • Conformant order lines from 40% to 80 %
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 • Identification of customer groups
Nokia	Finland	Process Mining	QPR	Telecomunications	Order-to-Cash and Process-to-Pay	• Harmonization of different processes • Identification of improvement opportunities • Improved lead times
npower	UK	RPA	Blue Prism	Utility		• $10M savings per year • 2 million hours of work automated per year
One of Big 4	Global	RPA	Automation Anywhere	Professional services	Tax returns, business intelligence Reporting	• $18m savings p.a.
PGGM	Netherlands	Process Mining	Fluxicon	Insurance	Process improvement	• 66% time savings expected • Improvement verification when an improvement is implemented
A global pharmaceutical company	Global	BPM	Flowforma	Pharmaceutical	Artwork management	• 60% efficiency improvement • Full visibility of the entire process • Increased coordination with other departments in different countries
Piraeus Bank	Greece	Process Mining	QPR	Banking	Consumer loan	• Identification of the bottlenecks • Improved KPI measures • Diagnosis of variations in the process • Shortened application process from 35 minutes to 5 minutes on average
A US regulatory body	United States	BPM	Torque Management	Government	Quality management	• Reduced cycle time by 50% • Increased process throughput by 40% • Improved quality
Siemens AG	Germany	Process Mining	Celonis	Personal & Household Goods	Service process management	• Automation of ordering channels • Standardization of the process • Quick identification of inefficiencies
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 • Faster ordering processes
Synergy	Australia	RPA	Automation Anywhere	Energy	Transactional billing process	• $2.3m annual value savings • Error reduction • 280+ bots deployed
Tata Steel Europe	UK	Kaizen		Construction & Materials	Production, order management	• Improved product quality • Reduced rework time • Faster response times, giving more customers their orders on time
Telco	Germany	BPM	Interfacing	Telecomunications	Production, process documentation, IT service management	• Increased efficiency • Improved CRM processes • Alignment of IT processes
Telefonica O2	UK	RPA	Blue Prism	Telecommunications	15 processes representing 35% of back-office transactions	• Reduced need for FTE growth • Reduced turn-around time
TreasuryOne	South Africa	RPA	Automation Anywhere	Financial Services	Back-office operations, including performing settlements and sending out deal confirmations	• Error reduction
Tui Ora	New Zealand	BPM	Flowforma		Various processes including payroll allowance, purchase requisitions HR staff change	• 75% improvement in productivity • 70% reduction in quality defects
University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Trust	UK	RPA	Blue Prism	Healthcare	Patient self check-in	• 50% reduction in effort • 2x improvement in turn around time • Improved data quality
Vodafone	UK	Process Mining	Celonis	Telecomunications	Source-to-Pay	• Increased perfect purchase orders from 73% to 85% • Reduced cost from $3.22/PO to $2.85/PO • Improved time to market by 20%
VTB	Russia	Process Mining	Celonis	Banking	Loan processes	• Shortened throughput time by 30% • Increased percentage of timely-handled accounts from 68% to 98% • Decreased application processing time by fourfold • Discovery of the need for employee training • Improved customer satisfaction
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 • Improved data management
Zig Websoftware	Netherlands	Process Mining	Fluxicon	Technology	Housing allocation processes	• Identification of three major bottlenecks • Recreation of the process by automating its digital offering system • Reduced waiting period from 16.4 hours to 64 minutes • Shortened turnaround by 4000 days for the first six months