Traditional ways of Lean have not delivered. Without a co-ordinated approach service organisations will struggle to cope with the sheer programme scale, resulting in less than satisfactory results.

Who says so? The senior-level delegates at the 2009 Capgemini Lean Forum held in June 2009.

The event was part of the Innovation Forum series that takes place in our Accelerated Solutions Environment (ASE). Business leaders and creative thinkers came together to debate the role of Lean methodologies and approaches to business change.

Given the current climate, Lean tools and techniques are being dusted off and brought to the war on waste. Many of the leading financial institutions have looked at their cost base, begun listening to their customers and set in motion long-term improvement programmes in the name of efficiency and service effectiveness. Tools have been selected, people trained and the mantra from the top has been "go forth and fix..." But then the problems begin.

This was the premise of the high level debate that considered how relevant Lean tools were today and why 75% of firms interviewed by Capgemini stated their programmes had not delivered the identified benefits.

The forum used ASE’s unique approach to problem solving and looked at the three key elements proven, in combination, to provide sustained change:

• Do the right work (where values and needs are understood)
• Do the work right (train the right people 'the plumbers', tools, stakeholder engagement)
• Manage the right way (develop the right culture, set the right measures, engage leadership).

Capgemini’s Operational Excellence introduced them to our Innovative BeLean® approach which considers all the elements to make a Lean Programme stick. Delegates worked through the key areas of a retail bank (products/services, distribution and back office) to obtain a detailed view on each of these three elements. They ultimately agreed that there were pockets of good things happening within their own firms; yet simple high impact improvement was, in the main, being hampered by a failure to adhere to basic Lean rules.

From a Lean Deployment, typically, the business can expect cycle time reductions of 30-80%, and processing time reductions of 20-40%. In a rapid timeframe the business can achieve cost efficiency savings of at least 10-30%, and client service improvements of similar or even higher levels

Recent Examples include:

• Insurance services: removed 12% of entire cost base
• Life insurance underwriting: £200million of new NWP in a new product with no staff increase
• HR recruitment: senior manager recruitment reduced from 85 days to 55 days saving £353,000 external costs in 18 months
• Complex bank account opening: reduced from 4 weeks to 3 days

For more details please contact Will Davies at
will.davies@capgemini.com

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