KROBUS

Business solutions for a changing World...

Change Management Case Study

 A Global ‘Blue Chip’ organization required an upgrade to part of its B2B online warranty system. Prior to our engagement the system had limited reach amongst the organization’s main business partners. This problem was largely due to the application software needed by the end-users to access the system.  The existing system was costing $1.2M (US) to run with limited usage amongst business partners across EMEA.  The system was redesigned as a secure internet solution with the end users needs taken into consideration.  An additional B2B application was added where end-users could purchase spare parts at discounted rated.  Once the new system was deployed uptake and usage amongst business partners increased significantly across EMEA; warranty repair quality tracking improved, and spare part sales generated $15M (US) in the first year of operation. In effect the system went from being a $1.2M cost centre, to a $15M revenue generator.  The system is now being deployed worldwide.

If you would like to know more about how we can help you manage change projects within your organization, contact us at: info@krobus.com

Supply Chain Management Case Study

A Global ‘Blue Chip’ supply chain organization operating out of Scotland was experiencing significant order fulfilment performance issues. The time taken to accept a customer’s order, process, build, and then deliver the order had increased significantly.  In fact less than 60% of customer’s orders were being delivered on time, and customer satisfaction across Europe was being impacted significantly. The organization tried to improve performance over a 3-4 month period but to no avail. The problems causing poor performance were difficult to identify due to the complexity of the organization’s structure. The problems were further exacerbated by the complexity of existing partnership arrangements with strategic vendors. Once engaged, we implemented a cross functional process team to help identify the main constriction points along the core supply chain process, and new key performance indicators.  Necessary changes were then identified, prioritised based on key operational factors, and scheduled for implementation.  A management system was also designed and implemented in order to ensure the management and professionals across the supply chain were fully aware of their roles in the optimisation of the core supply chain process. Six months after initial engagement and implementation of the optimisation process and management system end-to-end supply chain performance had achieved its target of achieving customer delivery targets 95% of the time – without increasing the overall promised delivery time!

If you would like to know more about how we can improve the efficiency and responsiveness of your supply chain, contact us at: info@krobus.com

Knowledge Management Case Study

A global manufacturing company with a distributed organizational structure deploys an organization wide approach to managing its information and knowledge resources. However, even with significant expenditure on technology, the focus on knowledge management was failing to generate innovation across the business. By assessing the organization’s knowledge and information creating and sharing habits along core business processes, we determined where and how the main barriers to knowledge transfer existed.  It became apparent that employees at different points throughout the organization had very different knowledge and information ‘needs’.  Then assessing the employee knowledge ‘need’ against a list of known barriers it allowed us to fine tune the existing knowledge management system. This resulted in developing a knowledge management system driven by employee needs, based on a combination of team driven and technology driven systems.  By looking and responding to actual employee information and knowledge sharing needs, information and knowledge creation and flow across the organization improved significantly.  This manifested itself in an increased number of collaborative innovations being developed by employees, and the organization’s ability to act on these innovations in a more expedient manner.  Through focusing on barriers to knowledge transfer, the knowledge management system was modified in a way that encouraged innovation; innovation that resulted in over £5M in cost reduction.

If you would like to know more about how we can improve you costs through more effective knowledge transfer, contact us at: info@krobus.com

Organizational Network Analysis Case Study

A large multinational manufacturing organization was undergoing significant internal change based on a need to relocate, and out-source certain parts of its operation. What resulted was a complex web of business processes, for which there was no overall end-to-end view or clear sense of ownership.  As the business responded to changing customer demand process changes became difficult to implement due to confusion over internal process ownership and responsibility. This was causing a significant degradation in the organizations ability to respond to changes with in their market. Also, business functions responsible for their own processes were making changes that had up and down stream impacts on other business unit processes. Altogether, this overall lack of end-to-end awareness was causing core business processes to become unstable, and unresponsive. Once engaged we used social network analysis to identify which business units, departments, and teams where actually engaged in the running of the core cross-business processes.  This then allowed us to determine actual process ownership and hand-over points across the core processes. By doing this we could remove inefficient stages and procedures across the process. As part of the solution we implemented a process optimisation team to ensure future process changes are understood in relation to their end-to-end impact. The organization now has a better understanding of who now does what with respect to actual core business processes, where, and who are causing the main process performance bottlenecks, and which areas of the business are most effective at driving process performance.   6 months after the organization’s process related networks were analyzed, and our recommendations implemented, the organization has seen a significant reduction in process change requests.  This resulted in a significant saving in IT spend, and improved process responsiveness.

If you would like to know more about how we can help you understand how your organization is networked, and the impact these networks have on your organizations performance, contact us at: info@krobus.com

Organizational Change Case Study

A FE College (UK) with an annual budget of £40M required a significant organizational restructure in order to realise significant cost improvements. The existing structure had been in place for a considerable time and the tasks being carried out did not reflect the needs of the college. Much of this organizational inertia was created by the industrial relations environment where the senior Trade Union officials were on record as stating that they did not recognise management’s right to manage the organization. One of our senior associates was engaged to develop a Communication and Human Resources Strategy. As internal communications are paramount in any successful organizational change initiative, a programme of inclusive consultation was implemented across the college to clearly explain the situation facing the college, what the solution was, how it could be resolved and a clear timetable setting out each stage of the change management initiative. The first stage of the change programme was completed within six months and resulted in an operational saving of £1.5m.

If you would like to know more about how we can help develop an organizational structure in line with you cultural, operational, and financial needs, contact us at: info@krobus.com

Organizational Development Case Study

One of the aspects of a major restructuring of one of Scotland’s largest FE Colleges was the realisation that a number of the roles that employees were being asked to perform would involve them working in new ways using methods they had previously not been exposed to. This was a challenge for the organization as bringing in new staff was impossible and there was significant resistance to change simply through the fear of change.  A Krobus Associate was engaged to draw up an Organizational Development Strategy. This involved a skills audit across the college and allowed a programme of development tailored to specific individual needs. It also allowed the college to implement a programme of Talent Management and Succession Planning.  This was welcomed by the workforce as a sign that management were prepared to work in a different style and individuals were encouraged because they could see clear career progression.

If you would like to know more about how we can improve your employees’ skill set through customised professional training, contact us at: info@krobus.com