Small cycles instead of waterfall projects

The application of lean techniques to data management processes leads to a permanent new approach in dealing with the challenges of master data management.

An important element of this is the "Continuous Improvement Process (CIP)": the aim is to strengthen the company's competitiveness through continuous improvements in small steps. This is not a one-off action, but leads to a new way of thinking as an integral part of the corporate culture.

The aim is to focus on value creation, waste reduction and short improvement cycles. These lean techniques are familiar from the field of production, but can be applied to all types of tasks.

Plan-Do-Check-Act

The so-called Deming cycle, also known as the PDCA cycle (Plan-Do-Check-Act), is a key element in achieving continuous improvement. It allows the company to achieve short implementation times and focus on rapid value creation.

The challenge here is to prioritize and determine the scope of the planned improvements. Analysis and planning are the most important tasks.

Lean techniques use a kaizen workshop, for example, to identify all possible improvements and then classify them according to added value and effort:

The value of an improvement is the sum of direct and indirect value and can be expressed in monetary terms.

Direct value: Measurable costs that arise if the improvement is not implemented (e.g. personnel costs for manual data maintenance, additional storage space for keeping duplicates in the material stock).

Indirect value: side effects of the improvement (e.g. increased yield by reducing the time to market of a product by 60 percent, better warehouse transparency reduces stock levels and at the same time avoids vacancies and thus delivery delays).

This value is more complex to measure and has therefore not always been taken into account historically. The distinction between direct and indirect value is a fine line.

Depending on the perspective, indirect values are also assessed directly as benefits. If improvements become necessary due to strategic corporate objectives, this also represents an indirect value.

The cost of an improvement is the time required for implementation and the cost of implementation. The prioritization of a planned improvement can now be done graphically.

The quadrants allow an evaluation of the improvement according to the Zorro principle, the Z symbol, which indicates the direction:

You start in the first quadrant (high value, low effort). Only if no tasks remain there do you move on to the second quadrant (i.e. high value, high effort). Over time, new tasks often arise in the first quadrant, so you will only rarely devote yourself to the tasks with low added value, which makes perfect sense in terms of the best cost-benefit ratio.

Delays?

Does this mean that initiatives with high benefits but also high costs are repeatedly delayed when simpler initiatives arise? Not really.

Some initiatives in the "high value/high effort" quadrant are probably driven by strategic business objectives. The right approach is to divide the initiatives into smaller subtasks that, taken individually, can easily fit into the first quadrant.

In this phase, this results in tasks with a better cost-benefit ratio. Individual tasks may then become obsolete. A further division of remaining tasks is conceivable.

This approach shows another advantage of the short implementation cycles and small steps: After each short cycle, the current status and objectives are reassessed.

In traditional, lengthy "waterfall projects", it often turns out that the goal achieved has changed in the meantime. With small steps that build on each other, the focus is on adding value and avoiding another type of waste: unnecessary work.

The question now is "How can this be achieved in practice?". The right software tools are an indispensable element. The Winshuttle platform enables companies to introduce lean techniques in the area of data management processes.

A combination of different tools allows the development of solutions for typical requirements such as Mass data entry and maintenance through a direct connection between MS Office and SAP; workflows (for HTML forms/Excel) that ensure optimized collaboration between the various process participants (SAP/non-SAP users) for data entry, data validation and data integration directly in SAP; prepared reports for analyzing process flows and their bottlenecks for continuous optimization.

All of this can be mapped without programming and therefore reduces the complexity of the solution. It allows rapid adaptation to changing conditions.

The platform also ensures that the security and governance requirements of IT departments are met. In summary, Winshuttle Lean Data Management is the fast and flexible Approach for the optimization and automation of ERP data processes.

Advantages and benefits through continuous improvement:

• Less waste: resources, processes and employees' skills are used more efficiently.
• Immediate success: Employees involved immediately recognize the positive effects of the approach and their own influence.
• More commitment: Higher employee motivation thanks to the close involvement of the teams.
• Low fluctuation: Satisfied teams and employees bring
  Stability.
• Greater competitiveness: Continuously improved efficiency sustainably reduces costs and increases quality.
• Higher customer satisfaction: Both internal and external customers benefit from the improved processes, lower costs and increased quality.
• Faster problem solving: The company can respond promptly to challenges or problems.
• Improved team collaboration: Dynamic procedures in short cycles minimize waiting times between departments.