Lean in Financial Services

Post date: Oct 15, 2009 6:50:14 AM

PROBLEM: Financial Reports generated by a multi-national organisation in Luxembourg for control of a 50 million € Engineering budget in 5 countries for 70 service providers were not fit for purpose, leading to cost over-runs, spending spiraling out of control and cuts to essential spending on new projects.

SOLUTION:  Business Excellence "Lean Principles" were applied to redesign the financial forecasting, budgeting and reporting processes in a series of workshops involving the stakeholders from both the Finance Department and 70 Budget Responsible Directors to achieve a coherent, integrated and streamlined process, enabling real time financial planning and control within target budgets.

RESULTS: Total Business Excellence "Lean" cost reduction of over 170 million € of Engineering costs over a 10 year period. Profit margin on sales was increased by 7% on annual sales of 500 million €. 

SUSTAINABILITY: The cost of producing the reports was halved and the quality infinitely improved as the new output was configurable at the point of use, replacing "Telephone Directory" sized reports in account number jargon with dynamic pivot tables, so the decision makers can filter for their specific requirements. 50% of Finance department's FTE redeployed. Ecological impact of moving from printed reports to on screen displays.