How to differentiate as a global industrial company?

Project target

For the management of a globally active supplier of composite materials, it was clear that they could differentiate themselves by aligning their interactions with the customer process. Frequent points of contact were to be standardised, for example the response time to customer feedback or the procedure in the offer and order clarification phase. The goal was to design a global business process model that is completely aligned with customer needs, with defined standards at the touchpoints to the customer.

Approach

With a customised business process design, customer interaction was made more efficient. A business process model is the prerequisite for the implementation of a strategy, aligns the processes with the strategy and ensures the optimal functioning of the organisation. This makes end-to-end responsibilities in the company transparent, increases the company's performance and ensures the competitiveness of the entire organisation. In the case of the composites supplier, clear responsibilities for sub-processes were established and the necessary working documents defined to optimise interfaces. In this way, frequent points of contact were simplified, unnecessary queries were reduced and the response time to customer feedback was increased. During the project, hpo consciously involved the service providers in the development of solutions. hpo also made sure that "unpleasant" topics were brought to the table and problems were solved in the long term. Those affected became responsible and implemented what they had worked out. This led to a maximum learning effect, which is an essential prerequisite for top performance. Three project phases were defined:

• Phase 1: Creating transparency by analysing the actual processes and the actual situation in the interaction with the customers in order to identify the global differences as well as their strengths and weaknesses and to derive the optimisation levers from this.
• Phase 2: Development of the strategy-compliant business process model with focus on the interaction with the customer (customer journey); definition of the global roles with clear responsibilities and optimal management structure.
• Phase 3: Process design as a starting point for designing the customer interaction and defining the measurement criteria for specific customer interactions.

As a globally active company, the customer knows how important it is to keep its finger on the pulse. Differentiation through service along the customer journey is a central aspect in order to remain one of the top players in the field of high-performance plastics in the future.

The analysis of the "global business mechanics" (interaction between sales, production and development locations) and the processes at the locations revealed the need to optimise the following areas:

1. increase customer perception through a unified customer journey of the business units regarding touchpoints and interaction specifications.
2. performance improvements through clear definition of roles and responsibilities in day-to-day business and innovation
3. reduction of complexity at the locations, especially in the interaction with sales, product management and planning

Based on the results of the analysis, hpo developed a "global business mechanic" with defined roles and responsibilities together with Gurit, which was operationalised with the business process model. The uniform customer journey was developed as a clear differentiation factor with regard to service leadership. An adapted management structure completed the global organisational design (Target Operating Model).

In an "Operational Excellence Project", a core location was adapted in terms of processes to the requirements of the organisational design and the internal processes were aligned accordingly. This included order and complaint management as well as production planning and industrialisation. The Operational Excellence Project was designed as a pilot project and provided the blueprint for the other locations.

The Target Operating Model and its requirements formed the starting point for the definition of an integrated IT landscape consisting of CRM and site-specific ERP solutions. Through training and communication, the Target Operating Model became the Operating Model.

The involvement of the service providers on a global level resulted in a high acceptance of the solution, which also took regional differences into account.

Results

The methodical and transparent approach made it possible to support the solution on a broad basis. Through the defined points of interaction with the client, regional standards were set, which made it easier to differentiate more clearly. The implemented model is the basis for performance monitoring and is to be further developed through the given transparency.

Benefits for the customer

Roles, responsibilities and interfaces were clearly defined. As a result, cooperation was significantly improved and customer care was significantly professionalised, while competitiveness was sustainably increased through the holistic organisational design.