Lean office practices save super yacht manufacturer millions
A super yacht manufacturer required an overhaul of its finance and customer service processes in order to meet increased customer expectations.
Cornerstone Approach
A detailed analysis identified opportunities to improve performance by reducing non-value-adding work and more proactively managing process performance. Rapid and measurable financial results were realised by:
- Applying Lean Office Principles;
- Consolidating functional work groups where possible; and
- Implementing structured Lean Management Systems – process metrics, daily meetings, visual displays, etc – to focus work group performance and increase management effectiveness.
Lean was a very effective improvement process that constructively stretched everyone’s thinking to move us out of the comfort zone.Director of Finance
Actions Taken
Cornerstone partnered with the client’s teams to:
- Define and implement new processes to increase organisational capacity and productivity
- Formally share site best practices across the organisation; and
- Consolidate functional work groups to improve flexibility through scale and standardisation.
Driver Goals
Reduce North American Finance and Customer Service costs by US$3 million (£2 million).
Results
- Identified US$3 million in cost reductions with US$2.7 million realised and a clear plan to achieve the remainder.
- Trained organisation to in Lean Office Principles and sustaining methodologies.