1. Briefly describe the business in which you work / worked: how the company makes money:

what is the source of income? what is the core value that a company creates for customers?

who is the company client? what value does company give to the client?

1. Develop a proposal for optimizing operational processes in your business and present the work in the form of a short analytical note: process diagram - problem - proposal - evaluation of the result (preferably quantitative).Perform the next activities:

1. Make a consecutive list of all the work in the process

2. Determine in which works value is added, in which there is no value and show it graphically on the map or make a note in the table

3. Reveal the wastes types (according to the 8 wastes in Lean philosophy), sources of loses and ways to improve for each type of waste

4. Measure the duration of all operations

5. Determine total cycle time, value add time, and calculate flow efficiency

6. Identify process losses

7. Develop optimization proposals by defining ways to eliminate process losses and elaborate ways to ensure effective process flow

1. An appropriate example of such work is provided below(you can present the process in the table (as it performed in example) or in the scheme as it shown in presentation).

Example: Case "Optimization of the process of preparation of the commercial offer in the auditing company"

This case can be used in almost any company that provides personalized services. For example, business consulting, educational, legal, accounting, auditing services, etc.

Situation: When a client applies to an audit firm for a service, for example, to find out the cost of an audit, the client expects to receive the price immediately. However, in this area, as a rule, there is no fixed price of inspections or price grid for several reasons:

1. The price is calculated individually for each enterprise depending on how much actual time for audit service will be spent by experts of the company. This is influenced by the following factors: the purpose of the audit, the audit program, sample size, type of activity, taxation system, amount of primary documentation (contracts, invoices, advance reports, etc.), software, and a number of other factors.

2. From the point of view of the marketing approach: at calculation of the price it is necessary to consider scales of the enterprise, its trade turnover and the income, i.. for a large enterprise, you can set a price with a higher markup. You should also pay attention to the economic benefits that the owner will receive from the audit.

3. From the point of view of the strategic approach: auditing company can take on monthly accounting services the enterprises after audit - then it is possible to make the smaller margin to receive the given project.

There was a problem in the company: the cost of auditing and preparing a commercial offer according to the business process declared in the company takes more than 2.5 hours, but in fact - the process took 3-4 hours. As a result, the customer has to wait too long to receive a commercial offer. Sometimes this led to the loss of a potential customer at the stage of making a commercial offer.

So, the actual business process of preparing a commercial offer is as follows:

Stage of the process	Executor Lead time (time for preparation)	Description of the process	Problems faced by the company
1. Preparation of incoming information for the preparation of commercial proposal	Nickman Nick 10 min.	1. Marketing specialist collects incoming information on the client (brief + other info) 2. Transfers data to the auditor	In terms of specific projects, the auditor needs more detailed information to calculate the cost.
Preparation of calculation for commercial proposal, transfer to the marketing department	Ivaniv Ivan Vasilko Vasil Abasov Andry 40-60 min.	1. The auditor prepares a program of several options for checks with a detailed cost estimate. 2. Transfers the data to the marketing specialist
Preparation of commercial proposal (preparation for sending to the client)	Nickman Nick 15 min.	Registration of a commercial proposal: insert calculations into the template, add personalized information for the client
Coordination of commercial proposal with the managing partner	Nickman Nick Nikolaeva Nataly 5 min.	Coordination of the cost and program verification with the managing partner	The managing partner asks specific questions that the marketing specialist cannot answer, only the auditor can
Proposals for amendments to the commercial proposal, cost approval	Eliev Anton 20 min.	1. Obtaining comments and recommendations for edits. 2. Transfer of information to the marketing department
Transfer of information to the auditor about changes in the commercial proposal	Nickman Nick 5 min.	Communication and transfer of information about necessary changes to the auditor
Making changes to the commercial proposal	Ivaniv Ivan Vasilko Vasil Abasov Andry 20 min.	1. Making changes to the program and the cost of the project. 2. Submission of updated information to the marketing department	The auditor again breaks away from his main work and makes changes to the calculation of the project
8. Update information in the commercial proposal, sending to the client	Nickman Nick 10 min.	Making updated calculations in the commercial proposal, editing the document. Sending to the client.	The marketing specialist again makes changes to an already prepared document (commercial proposal)

The actual time spent on preparing a commercial proposal is 2 hours 5 minutes. - 2 h. 25 min.

Purpose: to optimize the process of preparing a commercial proposal in order to reduce the preparation time.

Optimization criteria:

1. Eliminate duplicated operations - stages 3 and 8, stages 2 and 5.

2. Reduction of time for preparation of commercial proposal.

3. Solving problems arising at each stage.

What have done:

The chain of coordination of the program and cost approval of the commercial proposal (between the auditor and the managing partner through a marketing specialist) has fundamentally removed, thereby solving the following problems:

• The auditor directly coordinates the commercial proposal with the managing partner, which means that auditor solves all issues, discussing them in "one language", and initially prepares the correct draft of the project program and no longer wastes time on making changes.
• It is easier for the managing partner to communicate with the auditor rather than the marketing person and not waste time waiting for a response.

Optimized business process for preparing a commercial proposal:

Stage of the process	Executor Lead time (time for preparation)	Description of the process
Preparation of incoming information for the preparation of commercial proposal	Nickman Nick 10 min.	1. Marketing specialist collects incoming information on the client (brief + other info) 2. Transfers data to the auditor
Preparation of calculation for commercial proposal, agreement with Eliev Anton project cost, transfer to the marketing department	Ivaniv Ivan Vasilko Vasil Abasov Andry 60-80 min.	1. The auditor prepares a program of several options for audit services with a detailed cost estimate. 2. The auditor coordinate the audit program and cost with the managing partner. 3. The auditor submits the agreed version of the calculation to the marketing department for the formation of the commercial proposal
3. Update information in the commercial proposal, sending to the client	Nickman Nick 15 min.	1. A marketing specialist prepares a commercial proposal, inserts it into a template. 2. Sends to the client.

The actual time spent on preparing a commercial offer is 1 hour 25 minutes. - 1 h. 45 min.

Result:

1. The functions of duplicating jobs have been eliminated.

2. The time for preparing a commercial proposal has been reduced by 35%.

3. The time of employees involved in the process has been reduced: for Marketing Specialist - by 45% (from 45 min. to 25 min.)