To develop and understand the value chain of your company, business unit or service, it is advisable to firstly conduct a holistic assessment of the sector and gradually drill down to the appropriate level to ensure we are not overlooking relevant parallel developments, such as emerging alternative value chains that are gaining traction amongst customers.
During the second phase we are going to drill down from a sector level to the appropriate operational levels, starting with the value chain of the respective business line. The starting point is to identify and agree on the main stages of the concept process before going a level deeper.
Activity Analysis: identification and visual mapping of all activities you undertake to deliver your product or service.
Value Analysis: for each activity, think through what will add the greatest value for your customer.
Evaluation and Planning: evaluate whether it is worth making changes, and then plan for action.
Last to be addressed are the operational processes, including a customer experience journey map, the actual process execution, procedures, and possible bottlenecks. Employee engagement and customer satisfaction are both part of the assessment as well for obvious reasons.
We normally start with a blank sheet of paper and rethink existing processes to deliver more value to the customer. Often, the restult is a significant different value system that places increased emphasis on customer needs.
The outcome carriers often consequences at an organizational level by means of a reduction in organizational layers and eliminate unproductive activities in two key areas. Firstly, a redesign of functional organizations into cross-functional teams. Secondly, a translation in new technology to improve data dissemination and decision making.
Once the newly designed value chain has been agreed upon, we support a successful implementation. Naturally, we involve the responsible leaders and teams as much as possible in this process as their engagement and understanding is essential for operational excellence and further enhancements.
The steps involved are:
Designing and visualizing the concept process.
Translating the operational processes into flow charts.
Formulating the standard operating procedures (SOPs), key performance indicators (KPIs), and service-level agreements (SLAs).
Knowledge transfer, training, and coaching.