Process mapping, automation and ISO integration
H Foster 1875 is a leading UK importer and distributer of non-hazardous chemicals, including fatty acids, stearic acid, oleic acid, esters and their related products, natural waxes, speciality oils and the latest ingredients for the formulator. With customers ranging from bulk industrials to cottage candlemakers, the business is family-run and laser-focused on sustainability.
As a core client, we already knew a lot about H Foster 1875 and their processes, both in the head office in Goring and at the warehouse in Leeds. Having successfully delivered a business management system for quality and environmental compliance, we were asked to map the head office processes in transactional detail to prepare the business for planned changes in the organisation and its IT systems. The mapping was a key input into the selection of an IT system, workflow automation, personnel training, business resilience, and of course highlighting process improvement opportunities.
46
processses.
5
key benefits.
QFactorial Service offering
Implementation
We have carried out several improvement studies over the years, honing our approach down to six basic steps:
- Understanding the client’s objective and expectations for the study
- Structured conversations with stakeholders
- Real-time observation of processes as they happen
- Review of process documentation
- Collection of process data
- Analysis and recommendations
Rather than pre-judging the outcomes, we prefer to let the key themes emerge as we work through the steps. In this case, the following themes emerged and became the focus areas for the mapping: Order Fulfilment; Admin and Accounts; Business Management. We mapped a total of 46 processes, diving into the transactional detail to establish the workflow, gaps, overlaps, duplication, repetition, bottlenecks, frustrations and various sources of wasted time/effort. From the conversations with users we were able to identify many ways in which processes could be streamlined and made more efficient or effective, including merging some activities and eliminating unnecessary work.
As a follow-on project, we oversaw the integration of the mapped and improved processes into the selected software platform, Zoho, and ensured that the change was carefully managed to maintain ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 certification. In the end, the entire BMS was moved into Zoho, completing the integration aspect of project.
No matter how well organised a business is – and H Foster 1875 runs a very tight ship – processes inevitably become more complex and intertwined as time passes and the company grows and evolves. These guys have a long history and at the time of our study the pace of change had reached breakneck speed. The process mapping exercise was an essential cog in the change management machine.
Our report took the form of a PowerPoint presentation with each process flow mapped and colour coded to show the chain of responsibility and the different systems used to gather, process and store information. The management team had never had such a deep and detailed view of their business before and could immediately see five big benefits:
- As a training aid for incoming staff (inevitable when in growth mode).
- As a safety net for resilience in the event of key staff retirement.
- As a guide for specifying the requirements for a new IT system (so crucial to get that right!).
- As a starting point for workflow automation within that IT system (including what not to carry forward).
- As a source of improvement opportunities to be fed into all the above.
This is exactly what we needed – a detailed view inside our business processes. And very timely given the amount of change we are embarking upon to achieve our growth ambitions.
