Carsten Segschneider reports:
A customer calls and wants to buy a product in a different container size than we offer. Actually, it's a simple request. But internally, it means handling a process that involves up to 30 steps in multiple systems and up to 15 people – including sales, marketing, controlling, and quality management. Processing took an average of around 30 days – which naturally led to frustration. This is because as long as the new material master data has not been created in the system, no order confirmation can be sent – and the customer could jump ship.

Our goal was clear: to streamline the workflow and eliminate bottlenecks. The challenge: each business unit is organized differently – some have higher-level data teams that control the entire workflow; others work in a decentralized manner. It is therefore not always easy to find a solution that suits everyone. We therefore entered into an intensive dialogue with our contacts.

After a year of intensive project work with the business units, IT, and the Commercial Excellence team, we now have a leaner, more efficient workflow. We have removed as many steps as possible from the “critical path” so that a larger part of the process can now run in parallel. This means that the overall duration is not necessarily extended if one point takes more time. With a new dashboard, we can also monitor specifically where certain steps are particularly time-consuming. This allows us to address any anomalies in a targeted manner.

Our ideas are having an impact: Currently, the creation of new logistics materials, such as finished products or raw materials, takes an average of only 17 days. And there's more to come: our declared goal is 10 days. But we can only achieve this if everyone pulls together. If we extrapolate the potential time savings to the approximately 5,000 data records we create each year, we can make a significant difference – both internally at LANXESS and in terms of customer satisfaction.