Situation

Poor communication across departments and a complex ordering process was causing delayed fulfillment of customer pulp orders, with many arriving well after the deadline. Executives wanted to tap into the knowledge of those closest to the work but didn’t know how.

Team Engagement Strategy

A mix of frontline employees was briefed on the issue and equipped with Rapid Action, a toolkit designed to help employees work in teams to solve problems, to brainstorm and sort and prioritize immediate action steps to improve customer order fulfillment.

Rapid Action Project Charter

How can we optimize communication flow and processes associated with fulfillment of customer’s order for pulp in order to more effectively manage inventory, avoid overselling and reduce the number of manual offline tasks.

Sample Solutions Implemented

1. Defined and documented the order-to-cash process to identify areas of waste for improvement.
2. Tracked sellable inventory for pulp in SAP to quantify the problem.
3. Tracked 3^rd party agent selling commissions.
4. Automated documents to agents and customers to minimize errors.