Reflection – Learning Launch to optimize Turn Around Time

Challenge    Every industry is focused on how fast it can accomplish customer’s need and enhance the  experience by new ways of working. Banking industry is much ahead in the race. Being a Strategic  Consultant from IT company, I was working on a solution as well as strategic roadmap for our global  banking customer. The existing Home Loan process was taking much longer time to fulfill, typically  20 – 30 business days. It was quite high as compared to the competitors in the same country.  The  Home Loan department of this bank is spread geographically and had centralized branch taking final  decision. Based on the regulations and norms set by the government of the country, various  documents need to be submitted as a proof. It also varies based on applicant’s category (pre-defined  by government). The key challenge was 70% of the documents did not have standard format while  almost 80% were partially handwritten forms.  The end-to-end process was 80% manual with  multiple hand-off within and outside the department.    Selection    We went through sufficient rounds of story-telling with key personas of the process, from the  marketing person, to the authority of bank taking final decision on approval of Home Loan. We also  did a ' Gemba Walk’ or capturing ‘Day in Life’ and made our observations. We gathered insights on  the tools and ideated. With this homework we decided to get into Learning Launch tool.   The Learning Launch Process, as explained by Stefan Lehmann, was the best approach to start with.  Based on the empathy of customer and data gathered, we decided to go with our approach of  automation and process optimization. However, rather than rolling in entirely, we decided to test  the feasibility of automation first.  Learning Launch Design template helped strategize the scope. We  decided to prototype our design and get it tested.     Application     As the document proofs were the critical part, in our First Learning Launch, we focused on analyzing  and identifying common documents, categorizing proofs as 100 % e-documents, standard but  handwritten and non-standard & handwritten and other such types. Tried reading samples using e- readers and capturing electronically at common storage. We got our results validated from selected  group of customers. Though few document samples disappointed on automation, we reserved them  for big picture. However, this gave us a high-level idea of % automation that can be implemented to  start with.     Second Learning Launch was on Leaning the Flow. We analyzed the value chain and identified lean  opportunities, applied inputs from the tested and proved automation from the First Learning Launch  prototype. We identified opportunities of parallel validating processes, suggested lean decision  making for interim approvals in distributed geography, enabling transparency and providing  authority. System thinking was applied to automate the flow to maximum possible extent using  latest technology like RPA and executed the process.     Third Learning Launch will be to work on strategic roadmap to broaden the scope of digital  transformation and bridge the gap by converting maximum proofs in e-form and standardized  format and making them available on the website.

Insight     Using the Learning Launch tool and being agile by ‘Fail early fail fast’, and course correct, we could  confirm the approach in quick sprints. Iterating thro’ cycles of Prototype creation, testing with  customers, receiving and incorporating feedback in next cycle of prototype, helped reaching closer  to the realistic solution. We were assured of utilization of right tools for automation and optimized  process flow. Most important, we gained acceptance of customer for New way of working. We were  able to achieve reduction in turn-around time to a good extent. However, for better results, we need  to lean the processes further. We have provided a strategic roadmap to apply process optimization  at enterprise level and system thinking to bring uniformity in tools giving best results of automation.     Approach     Learning Launch tool proved the most appropriate in bringing Customer Centricity from ideation to  reality. Key validation processes in granting the loan, with unavoidable human intervention, opened  more approaches in ideating and prototyping, which broaden our perspective of looking at the  problem. The sprints of Learning Launches helped us course correct the failures economically.  Experiential learning that added confidence will help us long way in detailing the roadmap ahead.

