Thomas has been working in the IT department of a machine builder in the Black Forest for eight years. 280 employees, solid reputation, export rate of 40 percent. His day-to-day consists of server maintenance, helpdesk tickets, and the eternal struggle with outdated printer drivers. Then his boss calls him into the office.
The problem is quickly explained. The company sends out hundreds of documents daily – quotes, order confirmations, technical drawings, invoices. Currently, this is done through a patchwork of five different systems. The sales department exports PDFs from the CRM, accounting prints from SAP, and the engineers manually email CAD drawings.
The other day, a large order to a customer in the Czech Republic went wrong because three different versions of a bill of materials were circulating. The customer was angry, the sales manager even angrier, and now management wants a solution. Thomas is to lead the project – his first real career step.
But where does one even start with something like this?
Why Process Optimization Is of Concern Right Now
Thomas' situation is not an isolated case. According to the current study "Performance Drivers 2024" by Staufen AG, 77 percent of surveyed industrial companies answered the question about what would improve their interdepartmental performance with "more efficiency in processes." Even before digitization, before new machines, before personnel development, there lies the simple realization: We work too cumbersomely.
The reasons for this are multifaceted. Political uncertainties, strained supply chains, and high energy prices force companies to consistently put their processes to the test. Those who do not act here will lose margins – and eventually customers.
72 percent of companies that see potential in greater process efficiency rely on digitization as a lever. 59 percent want to streamline processes, while 52 percent are adjusting them explicitly to meet future challenges. The direction is clear: Less wild growth, more system.
The Seven Typical Problem Areas in Medium-Sized Businesses
Thomas starts with an inventory check. He talks to colleagues from different departments, observes workflows, and notes where there are bottlenecks. After two weeks, he has a list that seems familiar – because it looks similar in almost every medium-sized company:
Media breaks arise wherever information needs to move from one system to the next. The engineering department stores drawings on a network drive, purchasing then manually enters the data into its ordering system, and sales copies everything again into the quoting software. Every interface is a source of errors.
Data silos prevent information from arriving where it is needed. The CRM does not know what the ERP is doing, production planning works with Excel spreadsheets, and the field service has its own documents on the laptop. No one has the complete overview.
Duplicate work consumes time and motivation. When three departments maintain the same customer master data, at least one is working for nothing. Thomas finds examples where a single dataset exists in seven different systems – of course, all slightly differently.
Unclear responsibilities result in tasks being left undone or done twice. Who is responsible for archiving quotes? Sales says accounting, accounting says IT, IT says nobody.
Lack of standardization turns every employee into a lone fighter. Everyone has their own way of naming, filing, and sending documents. When someone gets sick or leaves the company, knowledge is lost.
Manual routine tasks tie up qualified employees who should actually be using their time for value-adding activities. The assistant who spends two hours each morning converting and sending order confirmations into PDFs could do better.
Compliance risks arise when documentation is incomplete. Who can prove which version of a technical data sheet was sent to which customer and when? In the event of a product liability lawsuit, this can quickly become existential.
What Lean Management Has to Do with IT
Thomas continues to research and encounters concepts that originally come from production. The Fraunhofer IPA in Stuttgart describes Lean Management as an approach that systematically eliminates waste and reduces processes to the essential.
The basic principles can be transferred to administrative areas. What is unnecessary storage in production corresponds in the office world to documents waiting for approval. What are transport routes there are media breaks here. What means waiting times there refers here to the email that sits in the inbox for three days before someone responds.
The central question is: Which activity creates value from the customer's perspective? Everything else is waste in the Lean understanding – muda in Japanese. This sounds radical, but it helps with prioritizing. Thomas notes the question down for his conversations with the specialist departments.
From Document Chaos to Central Control
During his research, Thomas comes across a term that puts his problem succinctly: Output Management. This concept involves centralizing all documents from different source systems and distributing them through the appropriate channels.
The principle is immediately clear to him. Instead of each department cobbling together its own solution, there is a central instance that receives, prepares, and distributes documents. The construction drawing from the CAD system, the invoice from SAP, the quote from the CRM – everything goes through the same pipeline.
The advantage is obvious. Formatting, branding, and dispatch logic are defined in one place, not in fifty different Word templates. If a customer prefers PDFs by email instead of paper by post, it can be changed centrally. And the traceability – which document went to whom and when – is automatically provided.
Thomas incorporates the topic into his concept. While it does not solve all the problems, it addresses one of the biggest pain points: the uncontrolled flood of documents.
Checklist: Is Your Company Ready for Process Optimization?
For his presentation to management, Thomas develops a simple checklist. It helps in assessing the current maturity level:
| Criterion | Yes | Partially | No |
| There are documented process descriptions for all important processes | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ |
| Responsibilities are clearly defined and known | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ |
| Systems exchange data automatically | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ |
| Documents are centrally managed and archived | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ |
| Employees know where to find current templates | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ |
| Recurring tasks are automated | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ |
| Key figures for process performance are gathered regularly | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ |
| In the event of absence, colleagues can take over tasks | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ |
Those who mostly check "No" have urgent needs – but also potential. Because every deficit is at the same time a lever for improvement.
The Five Phases of an Optimization Project
Thomas structures his approach in phases. This helps him maintain an overview and set realistic expectations.
In the first phase, it focuses on analysis and inventory. What processes exist, who is involved, where are problems arising? Thomas conducts interviews, observes workflows, and reviews documentation – if there is any. This phase lasts four to eight weeks, depending on the size of the company.
The second phase is concerned with prioritization. Not everything can be tackled at once. Thomas assesses the identified problems by urgency, effort, and expected impact. Quick wins that are low-cost and bring visible improvements are moved up.
In phase three, Thomas develops concrete solution concepts. For each prioritized problem, he sketches alternatives, calculates costs and benefits, and obtains offers. It is important to involve the specialist departments – they know the details and will need to work with the solutions later.
The fourth phase includes piloting and rollout. Thomas starts with a defined area, gathers experiences, and adjusts the concept before going broad. Mistakes in a pilot project are instructive; mistakes in a company-wide rollout are costly.
Phase five means continuous improvement. Process optimization is not a project with an end date, but a mindset. Thomas establishes regular reviews, defines key figures, and creates structures to pick up improvement ideas from everyday work.
What Does It Actually Cost?
Management wants to see numbers. Thomas researches experiential data and compiles an overview:
| Measure | Typical Effort | Time Horizon Until ROI |
| Create process documentation | 2–5 person days per core process | 6–12 months |
| Introduce document management | €15,000–80,000 (depending on scope) | 12–24 months |
| Output management system | €20,000–100,000 | 12–18 months |
| Optimize ERP interfaces | €5,000–30,000 per interface | 6–12 months |
| Workflow automation | €10,000–50,000 | 6–18 months |
The numbers vary significantly, of course. What matters is to offset the benefit: saved working time, avoided errors, faster throughput times, more satisfied customers. Thomas calculates conservatively and still arrives at a payback period of two years.
Don't Forget the Human Side
Technology alone does not solve problems. Thomas noticed in the interviews that many employees are skeptical. They have experienced too often that new systems were introduced that ultimately created more work than they saved.
That is why Thomas plans time for change management from the start. He wants to involve those affected, take their objections seriously, and communicate successes visibly. When the colleague in accounting realizes that they are actually saving two hours a week with the new system, she will become an ambassador for the project.
Training is not a necessary evil, but an investment in acceptance. Thomas budgets generously and prefers to plan one round of workshops too many rather than too few. The most expensive software is of no use if no one can – or wants to – operate it.
What Optimization Projects Fail On
Thomas also collects warnings from specialized articles and conversations with colleagues from other companies. The most common pitfalls:
Unclear goals lead to projects that eventually fall by the wayside. "We want to become more efficient" is not enough. Better: "We want to reduce the turnaround time for quotes from five to two days."
Missing management support turns every project into a fight against windmills. If management does not prioritize the topic, resources will always be needed elsewhere instead.
Too much at once overwhelms organization and budget. Thomas deliberately plans small and scalable. Better three successful partial projects than one failed mammoth project.
Prioritizing technology over processes is a classic mistake. Anyone who buys a new system first and then considers how the processes should look will at best automate chaos. First optimize the process, then find the appropriate technology.
Neglected affected parties retaliate with resistance. Those who push changes through the heads of employees harvest adherence to rules – and the new processes will be systematically undermined.
Three Years Later
Thomas is now in a different office. He leads the newly created staff unit for processes and digitization, directly under the management. The document chaos from back then is history.
All outgoing documents go through the central system. Customers can choose whether they want to receive documents by mail, email, or through the customer portal. The archiving is done automatically and is revision-proof. If there is an inquiry today about a process from two years ago, Thomas can find the documents in thirty seconds.
The turnaround time for quotes has been reduced from five to one and a half days. The error rate for bills of materials has decreased by 90 percent falling. Accounting saves 40 hours of manual work each month.
More importantly, employees have gained confidence in the new systems. They themselves bring improvement suggestions because they see that their ideas are taken seriously. That is the real success.
What You Can Do Tomorrow
Process optimization begins with a first step. Here are three things Thomas recommends to anyone facing similar challenges:
Take half a day and observe a process of your choice from start to finish. Note every step, every change of system, every waiting time. The insights will surprise you.
Talk to five colleagues from different departments and ask them: "What annoys you the most about our current processes?" The answers will provide you with a priority list free of charge.
Calculate the cost of a typical routine task to the company per year. Working hours times hourly rate times frequency. The figure that comes out is your argument for the first conversation with management.
Sources:
Staufen AG: Study "Performance Drivers 2024," April 2024
Fraunhofer IPA: Lean Management – Methods and Principles
Reading Tip: Do you lose customers every day because your phone doesn't ring while you are working?
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