John Warburton
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Case Study – YTL Group Introduction The primary business of the company was laboratory testing for food intolerance and allergy testing in humans and animals with additional business in the supply of specialist plates for export to laboratories/partners in various countries world wide and the supply of health related products. The company had grown dramatically over a short period of time to £3m T/O. The plan was to increase the T/O to £10m over a 3 year period. As the growth of the business had been fairly rapid, there had been a tendency to try and use existing systems and procedures that had been successful in the early stages of the business, but were now not suitable to control the sustained growth anticipated. As a result it was felt that there was a lack of employee and general resource efficiency. The company was split over 2 sites approximately 5 miles apart; Laboratory and sales administration was at one site and the Company administration /marketing and veterinary business was at another site. The Project The initial project was to carry out a detailed process mapping of the business to include sales receipt and sales order processing; sales administration; laboratory control for all blood testing and plate production and stock control procedures for both blood testing kits and health products. The initial survey and report was carried out over a 10 day period. The Findings (Example) A total of fifteen areas of the business were examined and processed mapped to facilitate analysis of the major issues affecting the business. These included everything within the sales process from telephone enquires and sales to sales administration; payment methods, accounting procedures; stock control; laboratory production control and a range of ancillary operations. Generally it was found that there was a lack of staff and system efficiency caused by outdated telephony, outdated database management systems and inefficient administration with far too many duplicate operations being carried out. It was also established that the laboratory was basically self loading based on the number of tests received. The actual data required to accurately schedule the laboratory was not available. There were only 3 telephone lines into the sales office and three telephone sales operatives who worked 0900 to 1700 answering approximately 150 calls per day with a conversion rate of 23% equating to approximately £22.00 per call. In addition, outgoing sales calls were supposed to be made in between answering sales calls. Each sales had to be entered to one of 3 database systems which were outdated and totally inefficient.. Payment was taken by manually entering credit card details onto pre-printed forms which were passed to accounts that would then process then on a ePDQ facilty. The outcomes As a result of the detailed process maps and the subsequent recommendations it was agreed that a project would be instigated to implement all of the proposals. A new data base management system linked to a CRM system and new fully integrated telephony system with “Screen Popping” was introduced into the company which increased the answering of sales calls from approximately 150 calls per day at the start of the project to an average of 268 calls per day at the end of the project with sales conversions increasing from £22.00 per call to £45.00 per call with 95% of calls being answered in under 30 seconds, with new sales targets being achieved and surpassed on a monthly basis. The introduction of the CRM system linked to a new SQL Database management system also facilitated fast and efficient payment directly into the system carried out with a minimal number of key strokes, which, in turn, reduced the amount of onerous administration jobs. Within the testing laboratory, actual capacity was established for testing and plate preparation with realistic utilisation figures accepted by staff. From the start of the project to the completion of the project, efficiency had increased by over 40%. A project team within the company was established to introduce a new LIMS (Laboratory Information Management System) to facilitate all blood samples from blood reception through each stage of the testing process and ultimately produce final diagnostic results. Stock control was dramatically increased with the outsourcing of blood sample kits preparation and despatch and the control/despatch of the health related products. A full management/staff training plan was introduced with new measurable and SMART objectives set throughout the company based on realistic information now being generated by the new systems. A final part of the project was to project manage a move by the company from two sites into one new site with purpose built laboratories and offices at York Science Park. The company was awarded the Queens Award for Enterprise during the project which took approximately 12 months to complete. Attached e-mail from Yorktest CEO: Dear John I am delighted to be able to announce that Yorktest has been awarded the Queen's Award for Enterprise within the category of Innovation. Fewer than forty companies are receiving this award and it is a great day for us all here within the Company. I am so grateful to all our staff for all their hard work and dedication in earning this award but we could not do this by ourselves, and I am writing specifically to thank you for all your help and support in helping us so much. You are an innovator; and it is not always easy being an innovator. I am reliably (I hope) informed that it was John Wayne who once said "It's the pioneers who get the arrows!" and you certainly have plenty of those in your “Process Maps” Your support and mentoring has meant a lot to us - and continues to mean a lot. Thanks once again. John John Graham, MBE better health begins at home... "The contents of this e-mail and any attachments are the property of YorkTest and are intended for use of the named recipient(s). The contents may be confidential and should not be communicated to or relied upon by any person without our written consent. If you have received this e-mail in error please notify the sender and delete it from your system. YorkTest uses up to date virus checking procedures but you are advised that you open any attachments at your own risk." Footnote: John Warburton was the recipient of the “National Business Adviser of the Year” at the 1998 “Build Better Business Awards” sponsored by DTI/Barclays Bank/Business Link. |
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