We use lean and systems thinking to take waste out of service processes: the rework, the chasing, the duplicate checks. Your own teams do the analysis alongside us, so they understand the new process and can keep improving it once we leave.
Service processes grow by accretion. A check is added after one mistake, a form after one complaint, an approval after one audit finding. Each makes sense on its own; together they slow everything down and add cost the customer never sees the value of.
We take a systems view. Rather than starting with process maps, we start with demand and purpose: what customers ask for, and what the process is for. We then study how the work flows today, measuring how long cases really take from end to end, how often they loop back, and where they wait. Our consultants work alongside your staff in the operation itself, not in a project room down the corridor.
The redesign is led by the people who do the work. We help them strip out steps that add no value, move expertise to the front of the process, and build simple measures that show flow rather than activity. Changes are tested on live work in a small area first, then extended once the results are clear.
Typical outcomes include end-to-end times cut by 40 to 60 per cent, productivity gains of 15 to 30 per cent and a noticeable fall in complaints. Just as important, teams finish with the skills to keep improving. We often train a group of internal practitioners through our accredited Lean Practitioner course during the work, so the method stays when we go.
“The team found more waste in a fortnight with Halveron than our previous programme found in a year, because this time they were looking for it themselves.”
Head of Operations, a regional building society
We agree what the process is for from the customer's point of view. Every step in the current process is then judged against that purpose rather than against internal habit or history.
We measure real end-to-end times, loops and waits on live cases. The data usually surprises everyone, including the people who designed the process and the managers who report on it each month.
The people who do the work lead the redesign, with our coaching. They remove steps that add no value, simplify the rest and move expertise to the point where it prevents errors.
Changes are tried on live work in one team for a few weeks, measured, refined and then extended. Visible results build confidence, and the method spreads from team to team with them.
Case study
Complaints at a regional water company were rising and taking weeks to close. We helped frontline teams resolve most at first contact and fix the causes behind them.
Find out how we did it: Improving complaints handling at a water utility
In brief
Failure demand is the work customers create when we fail to do something, or do it wrong. In most service operations it is a large cost, and a controllable one.
Read full article: Failure demand on one page
Case study
A regional bank's back office was carrying an eleven-day backlog and heavy overtime. Better planning, standard work and daily team routines cleared it within four months.
Find out how we did it: Driving back-office productivity at a regional bank