|
Westland Helicopters (WHL) have adopted the principals of ?Lean Management?, and in particular a strong focus on the 3 ?QCD? principals: Quality, Cost and Delivery (or ?Schedule Adherence?).
To provide this focus, and to ensure that success was real, WHL recognised the need for a state of the art performance measurement system. It needed to provide accurate, up to date information to the fingertips of the executive team, in a usable and flexible format. The information needed to relate directly to the strategic initiatives, and this meant it had to cover every business process, from the design of the helicopters (the creation of engineering drawings) through to the servicing of helicopters (?customer support?).
The finance department, as project sponsors, engaged with other areas of the business and produced a new set of Key Performance Indicators to measure business performance, with a consistent theme of QCD. This comprehensive list allowed performance to be measured, and related to the organisation?s strategic aims ? quality, cost and delivery.
BenefitsThe benefits expected by WHL were:
- More accurate information at the fingertips of the board, enabling better decision making
- Less time spent collating information
- Buy in to a single and accurate version of the truth
- Better management control leading to improved operational processes
- A single management reporting system, and hence the closure of some existing systems
Technology BackgroundWHL uses SAP R/3 across much of its business, particularly in finance, logistics and manufacturing, and was already using Business Warehouse (BW) for reporting (primarily) SAP information. This is in line with a commitment to a strategy rooted in SAP Technology, and includes a series of ongoing initiatives to further exploit the value created by the SAP R/3 platform. These initiatives include more effective interaction with their customers and suppliers, as well as improving internal processes and performance.
SolutionThe finance department started producing reports for the agreed KPIs within Microsoft Excel, pulling data together from a number of areas including SAP R/3 and SAP BW, as well as a series of other non-SAP sources. Whilst effective at pulling together the KPI model, it was clear that this was not a long term solution, and Bluefin were engaged by WHL to work with them in order to deliver the entire solution using SAP BW.The result is a series of graphical cockpits within BW, used by the board and their first line mangers to help in the decision-making process. These cockpits present information in a fast, intuitive way and also allow views by both process and strategic themes.
The information starts at a high level, but the user can easily drill down to lower levels of detail, eventually leaving the graphical environment and going into a numerical environment, and in some cases down to the details of individual SAP transactions. It would be unusual for an individual user to drill down from top to bottom, but the key advantage to this approach is that the same solution can be used by multiple people at different levels of the organisation, allowing them to focus on the areas that are important and interesting to them.
The KPI model is flexible and new KPIs, cockpits and reports are easily added. In particular, the WHL Finance Department are able to directly change any screens that the business use by following a set of guidelines produced by the project. The data is sourced from a variety of systems, including of course R/3, and the solution is flexible enough to allow data sources to change. As an example, when the engineering department migrates to R/3, the source of data will be changed from the current legacy environment to the R/3 system; richer information will be available at a detailed level, but the summary information provided will not change.
The solution was delivered by a joint team comprised of WHL IT, WHL Finance and Bluefin. Great assistance was provided from across the business.
Have The Benefits Been Realised?The first benefit achieved by the project was highlighting where operational processes were not following best practice. Nearly 30 operational improvement processes were highlighted, each of which had or will have a bottom line impact according to its own business case. Immediate benefits were realised in Finance where less time is now spent collating information, and it is expected that these benefits will accrue across the business.
It is too early yet to measure the impact of better decision making, or buy in to single version of the truth.
The FutureWHL is now fully owned by Finmecannica, and changes are expected, but initiatives in progress, or under consideration for 2005, include:
- Continuing to execute the initiatives highlighted by the KPI project to drive operational efficiency
- Increased cost reduction by elimination of unnecessary manual gathering of information.
- Implementing a true Balanced Scorecard to ensure that the actions and resources of the organisation are fully aligned to its strategy, and that ultimately personal performance is aligned to company strategy.
The solution is supported by WHL?s internal team, with assistance from Bluefin?s Total Solution Portal to provide offsite development and support, combined with onsite consulting as required.
About Westland HelicoptersAgustaWestland is a powerful force in the world helicopter industry. It is a leader in a number of the world?s most important programs and has an impressive line of new products and technologies. AgustaWestland is a world-class alliance committed to delivering outstanding products and services to its customers while maximizing value for its shareholders.
|
Customers 
