Before you print, think about the environment
You have probably already read this message at the bottom of your e-mail signature. While the main purpose of this message is to raise awareness of environmental and forest protection, it can also be part of a more global strategy.
From an individual point of view, this can inspire many different feelings: guilt, indifference, willingness to take action, implementing this concept at home…
For companies, while it may be primarily a matter of communicating their environmental policy, it is clearly a sign of a total quality approach in search of the 5 Zeros:
- zero stock
- zero defects
- zero downtime
- zero delay
- zero paper
Originally, total quality and its master Lean Six Sigma were applied in industry but are beginning to spread to the service sector.
1/ Introduction
Even if current trends are pushing service companies to make gains in terms of paper consumption, we are still a long way from a generalised “zero paper” organisation. However, the use of dematerialised electronic documents is gaining ground thanks to the desire of each company to improve its productivity. We can see clear progress in certain functions, such as online account consultation, or receiving invoices by e-mail.
The volume of documents required every day by the financial industry (banks, insurance companies, investment funds, bond issuers) allows this sector to claim real economies of scale by migrating to a « paperless organisation ».
Firstly, this involves identifying existing inefficiencies in the document management processes: such as high costs of paper, wasted printing and ink; not to mention lost paper without traceability. A very sophisticated and structured methodology is needed to get the right picture. It is not uncommon to refer to the Lean Six Sigma method (which has already proved its worth in industrial problem solving).
Lean Six Sigma allows, among other things, to obtain:
- A fine analysis of the existing processes thanks to a transversal vision of the projects in progress (all the links in the chain and all the players are consulted and participate in the workshops).
- A clear vision of the “ideal future organisation“ where all stakeholders not only execute but also design the new process with specialists.
A statistical analysis adapted to the process studied to detail and isolate the elements that can be optimised (variation study, ANOVA, multivariate diagrams).
2/ Paper use in service companies.
Market players use a considerable amount of paper every day. Let’s take the example of the background accountant business. This process involves a large number of steps and regularly involves printing documents. The same is true for other business lines, where paper is sometimes abused (TA, insurance, telecommunications, etc.).
Indeed, when documents are used as evidence (contract, invoice, customer statement), their use is indisputable. On the other hand, when they are used only as a simple support (means of reading, verification, etc.), printing is not essential.
There is a whole range of tools (character recognition, voice recognition, process management) that can be interfaced with an existing system without incurring a major expense.
During an assignment at a bank, we were able to demonstrate that 75% of the paper printed was useless and the excess was immediately thrown away. The fine granularity of our analytical approach made it possible to replace this printing with automatic tools.
Moreover, these problems related to print management, filing and archiving are not limited to service companies, but also affect a large number of industries and their support functions. Indeed, financial, administrative and human resources departments use as much paper as service companies.
Imagine how long it can take to find a former employee. Actions such as consulting the archives, searching through the mass of documents, copying the document, sending it… all this could be greatly simplified by IT. With one click, it would be possible to access a file remotely and send it by fax or email.
Thus, it is necessary to make service companies aware that total control of paper use can bring a number of tangible benefits.
3/The benefits of « paperlessness » :
- Productivity gains: Paperlessness brings a real reduction in costs (paper, ink, printer). Moreover, in an adapted organisation, it can considerably reduce the time taken to exchange information flows (sending an email is faster than using the post). Finally, many time losses, such as the trip to the printer, the loss of sheets taken by mistake by a colleague, paper jams, etc. will be considerably reduced. Putting schedules, meeting minutes and work diagrams online allows for better collaboration and access to all project stakeholders.
- Outsource part of their workload: In the context of a full deployment, it is possible to give a client the freedom to go and look for a transaction or a file themselves. In this way, regardless of the location or time of day, the client will carry out a workload traditionally supported by the service provider. As an example, let’s talk about the execution of a transfer via the Internet where the customer places and validates his order himself without the intervention of a bank employee.
- Security : By making efficient use of new technologies, “paperless” can reduce the risk of error, as all information would be interfaced via OCR (optical character recognition) software. Manual intervention will be reduced to a minimum. Employees will encode less and less. The use of paper shredders to preserve confidentiality would become obsolete. Document traceability makes it possible to ensure that we are working on the latest version of the file and to know who has had access to the medium.
- Storage and archiving: Paperlessness would in particular help to facilitate the filing of documents. For example, insurance companies have resorted to the dematerialisation of customer files. This allows several users to consult the same document remotely, even if they are physically distant. Finally, this dematerialisation completely eliminates the need for a dedicated archive room or a contract with a service provider.
- Protection of the planet: On a large scale, “paperless” would have a positive impact on the environment (preservation of forests, fight against the greenhouse effect). In the near future, it is likely that for ecological reasons, various national and international regulations will be introduced. Following the example of the ecological bonuses for cars, it is not impossible that paper consumption will be a penalising factor. It would therefore be a matter of anticipating and adapting more easily to future regulations.
- Marketing value: There is no doubt that today’s consumers attach a lot of importance to concepts such as sustainable development, fair trade and protection of the planet… The possibility of highlighting an ecological effort could not only satisfy existing customers, but also attract new partners.
4 / How companies are using electronic document management ?
Historically, companies have focused on very specific aspects of document processing, such as scanning, archiving, indexing and searching of image documents. Document circulation and traceability functions have only appeared very recently.
Today, electronic document management can be integrated into core business processes. Many want to add value to their document management by creating portals. Some go as far as developing a knowledge management policy with central access to intellectual resources: from document management to knowledge management.
This is now referred to as ECM (Enterprise Content Management). The heavy investments made by infrastructure leaders (internal and external growth) clearly show that enterprise content management is becoming a major strategic axis. The ECM market is estimated by Gartner to be worth three billion euros this year and is expected to grow by 12.9% per year until 2011 (IT News, December 07).
However, there are still many companies that prefer to keep their official records in paper format. In Luxembourg, there is legal ambiguity regarding the methods of keeping documents to be archived.
5/ Conclusion
Today, most companies are not very clear about the concept, the possibilities of paperlessness and the processes that such an asset requires. It is therefore not surprising that many are still hesitant to take the plunge. However, the benefits and the self-financing capacity of such projects are quickly realised (costs, remote access, speed, security). The fields of application are numerous and the only limit is the company’s will: how far can « paperless » be extended ?
We only have to look around us, as soon as we surf on a website, it is possible to subscribe very easily to the proposed service. On the other hand, to make a complaint or to withdraw from the service, the provider has not yet thought of setting up an automatic processing system… which obliges us to use registered letters with acknowledgement of receipt (which are often late in taking effect).
It is not easy to reconcile automation with a customer focus rather than a cost reduction approach. In order not to make a mistake in the strategy to adopt, do not hesitate to surround yourself with business experts familiar with dematerialisation.
Sébastien Gillot
Senior Consultant Lean Six Sigma
Ineum Consulting Luxembourg
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