Lean Office in Domotecnica

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Domotecnica Italiana srl was set up in 1993 and is the first national franchising network for thermohydraulic installation companies. Its mission is to support its affiliates on a path of professional and managerial growth in order to become specialists of energy saving and as such more competitive and capable of higher levels of profitability. In order to achieve this ambitious goal Domotecnica carries out many complex initiatives like organizing conventions, meetings and courses, providing consulting services and allowing affiliates to get better prices and terms from qualified suppliers of thermohydraulic equipment. One of the most important activities performed by Domotecnica is that of identifying, contacting and acquiring new affiliates which involves a complex activity including geomarket analyses, calls and recalls to invite potential members to special meetings and finally financing and signing the affiliation contract.

[custom_headline type=”left” level=”h2″ looks_like=”h4″ accent=”true”]The Challenge[/custom_headline]
After a long period of continuous business growth and a constant increase in complexity, the company has felt the need to think of a new Organizational model capable to overcome the existing problems and to support its future strategies. At this point they asked our support. The question we had to face was this: how could we approach such a complex and dynamic company with characteristics and problems very specific and difficult to tackle? Once again we found an answer in lean principles and philosophy applied to a non manufacturing environment. Contrary to what many people think lean thinking can be applied to the whole company and to any kind of company. Its application outside manufacturing or in non manufacturing companies we call Lean Office.

[custom_headline type=”left” level=”h2″ looks_like=”h4″ accent=”true”]The Action[/custom_headline]
In the first phase of the project we tried to understand the organization chart and the real distribution of responsibilities and we did this through interviews with the persons responsible for the various offices. We then had interviews with the Top Management in order to understand the future strategies of the company and after that we designed an organization chart which was leaner and more in line with these strategies. Among the main changes proposed were the creation of a Marketing function, a strengthening of the Commercial function and the creation of a Logistic Area which includes all supporting activities previously dispersed among the different functions. We have then started the second phase during which we performed a quantitative analysis of all processes and activities performed in the company. In this phase all the employees have been involved using a method based on interviews and on the processing of the data collected using of a software tool we have developed along the years. After a close examination of the report produced by the above tool we have understood the most critical processes and the most critical activities. Once this analysis was completed we defined and planned a number of improvement projects. In addition we have defined a method for managing these projects based on the following principles:  Appointment of a Project Leader and involvement of all the people interested to the project  Clear definition of project objectives  Definition of a project schedule identifying all relevant phases of the project and their completion date  Definition of a number of meeting with Top Management to present a project progress report This method has been applied to a first project in order to prove its validity and will become a basic tool to support the continuous improvement process which is one of the pillars of Lean Thinking.

[custom_headline type=”left” level=”h2″ looks_like=”h4″ accent=”true”]The Results[/custom_headline]
Today the company has a less functional and more flow oriented organizational chart than before. The detailed analysis of processes and activities have shown where were the most critical situations and has encouraged the company to launch projects in order to improve efficiency and eliminate wastes.