To support the company’s commercial process transformation, Accenture quickly deployed a team of professionals with deep process skills and, in particular, Lean Six Sigma.
In helping this client chart a course for high performance, Accenture supported a 20-week program providing Lean Six Sigma skills to help drive cultural change, create a common operations language and enable the development of the internal capability required for continuous improvement.
As a first step, Accenture worked with the client to review the projects that would generate significant business benefit and to recommend where, and how, process improvement capability should be further developed across the business.
Armed with that finding, the Accenture and client team launched a targeted set of Lean Six Sigma training and coaching activities for more than 120 client personnel, alongside stakeholder engagement sessions for more than 300 senior managers.
The overarching vision for the Lean Six Sigma program involved transitioning the retailer to a simpler way of working that would offer customers better product ranges and promotions, matched with the right stock levels. This transition, in turn, called for the adoption of consistently applied processes across five core commercial activities: budget setting, range change, space planning, in-season execution and exit planning for products the retailer no longer wanted to sell.
Accenture also helped guide the client to embed the new processes and change behaviors. For example, the Accenture team helped the retailer develop communications to mobilize its workforce and build commitment. It helped design and then roll out training and coaching programs to ensure that the new processes would be applied consistently and effectively across the organization. It helped establish monitoring procedures to determine whether the workers were engaged in the process changes and the desired benefits were being achieved.