The digital revolution, Lean Six Sigma, and Premi Beauty Industries

The partnership

Several years ago, Premi Spa decided to adopt Lean Six Sigma methodologies in their day-to-day process optimisation program in order to maximise productivity through continuous waste reduction while offering their staff a more collaboration-based work environment based on performance. Premi CFO Vivien Charrey, also a Lean Master Blackbelt who has been interviewed in Italian newspapers and radio for being one of the first Lean 'pioneers' bringing lean methodologies to business process management in Italy through his boutique consulting firm ViC Advisory, reached out to TOPP Tactical Intelligence seeking business automation which would support his Lean program already put in place at Premi Spa.

URLwww.premispa.com

From spreadsheets to real-time, cloud-based performance management

Having digital transformation on the top of its agenda and looking for a more effective way to review prior-day shop floor performance statistics and analytics in the daily morning management meeting, UPM chose PRESTO KPI as its KPI management solution to accelerate tactical decision making and remove the risks and administrative burden of the offline solutions (spreadsheets) previously used to manage 80+ daily performance indicators

Immediate results

Many of the Lean methodologies and tools utilised by Charrey were immediately supported by the PRESTO functionality suite. Charrey who had already had the entire organisational interaction touch point model of Premi Spa mapped to the business value chain, was able to quickly map processes, business interactions, and process waste reduction opportunities using the PRESTO workbench. One of the key tools giving immediate traction to the exercise included our SIPOC structured interface which was Charrey's tool of choice allowing him to capture the entire business value chain by using the materials previously prepared by his team prior to the introduction of the PRESTO solution.

KPI management & reporting also became automated at Premi Spa doing away with the cumbersome spreadsheet-based management reporting previously used. Other PRESTO functionality which offered immediate value included its 5-why analysis, cycle time management for business processes and operational readiness support tool maintenance management and the PRESTO client demand heat-map giving its users visibility into where environmental factors and client peak demand activity pose risk to daily business operations.

The PRESTO value proposition

PRESTO, having a wide variety of operational excellence functionality offered Charrey the opportunity to begin experimenting with additional continuous improvement-related tools that were not used in operations. The Lean Six Sigma skills matrix offered by PRESTO allowed Charrey the possibility to begin tracking performance at the individual level using PRESTO's easy-to-use, 4-steps-to-excellence performance tracker. Being one of the first solutions of its type in the market allowing its users to map processes with individual performance highlighting the knowledge gaps which impose operational inefficiencies, Charrey was able to support where investment in learning and development was necessary thus making several accelerated tactical decisions regarding training and coaching to those employees who needed the support. Using PRESTO's integrated waste management dashboard, Charrey was able to communicate effectively where waste reduction opportunities were opportunities for growth in the personal development plans of the staff. Furthermore, preliminary initiatives using the PRESTO automated newsfeed as a corporate best practice awareness tool are now underway at Premi engaging additional employees.

Complementary synergies

Under Charrey's guidance, the opportunity to enhance PRESTO as an operational excellence solution based on the Lean Six Sigma tools sets used at Premi Spa presented itself immediately and brought to the market several innovative solutions which have still yet to be challenged by other software providers. Being a strong advocate of managing roles and responsibilities by way of the Lean RACI matrix, Charrey worked diligently with TOPP consultants in various brainstorming sessions and successfully incorporated the tool into the PRESTO interface offering enriched visibility to human resources personnel into the roles and responsibilities of the employees. Charrey also enhanced PRESTO's process mapping module to allow for inter-departmental collaboration during the touch point analysis phase allowing the product to be one of the first official Value Chain mapping tools on the market offering a great satisfaction to all project team members from both TOPP and Premi.

Conclusion & results

Since 2016 the TOPP / Premi partnership has tested and brought to the market various new operational excellence-oriented innovation built on PRESTO, TOPP's cloud-based operational excellence business solution together with Charrey's Lean Six Sigma methodology and his know-how built on years of business consulting experience. PRESTO is now being used by Premi to track operational wastes mapping each to key performance indicators and accelerating tactical decision making in waste reduction prioritisation exercises. Furthermore, Premi is using PRESTO to track performance, communicate expectations to its staff while sharing best practices and opening the communication lines amongst its staff via the transparency offered by PRESTO's social network-style usage format.

Premi Beauty Industries has recently made an investement to expand their 75-person outfit in North Italy by opening a new production plant in California. With intentions to double their headcount as well as revenues within the next three years, Charrey stated that PRESTO will be a fundamental instrument in the global management of the organisation to ensure that the Premi spa standard of excellence together with its continuous improvement program is implemented and monitored consistently at the global level.

We at TOPP TI are delighted to be part of this success story, excited to see PRESTO used as tool to support business growth and wish our client Premi Spa best of luck and all of our support in its digital transformation journey ahead.

For more information about the use of PRESTO Continuous improvement at Premi Spa, please contact Premi CFO Vivien Charrey (viviencharrey@vicadvisory.com) or TOPP Tactical Intelligence Managing Director Andrew Lenti (www.toppti.com)

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