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1. Issue: Miscounting Votes For or Against Proposal

2. Solution: Visualize Voting Status / Make Voting Status Visible

The process owner will modify the workflow App to accurately track the voting status by enabling its management within the system.

Specifically, after a shareholder completes their vote submission via the web form, a mechanism will be added to automatically update the “Status” data field to “Exercised.” This will allow administrative staff to instantly check the voting status on the management screen.

Compare Before/After

Reference: Parent Process (Shareholder Meeting Proposal Registration Process)

The Voting Process in Shareholder Meetings is initiated from its parent process, the “Shareholder Meeting Proposal Registration Process”.

3. Benefits

4. Other Business Applications

• Contract Approval Workflow
  • Automate the approval status updates from each department to significantly expedite the contract finalization process. This also enables timely reminders to responsible parties whose approval is still pending.
• Internal Approval Progress Management
  • Visualize the approval flow for budget requests and operational improvement proposals to reduce the lead time from submission to approval.
• Event Participant Attendance Confirmation
  • Track event and training registrations (both internal and external) in real-time. This allows for smooth follow-up with attendees who have not yet confirmed their attendance.

*This process improvement story is a work of fiction. It has no connection to any real persons or organizations.

1. Issue: The Billing Process Is Not Progressing

Client review and acceptance reports are important steps in completing video production projects completion, but delays in the latter frequently hinder the billing process, causing significant issues.

Inspection delays will impede the issuance of invoices and payment confirmation. As a result, cash flow will become unstable and revenue recognition will be delayed, which will have a negative impact on the company’s income and expenditure plans. For small and medium-sized enterprises in particular, stable cash flow is directly linked to securing working capital, so these delays risk affecting investments in other projects and employee payments.

2. Solution: Introduce “Inferred Inspections”

To address this issue, the process owner sets an inspection deadline for the public form and implements an inferred inspection process. This process dictates that if the client fails to report the inspection within a defined timeframe (for example, 14 days following delivery), the inspection will be automatically considered complete.

During implementation, it is important to clearly communicate inferred inspection rules and deadlines to clients. Flexibility regarding special circumstances fosters client trust and strengthens relationships.

3. Benefits

Stabilizing Cash Flow

Eliminating delays in inspections means that invoices can be issued without interruption, payment obligations can be determined more quickly, and companies can secure a stable source of working capital.

Efficient Project Progress

Streamlining acceptance inspections will ensure smoother project progression, freeing up resources for subsequent projects. This will enhance the efficiency of our small, specialized team managing concurrent projects.

Preventing Delays in Recording Revenue

Smooth billing processes allow revenue to be recorded more quickly. This prevents adverse effects on a company’s financial planning and supports accurate business planning.

4. Other Business Applications

Software Development

By implementing a system to ensure that client inspection is completed within the deadline after the delivery of the application or system development, it is possible to prevent delays in release and billing processing. This system makes it possible to smoothly progress the project and utilize development resources efficiently.

Construction Industry

Implementing a post-completion inspection system in construction and renovation projects accelerates the handover confirmation process, enabling quicker initiation of the next project and faster billing. This improves project management efficiency and stabilizes cash flow.

Education and Training Industry

Collect feedback and completion confirmations for online courses or training programs by a set deadline to streamline payment processing and enable timely progression to future programs, thereby enhancing operational efficiency and accelerating revenue generation.

E-commerce Site Management

Streamline your product sales and returns process by setting deadlines for customer confirmation of returns and review ratings. This system enables quick completion, efficient inventory management, and better planning for future shipments.

1. Issue: Required fields like “excerpt” are missing.

The Marketing Department at ◯△× Company is responsible for publishing articles on WordPress.com, based on requests originating from other departments. The current workflow involves departmental personnel submitting information via a dedicated form, which then automatically generates a draft article.

This automated process is designed to populate four critical fields: “Article Title”, “Article Body”, “Inserted Images”, and “Excerpt”. However, there’s a recurring issue in many cases where essential information is missing.

The most prominent omission is the “Excerpt”. This frequently leads to the core message of the articles not being effectively conveyed to readers. As the excerpt is vital for concisely summarizing an article’s appeal, its absence or inaccuracy negatively impacts search engine visibility and social media engagement.

Furthermore, even experienced marketers occasionally overlook these data inaccuracies, which presents a significant operational challenge for the department.

2. Solution: Automate the checking of required fields.

To address this issue, we’re implementing a system to automatically check for all required fields.

Specifically, during the draft creation stage, the system will automatically verify the presence of the article title, article body, inserted images, and excerpt. If any are missing, the draft will be routed to the proofreading process for correction.

3. Benefits

Required Fields are Completed and Accurate Articles are Published

By automatically checking all required fields, we can now publish articles without omissions or missing information. This is particularly beneficial for the “excerpt”, as its proper setting will improve the effectiveness of how it is displayed on search engines and social media, significantly boosting the article’s appeal.

Streamlined Article Submission Process

Automating data checks during the draft creation phase eliminates last-minute corrections (supplementary) work before publication. This reduces the effort spent on corrections, leading to a smoother and more efficient article submission workflow.

Enhanced Reliability Through Error Prevention

Detecting data deficiencies early on helps prevent the publication of inaccurate information or data omissions. This ensures we deliver accurate information to readers and stakeholders, thereby improving overall reliability and trust.

4. Other Business Applications

Product Data Management (E-commerce)

For e-commerce product listings, automatically verifying that essential data such as product name, description, price, and images are complete can significantly reduce pre-publication review time and prevent the release of incorrect information.

Customer Support Operations

In customer service, implementing a system to confirm the accurate recording of inquiry details and resolution status helps prevent information loss and ensures smoother customer interactions.

Education and Training Operations

When delivering online courses or training programs, by requesting evaluations and completion confirmation from participants or clients within deadlines, payment confirmation and the provision of the next program can be streamlined. This mechanism not only improves operational efficiency but also accelerates revenue generation.

Document Creation

For internal and external reports or presentation materials, utilizing a system to check whether all the essential elements like the title, summary, data, and visual aids are complete can reduce post-completion revision work and boost overall operational efficiency.

*This process improvement story is a work of fiction. It has no connection to any real persons or organizations.

1. Issue: Workload concentrated on veteran employees

Estimation tasks are assigned on a rotating basis, but the difficulty level varies significantly depending on the request.

2. Solution: Assigning Responsibilities Based on Request Content

3. Effects

4. Application to other operations

This methodology clarifies work distribution and improves efficiency, and can be horizontally applied to the following industries and businesses.

• Customer support/call center
• IT support/help desk
• Manufacturing/quality control

Revamping our approval flow: Executive approval is now mandatory for high-value projects! This will ensure greater transparency and stronger risk management.

*This process improvement story is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual persons, entities, or events is purely coincidental.

1. Issue: Risk of High-Value Proposals That Have Not Been Approved

2. Solution: Mandate Executive Approval for High-Value Projects

The process owner will revise the workflow to make executive approval mandatory for high-value proposals. Specifically, estimates exceeding 5 million yen must be approved by an executive after being reviewed by a manager, and then a notification will be sent. This improvement streamlines the communication channels, enabling swift and accurate operations.

3. Benefits

*This process improvement story is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual persons, entities, or events is purely coincidental.

4. Other Business Applications

Enhancing the Purchase Request Process

Make department head and executive approval mandatory for high-value purchase requests. Establish an approval flow to prevent wasteful purchases and excessive spending.

Optimizing Budget Approvals

New projects exceeding a defined budget threshold require executive approval. Proactive risk assessment is crucial before project commencement to mitigate potential budget overruns.