Toyota Finance New Zealand (TFS) had invested a lot of time in documenting its processes and policies, but it lacked an adequate means of managing ongoing improvements and changes. Promapp provided the ideal solution...

Toyota Financial Services Corporation, the finance division of Toyota Motor Corporation in Japan, provides vehicle finance and leasing for individuals and business across 32 countries. Since 2001 their mission has been to: “Improve Processes throughout the global network of sales finance companies by promoting a culture of best practices in the spirit of the Toyota Way.”

Like its parent, TFS has long placed great emphasis on ‘best practices’ and the Toyota Way. Local Process Engineer Thomas Kohlenbach explains that Kaizen - as one part of the Toyota Way - involves employees asking ‘what can I do better?’ “This could be simply improving workflow and efficiency, or finding other ways to make things easier or better. In this way improvements are developed from the ground up and flow through the organisation.”

By 2006 TFS realised it had a problem. While a considerable amount of work had been done on mapping processes, the manuals and procedures were being stored as Word documents, which was a less than ideal medium. “They could run to 120 pages or more and people found them hard to understand,” says Kohlenbach. “They were also difficult and time consuming to change, with a lengthy change management process. We knew a better approach was needed.”

TFS started to look for a simpler technology based solution, eventually arriving at a shortlist of two contenders, one of which was Promapp. Promapp’s software has been designed to provide a tool to manage ongoing process improvement and process change. Kohlenbach says Promapp was eventually selected because it was much easier to use and update and, unlike the competing package, it would not require specialist staff to configure and operate it.

A feature unique to Promapp is that any staff member can be assigned as “process owner”, giving them edit rights to their own process, and anyone can suggest improvements to a process.  While having a central point of governance is critical, Kohlenbach says it’s equally important that nominated process owners can update their own processes.  “If you want an agile and improving process environment then gone are the days when a couple of business analysts are left to nut it out on their own in a back room,” he says.  Promapp is available as a web-based solution, so it can be deployed quickly, and licensed by a monthly subscription, rather than necessarily requiring a capital outlay.

Kohlenbach says TFS elected to host the package on an internal server in order to meet compliance requirements of its parent company. He says the company sent a “kick-off group” of seven employees for a one-day in-depth training session at Promapp. The idea was that this core group would then introduce Promapp and its methodology to their colleagues.  “Promapp had offered to train the whole company but the initial training was so good we felt we could handle it ourselves,” says Kohlenbach. After more than six months of use, the Promapp software has provided many business benefits. Kohlenbach says one of the most noticeable differences has been a dramatic reduction in the time taken to train new or promoted employees.

Staff can use Promapp to view the responsibilities of their role and the processes associated with it, all within an easy-to-follow, drill down structure. Promapp has also encouraged collaboration within the organisation, which has assisted in rolling out process improvements.