OPERATIONAL PROCESS IMPROVEMENT STUDY CASE IN A LOCAL BIOTECHNOLOGY DISTRIBUTOR COMPANY

• Main Author: Anggraini, Lina
• Format: Theses
• Language: Indonesia
• Online Access: https://digilib.itb.ac.id/gdl/view/47635
• Institution: Institut Teknologi Bandung

This study is done in a local biotechnology distributor company. It aims to analyze its business issue, identify process improvement opportunities, achieve cost leadership, and support company strategy in increasing profitability by using lean methodology. There are three research questions in this study. The first question is the root causes in operation, which impact company profitability. The second question is the solutions and improvement suggestions that can be implemented in the company for the operational process. The third question is the implementation plan for the improvement proposal. This research is using Six Sigma lean tools, specifically DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control) methodology. It is a problem-solving methodology that improves processes and allows defect reduction. In this research, the company business issue is the decreasing amount of revenue in 2019 that caused by decreasing the total number of customer order. It is because of the operational issue related to delay in goods arrival to the customer. This issue impacts customer satisfaction, influencing the customers’ decision, whether they would use the company service again in the future. Besides impacting on customer satisfaction, the delay in goods arrival also gives financial impact because it leads to additional cost to the company. This research uses mixed-method data analysis for both qualitative and quantitative data. The major contributor to the delay goods arrival to the customer is delay payment from the company’s finance team to its suppliers. It is making delay import process from overseas suppliers to the company. The second contributor is the discrepancy understanding of government regulation regarding import goods requirements, for example, licenses and import documents. Besides these two contributors, there are some other root causes of delay in goods arrival, such as human error, miscommunication, and third party service failures. There are some proposed business solutions from FMEA (Failure Model and Effect Analysis). Based on the FMEA RPN (Risk Priority Number) score, the highest priority is improving the payment process from the company to its supplier. The second highest RPN score is related to define a standard document for government regulation during the import goods registration process and prevent overlooking payment status from the customers. Besides the solutions mentioned above, there are other alternative business solutions by adding value-added processes, eliminating waste, implementing the 5S concept, and quality management. It is also essential to develop Kaizen (continuous improvement) culture within the organization so that all employees are aware of the current challenges, and contribute to process improvement ideas and implementation.