How a Dutch financial institution increased its margins by reducing lead times and introducing a performance- driven way of working

De uitdaging

• Lead times for key services had increased to 60–90 [Dv1] days, impacting client experience.
• Processes and ownership were unclear, making it difficult to improve performance.
• Cost pressure was rising, while internal knowledge and capabilities to address the issues were limited.

Onze aanpak

• Mapped end-to-end value chains and identified inefficiencies in the process.
• Introduced clear KPIs and practical performance management routines.
• Trained employees in Lean methods to create internal capability for continuous improvement.

Resultaat

• Lead times reduced by 35 ays on average.
• First-time-right rate improved from 45% to 85%.
• 75+ employees certified in Lean Yellow Belt
• Stronger ownership and problem-solving ability within teams.

When operational complexity becomes a barrier

It is common in large organisations that processes evolve over time and become harder to manage. Handovers increase, small workarounds accumulate, and lead times gradually extend. This is what this financial institution was experiencing.

Lead times for several services had grown to 30–60 days. Teams were working hard, but they lacked visibility across the entire end to end chain. Information existed, but it was fragmented and not always used for decision-making. For leadership there is pressure on costs but also in Client satisfaction

These issues were not the result of one single decision. They were the result of many incremental changes. Therefore, solving them required practical adjustments and clarity rather than a complete organisational redesign.

Understanding the actual problem

Our first step was to gain a clear picture of how work moved through the organisation. We held discussions with operational teams, leadership and support departments to understand where time was lost and what prevented people from improving the process.

The diagnosis highlighted several points:

• Process steps were not formally mapped or standardised.
• Performance indicators were not shared across teams.
• Ownership for problem solving was spread over several functions.
• Employees felt responsible for completing tasks, but not empowered to improve how work was done.
• There was insufficient understanding of the end product and the data required to achieve it.
• It was unclear what quality standards each task had to meet in order to guarantee quality.

This showed that improvements needed to address both structure and behaviour to be sustainable.

A practical and collaborative way of working

A small team of four Projective Group consultants worked on-site alongside the company’s teams. The work combined two streams:

1. Improving process efficiency

Under the leadership of Daniel van 't Wel, we mapped out the entire value chain to identify unnecessary steps, transfers and bottlenecks. 

By streamlining the steps, clarifying responsibilities and resolving bottlenecks with improvement projects and a dedicated project team, we created an efficient process. 

To ensure sustainable performance, performance indicators were set up with a performance dashboard. This enables leadership to manage for results on a daily basis.

2. Strengthening performance-driven behaviour

Led by Kiki Collot d’Escury and supported by Giulia Meyer, we focused on building the capability to monitor performance and solve issues locally. Through Lean training, coaching and routine performance dialogues, teams gained the skills and confidence to improve their work.

Simple dashboards were introduced so that performance data could be reviewed regularly. This helped move discussions from assumptions to facts.

The financial result is an increase of the margins for more than € 2.1 MIO every year.

Improvements were implemented gradually to avoid disruption and to ensure that they could be sustained.

• Lead times reduced by 8–10 days on average.
• First-time-right rate increased from 45% to 85%.
• More than 60 employees completed Lean Yellow Belt certification.
• Around 20 employees started and led their own improvement initiatives.
• Issues began to be resolved within teams instead of escalating upwards.

These changes came from many small adjustments rather than one major shift.

Why the approach worked

The results were achieved because the approach combined structural clarity with behavioural change:

• The real problem was understood before solutions were introduced.
• Performance information was made accessible to everyone.
• Improvements were made together with the teams doing the work.
• Results were built gradually to allow stable adoption.
• Internal capability was developed to reduce reliance on external support.

A foundation for ongoing improvement

The most important outcome is not only the reduced lead times or improved quality, but the increased ability of teams to understand and improve their own work and the performance for clients.[Dv3] 

The organisation now has clearer processes, shared indicators and stronger ownership at the levels closest to operations. This provides a stable base for further development without the need for large transformation programmes.