Adding efficiency within personal finance customer service through lean-thinking

Abstract

Banks of today need to incorporate new flexible methods to keep up with the increasing demand of new digital products and services. However, the digital transformation and development processes are not as straight forward as in other industries because banks operate in regulated markets, making the application of lean methods more difficult. This study aimed to investigate and expand the knowledge on how lean ideology can be applied within the personal finance customer service sector and its processes. Structured questionnaire, observational actions and internal documents were used to gather data regarding how the operation involved applies these methods. The main findings show data on waste creation within the operation and how they could be “leanified”. Key themes identified from the data are lean framework adaptation, identification of waste, management of change, leadership, collaboration and internal challenges. The adaptation of specific frameworks is driven by the profile of the specific team in a particular product area. Similarly, the lean ideology is used to understand the motivation of workers and how important it is for the maximization of efficiency within the operation. An important challenge in maximizing lean ideology within the operation involved is the transformation of the operation from resource efficient into more flow efficient. The findings from this study contribute to the field by giving insight into how lean ideology can be adapted in the context of banking by adding already existing literature.