Case Study: Claims Processing – Kaizen in Business Process Management

In 2015, a US-based multi-billion dollar workers compensation firm was facing a problem familiar to many successful enterprises – rapid expansion leading to organizational fragmentation and inefficiency.  Growth had resulted in multiple operating units and a variety of business processes, core systems, management practices and cultural attitudes.  Rather than operating as a cohesive whole, the firm had evolved into a federation of cooperative business units. Looking to re-establish a sense of ‘one company’, the leadership team selected one business area that was common across the entire organization – claims processing.  With outside support, and embracing Kaizen principles, it set out to consolidate and simplify multiple platforms and third party agreements into a single integrated approach that supported a successful journey towards a more unified company.