Management Reporting Case Study

The client's problem

Our client has a production line in Ukraine with many different production steps. He also has a similar production line in Germany. He wants to ensure that the production runs with the same efficiency in Ukraine as it is running in Germany. In order to do this he needs to measure the performance of the individual process steps and optimize its efficiency. The production in Germany runs already since many years and a fine-grained measurement system is in place. This means that the German production line should act as a performance benchmark for the new Ukrainian subsidiary. Consequently he wanted to implement the same measurement system in Ukraine like in Germany.

Measurement in Germany is done via the accounting system. However, the Ukrainian chart of account is a fixed set of accounts. It is possible to create individual sub accounts but the main categories are fixed. This can cause challenging situations if certain parameters need to be measured. Ultimately the client wanted to have an Excel table with exactly the same structure and aggregated data like he has in the German production line. Hence, the challenge was how to create appropriate sub-accounts in the Ukrainian accounting system and create the Excel reports in an automated way.

How we added value

First we analyzed the process steps to be sure we understand correctly what the exact definition of the process steps are. Then we obtained by the client a detailed explanation how the aggregated data of their Management Report is calculated in Germany. Subsequently we created appropriate sub-accounts in the Ukrainian subsidiary. Then we created for three periods (3 months) the desired management report manually. We scrutinized many parameters and verified that they are calculated correctly. Following that we fined-tuned the algorithm to be sure that data is comparable with the measurement in Germany.

After a sign off from the client regarding the correctness of the manually created reports we collaborated with our software partner. Based on our instructions he programmed in 1S (Standard accounting software in Ukraine) a special algorithm that created the Excel report automatically. As we did the report manually for three months we could verify that the program works correctly.

From that point onwards the client could obtain the automatically created report at any time.

Result

Overall we added value by allowing the client to apply the control loop for performance improvement the same way as he is doing it in Germany. It significantly helps him for continuous operational improvement in his Ukrainian subsidiary.