DHL Logistics (Slovakia), s.r.o.: Strategic Development

DHL Logistics (Slovakia) Ltd., a member of the DHL International group, chose ADWISE for strategic audit and business process analysis.

Project Challenge

DHL Logistics (Slovakia) Ltd. went through an extensive and dynamic expansion connected with noticeable increase in number of employees in logistic premises as well as in the company headquarters. Operational activities were executed at high performance, efficiency and quality standards. However, increasing amount of the employees in the headquarters resulted in a need for structured and simple description of business processes and their standardization.

Hence the company management decided to cooperate with ADWISE on description, evaluation and adjustment of business and strategic processes. The goal was to apply international DHL standards on particular activities assigned to employees in charge and to project a communication system which would ensure a smooth sequence of these activities.

The business process itself included not only activities concerning proposal creation but in fact a design of the entire business and operational model of cooperation between DHL Logistics (Slovakia) and a client. Thus it was obvious that optimization and suggestion of coordination tools within the business activity management could bring substantial improvements.

Results of Cooperation

• Business process acceleration - reduction of proposal / business model processing time and error rate was achieved owing to suggested coordination tools and precise definition of responsibilities.

• Know-how retention - with regard to the company growth and based on a structured process description the company succeeded in passing know-how to new-coming employees. This improvement enabled acceleration of their adaptation process and, at the same time, it decreased time spent by managers on their training.

• Strategic planning activities clarification - a methodology of strategic planning, strategy monitoring and updating was introduced. The managers were able to delegate and coordinate activities within the compilation of strategic plans, reports and projects more efficiently.

• Communication strategy improvement - within the project a communication programme (system of meetings) was introduced. This programme provided the managers with up-to-date information about the strategy fulfilment, projects, business opportunities and operational company issues.

ADWISE Solution

In the first phase of the project ADWISE consultants carried out a strategic audit by applying the Balanced Scorecard methodology. The consultants analyzed basic building blocks of the client's strategy with regard to convenience of their usage in the company and their fulfilment rate within the strategic planning.

The outcome was a summary of crucial problems influencing strategic planning and a proposal of steps aimed at their elimination.
In the second phase of the project the business process was examined and described in detail. The ADWISE consultants suggested specific coordination tools within the creation of complex proposals and business models. A number of simplifying instruments that accelerated their processing were found. The output of this phase was an action plan that specified component tasks for the business process improvement and acceleration. A linkage to particular roles within the organizational structure was a standard component of the phase.

In the third phase of the project a tangible methodology for strategic planning, strategy monitoring and updating was introduced, including the communication system which was to enable sharing of strategic goals, projects and tasks among employees.

"ADWISE consultants proposed a number of well-aimed measures that, after putting in action, helped us to improve our activities. We appreciate high professional skills of ADWISE team leaders and consultants, their sense to penetrate into the corporate culture and client needs. Not to forget their ability to comprehensively communicate and explain sometimes rather sophisticated managerial concepts."

Ing. Pavel Hendrych
Managing director
DHL Logistics (Slovakia) Ltd.