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The role of streamlining in digitalising business processes

August 2023

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Dunny Kulabuna

Wits Business School

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The role of streamlining in

digitalising business processes

Matondo Dunny Kulabuna

Student No: 2468296

Supervisor: Prof. Pius Oba

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Commerce, Law and

Management, University of the Witwatersrand, in fulfilment of the

requirements for the degree of Master of Management in the field of

Digital Business

Johannesburg, Feb. 2023

ABSTRACT

The Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) has brought about digitalisation, which has

impacted how we run business operations. It has created a radical change in

conventional processes. Business leaders and professionals use digital

technologies to enhance business processes and achieve higher efficiency.

However, much focus is placed on the introduction of technology rather than on

how it improves the existing business and delivers efficiency.

The literature reports a controversial application of streamlining and digitalisation

that has led to divergent views on business process improvement. Some authors

believe there must be a sequential approach before introducing digitalisation,

while others argue it depends on the opportunity to digitalise. This study explores

the perspectives of South African business leaders on optimising and digitalising

processes that seek higher efficiency. Thus, the conceptual framework is based

on the principle of good operations, which promotes streamlining using

techniques such as Business Process Reengineering (BPR) and Lean thinking

before digitalisation with the Digital Assessment Tool (DAS) model.

Nine business professionals were contacted via LinkedIn and interviewed in a

one-on-one session using the interview guide in MS Teams. Specific questions

were asked about their experiences in business processes, streamlining,

digitalisation, and how they achieved efficiency.

The findings show that streamlining is how the As-Is business process can be

improved in a non-sequential manner using management techniques (BPR and

Lean) and digitalisation, which depends on the opportunities and requirements.

Business leaders typically evaluate the outcome against the defined performance

objectives, such as project deliverables, customer satisfaction, turnaround times,

and other relevant goals to prove efficiency.

The key message of this study is that streamlining is valuable in enhancing

business processes, and efficiency is achieved when the business objectives are

clearly defined and assessed. The study contributes to knowledge by clarifying

the understanding of streamlining and recommending an assessment tool to

iii

guide business leaders' decision-making that looks at the efficiency impact to add

value to the business.

KEYWORDS

Streamlining, Business Processes, Digitalising and Efficiency

DECLARATION

I, Matondo Dunny Kulabuna, declare that this research report is my work except

as indicated in the references and acknowledgements. It is submitted in partial

fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Management in the field

of Digital Business at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. It has

not been submitted before for any degree or examination in this or any other

university.

Name: Matondo Dunny Kulabuna Signature:

Signed at Germiston On the 24 day of February 2023

DEDICATION

I dedicate this work to my father, Flay Kulabuna, who always shows and teaches

us the courage to overcome challenges.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the valuable contributions of

the following individuals. First and foremost, I would like to express my gratitude

to Prof. Pius Oba for supervising me and providing valuable insights throughout

this research project.

I also want to extend my heartfelt thanks to my family members, including the

Kulabuna and Kabiena families, my wife Syntiche, and my children Abriel and

Briella, for their unwavering support and encouragement.

I would also like to express my gratitude to my colleagues at Grundfos for their

support throughout this research.

A special thanks goes to the Poul Due Jensen Foundation for granting me a

scholarship, which made it possible to complete this Master’s programme.

Finally, I would like to thank the professionals who participated in this research

and provided valuable input. Their contributions were instrumental in shaping the

outcomes of this study.

 
 
vii 
TABLE OF CONTENTS 
ABSTRACT ..................................................................................... ii 
DECLARATION .............................................................................. iv 
DEDICATION .................................................................................. v 
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................... vi 
LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................ x 
LIST OF FIGURES ......................................................................... xi 
LIST OF ACRONYMS ................................................................... xii 
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ..................................................... 13 
1.1 STATEMENT OF PURPOSE ...................................................................... 13 
1.2 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY ................................................................. 13 
1.3 RESEARCH PROBLEM ............................................................................ 14 
1.4 RESEARCH OBJECTIVE .......................................................................... 15 
1.5 RESEARCH QUESTION ........................................................................... 15 
1.6 RATIONALE ........................................................................................... 16 
1.7 DELIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY................................................................ 17 
1.8 DEFINITION OF TERMS ........................................................................... 17 
1.9 ASSUMPTIONS ...................................................................................... 18 
1.10 CHAPTER OUTLINE .............................................................................. 18 
CHAPTER  2:  LITERATURE  REVIEW  AND  THEORETICAL 
FRAMEWORK ............................................................................... 20 
2.1 INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................... 20 
2.2 DEFINITION OF TOPIC OR BACKGROUND DISCUSSION ................................ 21 
2.2.1 STREAMLINING, THE APPLICATION OF BRP AND LEAN ................................................ 21 
2.2.2 DIGITALISING BUSINESS PROCESSES AND THE APPLICATION OF THE DAS MODEL ........ 25 
2.3 RESEARCH OBJECTIVE LITERATURE ........................................................ 28 
2.3.1 PROPOSITION 1: STREAMLINE BEFORE DIGITALISING .................................................. 32 
2.3.2 PROPOSITION 2: DIGITALISE WITHOUT STREAMLINING ................................................ 33 
2.3.3 PROPOSITION 3: STREAMLINE EMBEDS DIGITALISATION .............................................. 33 
2.4 ANALYTICAL FRAMEWORK ............................................................. 34 

 
 
viii 
4.1 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK...................................................................................... 34 
4.2 CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK ...................................................................................... 35 
5 CONCLUSION OF LITERATURE REVIEW .................................................... 36 
CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ............................... 37 
1 RESEARCH APPROACH .......................................................................... 37 
2 RESEARCH DESIGN ............................................................................... 37 
3 DATA COLLECTION METHODS ................................................................. 38 
4 POPULATION AND SAMPLE ..................................................................... 38 
4.1 POPULATION ........................................................................................................... 38 
4.2 SAMPLE AND SAMPLING METHOD .............................................................................. 38 
5 THE RESEARCH INSTRUMENT ................................................................. 39 
6 PROCEDURE FOR DATA COLLECTION ....................................................... 39 
7 DATA ANALYSIS STRATEGIES AND INTERPRETATION .................................. 39 
8 POSSIBLE LIMITATIONS AND CHALLENGES OF THE STUDY .......................... 40 
9 QUALITY ASSURANCE ............................................................................ 41 
9.1 CREDIBILITY ............................................................................................................ 41 
9.2 DEPENDABILITY ....................................................................................................... 41 
9.2 TRANSFERABILITY .................................................................................................... 42 
10 ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS ................................................................... 42 
11 SCHEDULE AND TIMELINES ................................................................... 42 
CHAPTER 4: PRESENTATION OF FINDINGS ............................. 44 
1 INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................... 44 
2 FINDINGS OF PROPOSITION 1: STREAMLINE BEFORE DIGITALISATION ......... 44 
3 FINDINGS OF PROPOSITION 2: DIGITALISATION WITH STREAMLINING .......... 46 
4 FINDINGS OF PROPOSITION 3: DIGITALISATION EMBEDS STREAMLINING ..... 47 
5 SUMMARY OF THE FINDINGS ................................................................... 48 
CHAPTER 5: DISCUSSION OF THE FINDINGS .......................... 49 
1 INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................... 49 
2 DEMOGRAPHIC PROFILE OF PARTICIPANTS .............................................. 49 
3 DISCUSSION OF STREAMLINING A PREREQUISITE IN DIGITALISATION TO ACHIEVE 
EFFICIENCY. .................................................................................... 49 
4 DISCUSSION  ON  ACHIEVING  EFFICIENCY  IN  DIGITALISATION  WITHOUT 
STREAMLINING ................................................................................. 50 
5 DISCUSSION OF LEVERAGING DIGITALISATION .......................................... 50 
6 CONCLUSION ........................................................................................ 51 

CHAPTER 6: CONCLUSIONS & RECOMMENDATIONS ............. 53

6.1 INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................... 53

6.2 CONCLUSIONS REGARDING RESEARCH OBJECTIVE. .................................. 53

6.3 RECOMMENDATIONS ............................................................................. 54

6.4 SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH ................................................ 56

REFERENCES .............................................................................. 58

APPENDIX A (The participant information sheet)...................... 63

APPENDIX B (Participant agreement and consent) ................... 64

APPENDIX C (Interview guide) .................................................... 67

APPENDIX D (Deductive thematic analysis) .............................. 68

APPENDIX E (Ethics approval notification) ............................... 72

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1. Adapted from the DAS model (Boute & Van Mieghem, 2021) ............ 27

Table 2. Findings of Proposition 1 .................................................................... 44

Table 3. Findings of Proposition 2 .................................................................... 46

Table 4. Findings of Proposition 3 .................................................................... 47

Table 5. Proposition and findings summary ..................................................... 48

Table 6. Recommended streamlining assessor ............................................... 55

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1. Conceptual Design adapted from Input-Output Model (Slack et al.,

2017) ................................................................................................................ 35

Figure 2. Emergent Framework ........................................................................ 54

xii

LIST OF ACRONYMS

• BPM: Business Process Management

• BPR: Business Process Re-engineering

• DAS: Digital Autonomous and Smart Operations

• DT: Digital Transformation

• ERP: Enterprise Resource Management

• LM: Lean Manufacturing

• MIT Sloan: Massachusetts Institute of Technology Business school

• OP: Operations Management

• OE: Operational Excellence

• SA: South Africa

• SAP: Systems Applications and Products

• VSM: Value Stream Mapping

• 4IR: Fourth Industrial Revolution

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Statement of purpose

This study explores how business leaders and professionals streamline business

processes in implementing digitalisation and how they measure efficiency.

1.2 Background of the study

Business processes are all the activities performed by the organisational

resources sequentially and repeatedly to deliver value to customers.

Organisations rely on processes to produce products and services enabled by

the strategy and technology, meanwhile streamlining is the means to improve

such processes (Armstrong & John Lee, 2021). As the 4IR emerges, digital

technologies are used to augment business processes and achieve efficiency,

however much focus is placed on the technologies than on how to achieve

optimal results. Organisations depend on professionals in several job roles such

as business process engineers, continuous improvement specialists and data

scientists to support the improvement and implementation programmes that aim

to exceed the growing customer expectations (Markovitch & Willmott, 2014a).

From a South African perspective, many organisations lack internal

competitiveness and disregard the process capability to enhance customers'

experience (Vermeulen et al., 2012). Optimising business processes is not a

priority for most companies because of the drive for revenue and profits, while

inefficiency is hidden in the processes. The international benchmark reports a

gap in skills that impede the advancement of digitisation programmes in South

Africa. Despite this, organisations are keen on implementing digital technologies

to remain relevant and thrive in competitive markets (Mabe & Potgieter, 2020).

According to the 2019 McKinsey report, digitalisation could boost the South

African economy and address the challenge of unemployment by creating more

than one million jobs by 2030 (Magwentshu et al., 2019b). Therefore, South Africa

presents an exciting context for this study due to the challenge of skills, process

inefficiency, and the role of technology in the economy (Myovella et al., 2020).

The motivation in this context is to explore and learn from the experiences of the

scarce professionals who digitalise business processes and the benefits

digitalisation offers to economic productivity in enabling customer satisfaction

from seamless business processes (Viswanathan & Telukdarie, 2021).

1.3 Research problem

The problem being reported is that implementing digitalisation before

streamlining processes generates waste and inefficiency in business

performance. Bortolotti and Romano (2012) argued that a lack of streamlining

causes problems and impacts the business's ability to deliver value to customers.

Focusing solely on technology rather than business processes has led to many

failures in digitalisation (AbdelMoneim, 2020).

Small et al. (2011) have stated that high costs are associated with inefficient

business processes, particularly for small and medium-sized enterprises where

capital is a constraint. In many cases, inadequately implemented new

technologies lead to waste such as underutilised resources, poor customer

experience, and high operating costs (Antony et al., 2022).

The gap in the literature is the argument by many authors of the sequential

approach to efficiency, which is contrary to the different views of business leaders

that confirm a divergence between the theory and practice of digitalisation. The

literature promotes streamlining as a necessity before digitalising, with divergent

perspectives and approaches that need clarification (Kimberling, 2022). In a

study that focuses on diagnosing the process of digital maturity, the authors

emphasise streamlining existing processes before digitalising. Standardising and

improving processes is a prerequisite to avoid non-value-added activities (Boute

& Van Mieghem, 2021). Small et al. (2011) also advocated for streamlining and

investing in improvement initiatives before implementing technologies.

However, many business leaders and specialists focus on technology rather than

business process improvement (AbdelMoneim, 2020). Observations and reports

suggest that it is often controversial whether business processes should be

streamlined before digitalisation (Kimberling, 2022). According to the MIT Sloan

Management Review, digitalisation programmes undervalue the benefits of

streamlining, and the results are frequently more costly than beneficial (Ross,

2017). A report surveying 500 process excellence professionals claims that only

35% of leaders worldwide recognise the need for streamlining processes; a high

percentage of firms do not streamline before digitalising because most leaders

focus on creating processes that fit technologies, even though there is no way to

derive the best output (Celonis, 2021).

The lack of streamlining business processes in South Africa potentially impacts

economic productivity growth, including business efficiency, customer

experience, and digital transformation efforts (Magwentshu et al., 2019).

According to the MIT Center, only 28% of established businesses have

successfully digitalised, and those that failed in their digitalising efforts impeded

the digital transformation (Ross, 2017). Therefore, the purpose of this research

is to explore and answer the question about streamlining, digitalising, and

efficiency performance from a South African professional perspective, using a

qualitative approach.

1.4 Research objective

This research seeks to explore how South African business leaders and

professionals streamline business processes in the context of digitalisation and

how they measure efficiency.

1.5 Research question

How do South African business leaders and professionals streamline business

processes in digitalising, and how do they measure efficiency?

1.6 Rationale

In support of the research on rationality, reports have revealed an ambiguous

practice of digitalisation among business leaders and professionals. This

ambiguity has resulted in implementing technologies without considering the

business, leading to inefficiency (AbdelMoneim, 2020). McKinsey's report

suggests that many companies are not benefiting from digital initiatives due to

the wrong approach and practices, resulting in disappointing results. The report

also highlights that focusing on creating processes that fit technologies is

unsustainable and ineffective (Bollard et al., 2017).

Even though digital technologies are implemented to optimise operations, many

businesses still struggle to gain benefits. This is because technology alone does

not understand the organisation and cannot guarantee success (Kocaoglu &

Acar, 2015). In South Africa, studies on streamlining and digitising business

processes are prominent (Magwentshu et al., 2019a). However, more research

is needed to explore and learn from the experiences of leaders and professionals

involved in digitalisation programmes, specifically from a process streamlining,

digitalising, and efficiency measuring perspective (Mapingire et al., 2022).

Therefore, this study aims to explore the insights and experiences of

professionals in achieving business efficiency and sharing best practices. This

qualitative study will unveil practical insights and guide business leaders to learn

from the failures and successes of the selected participants. It will also address

the ambiguous topic of the application of streamlining and digitalisation. In a

country like South Africa, where digital skills are lacking, successful programmes

aligned with this streamlining theory will build confidence and in-house

capabilities of skilled employees, which can then be quickly leveraged to digitalise

processes (Markovitch & Willmott, 2014b). Business leaders and professionals

applying this insight will minimise waste, maximise efficiency in support of South

African economic productivity, and enhance customers’ experiences (Nqgondi et

al., 2021).

1.7 Delimitations of the study

This research focused on experienced professionals and business leaders from

various industries and sectors in South Africa who are directly or indirectly

involved in streamlining and digitalising business processes. This includes

professionals with main jobs or extended roles in digitalisation, decision-makers,

developers, or drivers. However, users and customers at the receiving end of the

processes are excluded due to their lack of influence on the strategy adopted.

And the 8th waste of Lean philosophy referring to the unused talent is also

excluded.

The objective of this study is to unpack the practical experiences and stories of

business professionals, which will help answer the research question. All

operational business processes, including both core and non-core processes that

the business relies on to deliver value to stakeholders, are included. The study

covers different management improvements approaches, such as BPR and Lean

techniques to streamline business processes, and the technologies that drive

digitalisation, with a particular focus on the DAS model.

While digital transformation and change management are beyond the scope of

this study, it is recommended that organisations embark on a change

management programme to cement the implementation of digitalisation.

Digitalisation success can only be achieved through integrating and leveraging

the entire organisation, including culture and people (Kohnke, 2017).

1.8 Definition of terms

• Business processes refer to all the activities carried out by an

organisation in a specific order to deliver a particular outcome for a

recipient. Businesses exist because of activities that provide value

sought by customers, which can be viewed at different levels, from

broad to detailed processes (Armstrong & John Lee, 2021).

• Streamlining is the action of making the business simple and more

efficient by eliminating waste using improvement techniques such as

BPR and Lean thinking (Akbulut-Bailey et al., 2012).

• Digitalisation is the process of supporting business processes digitally

as opposed to being analogue-driven, manual, or paper-based. This

involves leveraging digital technologies such as 4IR Techs, CRM, ERP

systems, Automated Process Applications, and Advanced Software

Solutions that drive business efficiency (Boute & Van Mieghem, 2021).

• Efficiency refers to achieving better output quality while reducing costs

and complexity in business processes and operations (Slack et al.,

2017).

1.9 Assumptions

It is assumed that the participants have reflected on their perspectives and

experiences without disclosing sensitive or confidential information that may

impact their jobs or this research. Furthermore, the participants openly shared

their digitalisation project successes and failures.

1.10 Chapter Outline

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

Introducing the case of streamlining as a prerequisite in digitalising and the

inefficiency in automating waste.

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

Reviewing the knowledge of streamlining and digitalising, which includes:

• Streamlining business processes using BPR and Lean thinking.

• Digitalising business processes using the DAS model.

• Streamlining before digitising business processes, literature review and

similar studies to address the question and looking into the efficiency of

performance results achieved after that.

• The theoretical framework presenting the ideology and structure

CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Present how this research was qualitatively conducted, including how participants

were interviewed, the methods and tools used and how the data was collected.

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS

Present the findings and data.

CHAPTER 5: DISCUSSION

Gives a view of the findings.

CHAPTER 6: CONCLUSION

Finalises the report and provides recommendations.

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL

FRAMEWORK

2.1 Introduction

The background discussion provides a comprehensive review of the literature,

starting with the definitions of keywords related to streamlining and digitalisation.

It then delves into the two schools of thought on streamlining, one of which

involves eliminating waste while the other involves leveraging digitalisation. The

discussion includes an analysis of the knowledge that underpins the theoretical

perspective and the application of streamlining methodologies such as Business

Process Reengineering (BPR), Lean Thinking, and the evaluation of digitalisation

using the DAS model. These improvement methodologies are selected based on

their natural focus on business process improvement (Zaini & Saad, 2019). To

reinforce the review, related studies, insights, and reports from reputable

professionals and consulting firms are compared with the research objective to

demonstrate the value and uniqueness of this study, which seeks to explore the

phenomenon of streamlining and digitalising business processes from practical

experiences.

The second section of the discussion focuses on the study objective and its

relation to the literature, along with the "why" of not streamlining and the three

derived propositions. The last section presents the analytical framework, which

includes the theoretical framework based on the ideology of streamlining from the

perspective of good operations management and the conceptual framework that

guides this study using an input-output model. The literature review concludes by

highlighting the two main perspectives on streamlining: the first is streamlining

before digitalisation, and the second involves streamlining while embedding

digitalisation. It also discusses the role played by the DAS model in gauging

digital maturity and readiness.

Overall, the literature review provides a comprehensive understanding of

streamlining and digitalisation of business processes. It helps establish a strong

foundation for the research and provides a solid framework for the analysis of the

research findings.

2.2 Definition of topic or background discussion

2.2.1 Streamlining, the application of BRP and Lean

Streamlining involves the elimination of waste and making operations efficient

and free from activities that add no value to the customer or the business (Zaini

& Saad, 2019). The first school of thought regards streamlining as removing

unnecessary waste or redundant resources to achieve the best possible

outcomes for the organisation through management strategies. The Oxford

dictionary provides an example of an organisation that streamlined its operations

by eliminating a management level. It defines streamlining as using simpler, more

strategic and faster methods to make the business more effective and efficient

(Oxford, 2022). Streamlining thus seeks organisational efficiency, which may

have an impact on people, corporate culture, and structure. Leaders should

carefully consider the implications and benefits of this viewpoint.

CFI (2022) contends that streamlining is about optimising business processes

and eliminating unnecessary steps to achieve efficiency through automation,

modern technology, or improvement techniques. This entails using computer

technology to eliminate complexity and unnecessary business processes. This

thought complements the first one because it combines various means, including

the use of information and communication technology, which are prominent in

today's business world.

The common theme in the above definitions of "streamlining" is seeking

organisational efficiency by removing waste or scaling the value through

improvement strategies or technologies. Moreover, streamlining aims to achieve

business objectives and stakeholder satisfaction, merging the two schools of

thought. However, the ambiguity in streamlining applications reveals a broad and

divergent understanding among business professionals, which characterises this

study (Bortolotti & Romano, 2012).

Therefore, the definition of streamlining adopted in this study is less dependent

on digital technologies and more on the improvement methodology, although

digital tools could be used to enhance effectiveness and accuracy. Streamlining

is defined as the action of making business processes simple and more efficient

by eliminating waste using improvement techniques such as BPR and Lean to

pave the way for digitalisation (Akbulut-Bailey et al., 2012).

BPR: Business Process Re-engineering

The selection of BPR is based on its popularity and effectiveness in supporting

process improvement initiatives (Zaini & Saad, 2019). Depending on the process

maturity and level of the organisation, it can be supported by sophisticated

information technology tools such as business process modelling software

(Indeed, 2021).BPR is known as a powerful and dramatic change enabler when

appropriately implemented to achieve competitiveness (Goksoy et al., 2012), and

many organisations have turned to it to become more efficient (Hashim et al.,

2015). It is well-suited to radically streamline operational processes from a

customer-flow perspective or business strategy perspective.

BPR is presented as a rethinking approach to improvement through the re-

arrangement of processes that flow smoothly from a customer's perspective

rather than a functional perspective. It is primarily a top-down approach from

leadership, studying the flow of work and information before improving. Process-

oriented mapping and analysis tools, such as flow-process charts and value

stream mapping, assist in creating the as-is model from which analysis is

performed to derive the needed improvement (Melão & Pidd, 2015).

The principle of BPR is to have a process-oriented approach to customer needs

with a flow of information or materials, which can be supported by a process map

or value stream map that shows the connection of the different activities

performed. It specifically depicts the before and after improvements.BPR

attempts to make a dramatic change to the process to impact performance, brings

the internal supplier and customer closer to avoid delay (waste), and advocates

that process actions and decisions (control and manage) must be closer to avoid

wasting time (Slack et al., 2017).

However, BPR often lacks addressing and incorporating the human factor. The

experiences of those running the processes, as seen by people, can be reduced

as a result of the BPR exercise, which can hinder the capabilities of the

operations or procedures. To avoid this, change management is recommended

(Slack et al., 2017). According to Butt (2020), to mitigate the risks presented by

BPR, a more scientific and evidence-based technique was introduced called

Business Process Management (BPM). BPM is a management discipline that

includes an IT analysis platform that helps the activities of collecting, identifying,

designing, executing, documenting, measuring, monitoring, controlling, and

promoting improvement in business processes to meet business objectives.

BPM focuses on an incremental approach to improving processes that can be

initiated by middle management. It studies the flow of work and information before

enhancing and integrating a process-oriented mapping and analysis tool. Since

BPM is an end-to-end business process management tool that enables the

creation of a process flowchart, it supports BPR and Lean to achieve substantial

results (Butt, 2020).

Lean

Lean thinking is introduced as an incremental approach to compensate for the

gap in BPR that focuses on sporadic change. Lean is about reducing waste and

increasing throughput gradually in the process. The Lean philosophy promotes

key topics such as waste reduction, people involvement, and continuous

improvement (Slack et al., 2017). Lean involves daily changes in operations and

processes to promote continuous improvement and operational excellence

(Antony et al., 2022).

The core of the Lean philosophy describes seven types of waste that are usually

scrutinised and reduced in existing business processes. These are waste due to

transport, inventory, motion, waiting time, over-production, over-processing, and

defects (Slack et al., 2017). Value Stream Mapping (VSM) supports Lean in

understanding the flow of information or materials as they move into a process,

recording direct activities of creating products and services, and indirect

information systems that support the process (Slack et al., 2017). VSM is similar

to a process map, but it is more applicable to the high-level structure by looking

into high supply chain level process groups. It can also support the BPR effort

because it provides the big picture (Slack et al., 2017).

Like any change programme that attempts to shift the current condition of the

organisation and its processes, Lean is not easy to implement if the know-how,

leadership support, and employee involvement are lacking. Most small and

medium-sized enterprises believe Lean is more applicable to large organisations

because of the perceived effort to implement and quantify its benefits, although

Lean presents an advantage for any type or size of the organisation (AlManei et

al., 2017).

Lean is also associated with a process performance variation tool called Lean Six

Sigma methodology. The scope is not detailed in this study because it applies to

a performance-project-based perspective that organises people to brainstorm

and solve a process-related performance variation. Lean Six Sigma consists of

the DMAIC approach, which means defining the problem in the process,

measuring its performance, analysing the problem and its root causes, finding

solutions to these root causes, and controlling to ensure the improved

performance is maintained (Zaini & Saad, 2019).

For both BPR and Lean, processes should be mapped or modelled for analysis

and improvement purposes, as it is helpful to map processes with arrows to

represent interdependency and structure at various levels. However, it could be

time-consuming, which is a challenge that computerised tools such as business

process modelling and process mining software are seeking to address since

business processes have matured from manual to digital form and have been

integrated with data. In the digital format, they can be mined to understand

performance objectives (Markovitch & Willmott, 2014b).

According to Kissflow (2021), all improvement techniques promote a systematic

plan for assessing the as-is process by mapping it before improvement. This

applies to both traditional and digital methods of streamlining, as proposed by

Boute and Van Mieghem (2021).

Talking about the emergence of process mining for those processes supported

by an IT infrastructure means these processes produce data that can be

extracted for analysis and insight using sophisticated techniques such as artificial

intelligence and machine learning. It also seeks to improve the status of business

processes about any identified wastes, such as bottlenecks, congestion, delays,

or non-compliance (Kissflow, 2021).

Therefore, in both techniques discussed above, the first step is to identify, collect

information about the process, and measure the As-Is performance

effectiveness, which can be facilitated by a manual flow chart, value stream

mapping, or integration into the BPM software (Kissflow, 2021). An example of

mapping a customer journey when placing an order in an online shop is the

different steps behind the scenes until the order is delivered, showing all

individual activities and interactions (Brian, 2020). Software mapping and

simulation aid in the improvement once a model is available, which is analysed

on the platform and then assists in streamlining based on the performance

analysis. It is noted that methodologies such as BPR and Lean thinking must be

adopted in the context of the organisation and consider various factors such as

scope, risk levels, people skills, investment, budget, and duration to achieve the

intended streamlined results (Zaini & Saad, 2019).

2.2.2 Digitalising business processes and the application of the DAS model

Organisations are increasingly eager to implement technologies that enhance

efficiency in their operations. The reason for this trend is the benefits of 4IR

technologies, which enable organisations to excel in the market and enhance

their processes. As a result, companies are investing in digital, data-driven

algorithms and advanced software solutions to scale their operations and cope

with the complexity of extending their product portfolio and personalising services

(Ross, 2017). Digitisation can also serve as an operational necessity that

supports digitalisation. For example, implementing IoT for equipment health

monitoring and leveraging omnichannel and mobile technologies to enhance the

customer experience (Ross, 2017).

Digitisation represents an advanced improvement phase that brings automation

and sophistication to business processes, enabling them to scale up and achieve

higher efficiency. According to Markovitch and Willmott (2014b), digitisation

involves the introduction of software that replaces manual and paper processes,

automating specific process tasks. This can result in a massive improvement in

order turnaround time and a cost reduction of up to 90%. In essence, digitisation

is the effort that supports digitalisation to achieve a digitally-supported business

workflow or process (Boute & Van Mieghem, 2021).

For this study, the term "digitising" is defined as an advanced stage in which

business processes are supported digitally, as opposed to being analogue-

driven, manual, or paper-based. This involves leveraging digital technologies

such as 4IR Techs, CRM systems, ERP systems, automated process

applications, and advanced software solutions that drive business efficiency.

Digitalisation has an impact on how a business creates products and services,

from fundamental to advanced capabilities, including its resources in operations

with advanced software and hardware solutions to achieve business efficiency.

This concept is presented in the DAS model (Boute & Van Mieghem, 2021).

The DAS model presents two critical dimensions to digital technologies: one

enables autonomy and automation of work, and the second uses intelligent

control algorithms. In the digitalisation journey, it is important to recognise the

current level of business processes and plan for the expected maturity level

driven by organisational objectives and goals. In this instance, Boute and Van

Mieghem (2021) proposed a diagnostic tool called the DAS model, which

assesses the current business process based on the digital, autonomous, and

smart-intelligence maturity levels.

This assessment tool focuses on the As-Is streamlined process, which aims to

achieve high efficiency and scalability by eliminating waste. The ultimate goal is

to move the process from a lower to a higher level of digitalisation. To accomplish

this, the main activities are mapped or represented as processes 1, 2, and 3, and

their respective digital levels (1, 2, and 3) are evaluated. These levels are

depicted in Table 1.

Table 1. Adapted from the DAS model (Boute & Van Mieghem, 2021)

Maturity level description

Process 1

Process 2

Process 3

Maturity Level 1

Maturity Level 2

Maturity Level 3

Moving from a lower level (1), where there is little or no computerisation and

everything is done manually with paper forms, to a higher level (3 or 5) involves

connecting all devices in the network, including IoT, to achieve real-time data

insights. At the highest level, the IoT can be integrated to feed into the overall

process using sensors. Higher levels of digitisation enable real-time monitoring

and also open up new opportunities for optimisation as data is generated for use

in machines to perform work using advanced algorithms and artificial intelligence.

This facilitates the automation of work, such as working in Microsoft Office

between different applications (Excel, Access, PowerPoint, SharePoint, etc.).

Such workflows can be easily automated using a bot or a programmable

mechanical device (Boute & Van Mieghem, 2021).

When most work is done digitally with applications, it opens up the possibility of

automating tasks to be performed by machines. For example, a CNC machine

can print a product and its application without human intervention. However,

automation does not always equate to autonomy. While old mechanical devices

could work autonomously, they may not necessarily have digital autonomy (Boute

& Van Mieghem, 2021).

Autonomation occurs when a machine can run independently and without human

intervention or control. Combining automation and autonomy is about the role

and location of control rules (algorithms), which dictate when and how tasks

should be performed.

Smart operations occur when we empower these control rules or algorithms with

intelligence, allowing them to sense and learn by using state variables and

observations to become more adaptive, contingent, dynamic, and agile. An

example is condition-based intelligence used to schedule maintenance based on

the condition of machines, which is similar to preventive maintenance with

feedback control. Level 1 occurs when algorithms have multiple inputs (Boute &

Van Mieghem, 2021).

However, investing solely in digital technologies while ignoring key

considerations such as change management, leadership, and people will not lead

to sustained competitiveness at higher levels. Improvement in other aspects of

operational systems, procedures, and policies is required. Thus, streamlining

operational processes before digitisation means simplifying complexity in the

business and leveraging improvement techniques from lean manufacturing and

business process re-engineering to eliminate existing waste and derive the best

value from digitisation (Boute & Van Mieghem, 2021).

2.3 Research objective literature

This section of the literature focuses on how different authors, reports, and

business professionals conduct streamlining and digitalisation, as well as

exploring why digitalisation may occur without streamlining.

Streamlining is based on the principles of simplicity, business efficiency,

customer satisfaction and cost minimisation. According to Boute and Van

Mieghem (2021), good operations management involves streamlining before

implementing digitalisation to avoid automating waste. This forms the basis for

this study, as it suggests that a business can operate cost-effectively and exceed

customer expectations by eliminating waste from its processes.

Bortolotti and Romano (2012) conducted a case study in a service company and

concluded that lean comes before digitalisation. They believed that automating a

process that is not streamlined creates problems, and therefore supported the

removal of waste by mapping the existing process before moving to digitalisation

to scale up value-added activities sought by customers while avoiding errors and

inefficiency. However, their research lacked the practical views of business

leaders.

Nicoletti (2013) conducted a study on the digitalisation of procurement processes

using the lean six sigma approach. The study found that extensive

implementation of information and communication technology (ICT) did not

eliminate waste. The author observed that not mapping and streamlining the

process resulted in similar problems as those reported in previous studies. While

the study had similarities with other programmes and best practices, the

improvement technique used differed. The author supported streamlining the

procurement process before digitalising to prevent inefficiencies in business

processes.

In 2014, McKinsey published an article that supported the idea of digitalising

business processes. The article argued that organisations should accelerate their

digital capabilities to meet customer expectations. The article emphasised that

business leaders should not focus solely on digitalisation. They need to reinvent

business processes by reducing unnecessary activities that add no value. The

article primarily concentrated on general practices and success factors from the

largest organisations in the United States. It highly promoted streamlining

business processes to satisfy customers (Markovitch & Willmott, 2014).

Another study on streamlining processes for digitalisation recognised the

importance of streamlining to understand and evaluate business performance for

achieving efficiency. However, it did not explore the extent of the involvement of

process excellence professionals. This study focused on improving business

processes before digitalisation to prepare a business for implementing digital

technologies and key enablers. The study examined the level of the business and

its elements (Lodhi et al., 2015).

Lodhi et al. (2015) proposed using Business Process Management (BPM) as an

information technology platform to analyse and improve digital business

processes by integrating elements such as data, applications, and technological

assets. The study examined the different levels of business processes and digital

maturity that could be modelled to identify inefficiencies. In this case, paper-

based streamlining proved to be ineffective. The focus was on the information

technology tool to provide an analytical framework rather than using improvement

methodologies independently of technology.

In 2017, McKinsey released a report on the future of business operating models,

which focused on the integration of digital technologies, organisational resources

and the capability to succeed in the market. This report provided insights into

approaches and levers for driving a new operating model, including lean process

design, digitisation, intelligent process automation, advanced analytics, and

business process outsourcing. The report emphasised that the sequence in

which these approaches were applied should be relative to the challenge and

opportunity at hand, and companies should weigh what to do first based on the

situation. The report promoted the idea that the levers should complement each

other to provide a positive effect but not necessarily streamline and digitalise

(Bollard et al., 2017).

According to Eric (2018), there are debates around the controversial topic of

whether business processes should be streamlined first before digitalisation. He

claimed that ERP system integrators and software vendors frequently advise

implementing the ERP to dictate and standardise processes based on best

practices, which can lead to most digitalisation failures, lengthy project timelines,

and high budget costs. Regardless of what his clients claimed, he believes that

the improved business processes should be independent of the technology and

that a cost-effective improvement approach, such as using a pen and paper to

derive the future blueprint without a serious commitment to sophistication, is best

(Kimberling, 2022).

Doyle and Cosgrove (2019) ran an experiment for the EU-funded programme in

an SME to study how digitalisation must be implemented incrementally to avoid

a radical change and improve production. The research stated that businesses

must improve their operations and seek integration in the value chain, and

competitive advantage is achieved through better operations processes and

innovative business models before digitisation. The result of the incremental

improvement approach has helped SMEs and has proven to enable management

to gain confidence in the digital transformation journey. This is obvious support

for streamlining the organisation without the use of sophisticated technology to

remain lean.

Butt (2020) proposed a conceptual framework based on BPM to support

manufacturing in the journey of digital transformation, focusing on organisational

transformation with a moderate emphasis on streamlining as a prerequisite for

process improvement. The study integrated industry 4.0 technology trends,

organisational strategies, strategy levels, and technology-focused strategies and

consisted of sequential phases from identifying the process to discovering the

process, analysing, redesigning, and re-engineering, and then streamlining.

To strengthen the above authors' views, the principle of good operations

management supports streamlining through standardising and optimising

processes to remain the foundation for achieving operational efficiency (Boute &

Van Mieghem, 2021). This view constitutes the backbone of this study, as it

recognises the varied nature of business processes and promotes their

enhancement to avoid costly waste.

An article published in 2022 using a systematic review approach described the

evolution of lean in industry 4.0. It claimed that Lean could be a prerequisite or a

facilitator of Industry 4.0 because there is a synergic relationship between Lean

and digitalisation to achieve operational excellence. The lack of integration

guidance amongst business professionals still exists, and it concluded by stating

that the relationship between Lean and digitalisation is not monodirectional but

bidirectional, meaning it is a continuous cycle from streamlining to digitalisation

and digitalisation to streamlining business processes. Organisations and

professionals should continuously think about lean and leverage digital

technologies (Antony et al., 2022).

The ‘why’ digitalisation happens without streamlining

There is a saying that digitalisation is not the end goal but rather an instrument to

achieve it. The introduction of new technologies in business should be driven by

process excellence. However, the rapid changes in digitalisation provide little

guidance and practical recommendations (Martinez, 2019). This lack of guidance

is one reason why businesses fail to streamline their processes even when the

technologies are off-the-shelf with generic benefits. Many organisations are

eager to replicate the so-called success stories of other companies without fully

understanding the implications of automating waste and achieving less efficiency

(Linde et al., 2020).

The lack of streamlining in business processes can be attributed to the

comprehensive competence and skills of business leaders and professionals.

Leaders play a key role and rely on their expertise to leverage and optimise

organisational resources in the pursuit of lean processes and operational

excellence (Cortellazzo et al., 2019). Those involved in driving digitalisation

initiatives must be proficient in assessing and addressing the existing pain points,

weaknesses, and challenges within the organisation.

2.3.1 Proposition 1: Streamline before digitalising

It is evident that streamlining achieved through improvement strategies using

Lean or BPR positively impacts businesses and plays a vital role in enhancing

business efficiency. Streamlined business processes enable digitalisation

because they demonstrate an optimised, simple flow of values that integrate

business activities in a more structured manner, resulting in higher scale

efficiency (Altendorfer-Kaiser, 2014).

Hence, the first proposition is that streamlining is a prerequisite for digitalising

business processes to achieve efficiency. This is the first school of thought with

sequential steps as depicted in the analytical framework. However, the literature

presents several perspectives, debates globally and many organisations fail to

streamline before digitalising.

This approach is supported by Boute and Van Mieghem (2021) in improving

existing processes, and it is confirmed by Marino (2022) in the application of Lean

Thinking and BPM to reduce waste from rework and defects in the healthcare

sector when streamlining is applied first.

2.3.2 Proposition 2: Digitalise without streamlining

The second proposition emerging from the literature is that digitalisation often

occurs without proper streamlining, resulting in modest outcomes. Therefore, this

study aims to investigate whether efficiency can be achieved in digitalisation

without streamlining and to reflect on the experiences of business professionals

for insight into future endeavours.

This proposition is related to the common approach of introducing technology as

the solution to all business problems, with the technology itself becoming the

ultimate goal (Butt, 2020). However, without a solid foundation and a proper

assessment of what is truly relevant to the business, this approach can result in

various problems and waste (Boute & Van Mieghem, 2021).

2.3.3 Proposition 3: Streamline embeds digitalisation

The third proposition stems from the understanding of streamlining and its

relationship with the means deployed to improve business processes.

Streamlining can be achieved through management techniques and automation,

which are embedded and integrated. This proposition represents the second

school of thought, which suggests that streamlining is an integral part of

digitalisation and can be leveraged to achieve efficiency by using technology to

support business processes and ensure their relevance in the current context.

There is a strong correlation between streamlining and digitalisation as they

complement each other in achieving higher efficiency (Lorenz et al., 2019). This

proposition demonstrates how digitalisation is integrated into the process of

streamlining to produce the best possible outcome or efficiency.

2.4 ANALYTICAL FRAMEWORK

2.4.1 Theoretical Framework

The theory of streamlining defines processes as a set of interrelated activities

that organisations rely on to transform inputs into outputs. It argues that these

processes, whether manual or digitised, must be efficient to ensure value is

delivered to stakeholders while minimising waste, as this enables the continuity

of the business (Zaini & Saad, 2019). In recent years, organisations have found

that improvements in technology alone are often not sufficient to achieve and

sustain higher levels of competitiveness, and streamlining business processes

has become a crucial factor in unleashing the potential of running a business free

of complexity, redundancy, and bottlenecks. It is evident that as businesses

streamline their processes before digitalising, there is a high chance of achieving

performance objectives efficiently (Slack et al., 2017).

Thus, this study is primarily based on the principle of good operations

management, which stipulates streamlining business processes using

improvement techniques before digitalisation to avoid automating waste.

Streamlining is underlined by the ideology of simplicity, business efficiency,

customer satisfaction, and cost minimisation (Boute & Van Mieghem, 2021).

However, there are multiple perspectives and controversial debates among

professionals regarding the extent to which streamlining before digitalisation

prevails and applies to the organisational context to achieve operational

efficiency. These perspectives namely streamline before digitalising, digitalise

without streamlining and streamline embedding digitalise form the theoretical

framework of this study, which (Kimberling, 2022; Nicoletti, 2013).

2.4.2 Conceptual Framework

As illustrated in Figure 1, the conceptual framework is adapted from the

operations management transformation input-output model. It comprises a

business process as an input to the first transformation of streamlining, which

produces an optimised process as an output. This output then becomes the input

for the second transformation of digitising, which finally produces the output of an

efficient digitised business process (Slack et al., 2017).

This framework was developed based on the need for efficiency in streamlining

existing processes before digitising. According to Boute and Van Mieghem

(2021), standardising and improving processes are prerequisites for digitisation

to avoid non-value-added processes. Streamlining is an improvement agent that

is associated with management improvement approaches such as BPR and

Lean. Organisations should consider implementing these improvement

approaches before adopting advanced technologies, especially for small and

medium-sized enterprises, as they offer a cost-effective investment (Small et al.,

2011).

Conclusion of Literature Review

Input

Streamlining

Digitalisation

As-Is

business

process

Streamlined or

optimised

business process

Digitalised

business process

(Scalable &

Efficient)

Methodologies:

BPR and Lean

Tool: Flowchart,

VSM and BPM

Model: DAS

Output & Input

Output

Figure 1. Conceptual Design adapted from Input-Output Model (Slack et al., 2017)

1st Transformation

2nd Transformation

The conceptual framework mentioned above also supports the first school of

thought, which aims to eliminate waste and simplify business operations.

Organisations that incorporate a lean culture can help facilitate the transition to

digitalisation, where technologies can provide higher scalability and performance

(Antony et al., 2022).

2.5 Conclusion of Literature Review

Although the topic of streamlining is controversial and prominent among

professionals, there are two main understandings of its application in achieving

efficiency through digitalisation. The first understanding is that streamlining is

applied as a prerequisite to digitalisation using improvement methodologies such

as BPR and Lean (Antony et al., 2022). The second understanding is that

streamlining also employs digitalisation to achieve efficiency, with an emphasis

on process improvement. It is said that adopting digital tools to reduce manual

steps is a form of streamlining business processes (Parviainen et al., 2017).

The DAS model aids the digitalisation phase using a diagnostic approach to

assess the process As-Is maturity level (Boute & Van Mieghem, 2021). The

objective of this study is tentatively answered with the different insights and views

that guided the analytical framework. This framework depicts the ideology of good

operations management, which is to streamline before digitalising, and concludes

with an input-output model that supports the conceptual model (Slack et al.,

2017).

CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3.1 Research approach

This research proposes that streamlining is a prerequisite for digitalising business

processes to achieve operational efficiency. However, due to the gap that exists

between the theory and practice of digitalisation around the world, and the

divergent perspectives among practitioners (AbdelMoneim, 2020), a qualitative

methodology is adopted to interview business leaders and professionals in South

Africa to explore and learn from their experiences. The research question on how

operational efficiency is achieved through streamlining before digitalisation is

finally answered.

Professionals play key roles in implementing digital technologies; their

experiences are crucial in understanding the process. Therefore, a qualitative

approach is selected as it provides the opportunity to engage and learn from the

selected participants using their respective contexts and organisations. This

approach is preferred over structuring closed-ended questions that overlook their

pragmatic reasoning (Forward & Levin, 2021). The assumption is that bias is

eliminated and minimised because the study deals with business leaders and

professionals who openly share their true experiences.

3.2 Research design

The basic qualitative design was used due to its flexibility in conducting interviews

and collecting the views of participants based on their experiences and personal

perspectives on the process of digitalising projects, irrespective of their current

positions or employment status. These professionals were asked open-ended

questions to encourage engagement and to explore their personal views, to

uncover the practices, techniques, and strategies they used. This approach

allowed us to understand the reasoning behind their actions and how they

executed their plans, making this design both convenient and robust

(Worthington, 2013).

3.3 Data collection methods

The one-on-one interview was chosen as the primary method for data collection

from participants using MS Teams due to its convenience for professionals to

connect remotely and record the interview discussion, including notes and video

recordings. This method provides the advantage of focusing on one participant

at a time, creating a space for them to express their views and meanings without

third-party intervention. It enables participants to be expressive in articulating

their thoughts and allows the researcher to gather in-depth narrative data while

facilitating follow-up discussions (Alshenqeeti, 2014).

3.4 Population and sample

3.4.1 Population

The population for this study comprises South African business leaders and

professionals involved in streamlining business processes. These individuals

possess the skills and experience required to implement digital technologies in

their respective organisations to achieve defined outcomes. Their roles could

range from business process engineers, digital engineers, operations managers,

IT engineers, and other relevant positions as per Appendix A. This population is

selective, as highlighted in the Deloitte report, due to the digital skills gap in South

Africa. The report indicates that only 24% of business leaders believe that

organisations have the digital skills needed (Adão, 2020).

3.4.2 Sample and sampling method

As per the basic qualitative method, the recommended number of participants for

this study is eight to fifteen. Consequently, nine participants were interviewed,

taking into account the time constraint to complete the research while still

enabling us to explore the views of a few selected South African business

professionals (Baker & Edwards, 2012). This was a purposive study, relying on

the researcher's professional network on LinkedIn.

3.5 The research instrument

The interview guide, as shown in Appendix C, was developed with sequential

questions to expand on the main objective and question, including a flow of

thought that started with the aim of the research and then explored the topic of

streamlining, digitalising, and achieving operational efficiency. This structure was

consistent for all interviews, which lasted for one hour each, resulting in nine

interviews with the available participants. Each participant was asked five open-

ended questions. Saturation was reached as most professionals shared the same

perspective. The interview schedule was planned and executed as per the

timeline in the section 3.11 of this chapter.

3.6 Procedure for data collection

The participants were contacted directly via a message invitation on LinkedIn

based on their profiles. The message outlined the aim of the study and requested

their participation. The consent request was sent via email and received before

conducting the interviews, as shown in Appendix B. The interviews were

scheduled, and invitations were sent for the agreed date and time. All interviews

were conducted remotely using MS Teams, facilitating the participation of all

participants regardless of their location and the possibility of recording the

meeting with transcripts. The interview guide was shared with the participants

before the meeting for preparation and transparency. During the interviews,

paper notes were taken as a contingency in case the online MS Teams recording

was compromised.

3.7 Data analysis strategies and interpretation

The thematic method was used to analyse the interview transcripts generated

from the MS Teams recording and notes. This descriptive method allowed for

identifying, analysing, and reporting patterns from the data output of the

interviews with all professionals. The data was reduced into a workable format

while enabling interpretation, emerging decisions, and flexibility of this study.

As per Castleberry & Nolen (2018), the generic five steps for thematic analysis

are compiling, disassembling, reassembling, interpreting, and concluding the

data. The deductive approach guided the boundary and criteria that focused on

streamlining and digitalising efforts, as per the following five steps (Terry et al.,

2017):

Step 1: Read and familiarise oneself with the interview transcripts (text in MS

Word).

Step 2: Code the transcript by identifying the main features (highlighting the main

points relevant to how business leaders and professionals go about digitising and

measuring efficiency).

Step 3: Use initial themes from the three propositions of the analytical framework

to aid the thematic analysis.

Step 4: Review the patterns to ensure they are aligned with the research objective

of how businesses streamline before digitalisation.

Step 5: Update the defined themes based on the review.

3.8 Possible limitations and challenges of the study

• It is important to note that a qualitative methodology with transcript data

is much more challenging to analyse and requires a good background

in the research topic, compared to a quantitative methodology with

numerical data (Castleberry & Nolen, 2018). Therefore, the analysis

process was approached carefully to ensure accurate findings.

• Selecting professionals in this domain can be difficult, and it may be

challenging to achieve the right meaning from the transcript data.

However, efforts were made to ensure that the selected participants

had relevant experience and expertise in the field of digitalisation and

operational efficiency, which may have improved the quality of the data

collected.

• Two participants could not return the member-checking signed form

due to the connectivity issues.

3.9 Quality Assurance

3.9.1 Credibility

To ensure the credibility of the findings, member checking was used, and

participants were given the transcripts through a follow-up email to validate their

perspectives. Member signatures are added in Appendix B. This method adds

rigour to the participant’s views and the analysis of data (Tracy, 2010).

This member checking involves allowing participants to review the data and verify

the accuracy of the interpretations made by the researchers. This process helps

to reduce researcher bias and provides a more accurate representation of the

participants' experiences and opinions. It also strengthens the credibility of the

study and ensures that the findings reflect the perspectives of the participants.

3.9.2 Dependability

To ensure the neutrality and consistency of the findings, an audit trail was

maintained from the recording of all interviews with participants in MS Teams,

including the researcher's notes on the interview form and all activities in the

analysis process (Connelly, 2016).

Maintaining an audit trail involves recording all steps taken during the research

process, including data collection, analysis, and interpretation. This helps to

ensure that the findings are reliable and can be verified by other researchers. It

also promotes transparency and accountability in the research process and

demonstrates the rigour of the study. By maintaining an audit trail, the research

can be replicated and the findings can be validated by other researchers.

3.9.2 Transferability

This study is relevant and easily transferable to other contexts and areas where

digitalisation is implemented since digitalisation is an emerging phenomenon

driven by societies, and an increasing number of companies in different countries,

industries, sectors, and societies are employing professionals to exploit the

opportunities that digitalisation brings in transforming economies around the

world (Herold et al., 2021).

3.10 Ethical considerations

The ethics clearance was obtained from the faculty as per Appendix E before

commencing the interviews. and all participants provided their consent before

participating in the interview as per Appendix B.. The invitation letter sent before

the interview contained the purpose of the research, and participants' names are

coded in this report with an ID number from ID 01 to ID 9 to ensure anonymity.

As part of the member checking and reflection, participants were asked to raise

any concerns about sensitive information that could impact their employment or

relationships, and no concerns were raised. This study also abided by the

guidelines set by the university, and plagiarism was checked using Turnitin. Any

similarity scores of 8% or higher were corrected to ensure that the research

adheres to ethical standards. Additionally, all sources were referenced using the

Harvard APA 7th style to maintain academic integrity and give credit to the

authors whose works were used in the study.

3.11 Schedule and timelines

Activity and description

Timeline

Write and Submit Proposal (Supervisor review)

April – 30 June 2022

Present at the panel session

5-7 July 2022

Supervisor further review and discussion

7 – 14 July 2022

Receive feedback on proposal outcome and ethics

clearance

26 July 2022

End of August

Interview participants and collect data (including a

follow-up for member checking – credibility)

August – September 2022

Analyse data and synthesise findings

October 2022

Discuss and conclude the project report

November 2022

Complete the first draft and submit it the to supervisor

for review

December 2022

Finalise the report and submit them to the supervisor

to sign off

January 2023

Submit the final report, Final editing and electronic

submission to the faculty office

February 2023

CHAPTER 4: PRESENTATION OF FINDINGS

4.1 Introduction

The findings from the nine participants are presented in Tables 2, 3, and 4,

organised according to the three propositions: firstly, streamline before

digitalising to achieve efficiency; secondly, digitalise without optimising; and

lastly, streamline while leveraging digitalisation. Each table contains a theme

corresponding to the respective proposition and is aligned with the analytical

framework. To provide greater clarity, each proposition is accompanied by a

definition, and a sub-theme highlighted in green summarises the interview's

keywords.

4.2 Findings of Proposition 1: Streamline before digitalisation

Table 2. Findings of Proposition 1

Theme:

Streamlining is a prerequisite in digitalisation to achieve efficiency.

Definition:

Making the business simple and more efficient by eliminating waste using improvement techniques

such as BPR and Lean thinking (Akbulut-Bailey et al., 2012).

Sub-theme:

Key codes:

Understand and Improve the As-Is

Model the as-is

Identify gaps

• Using IE Tools

• Streamline before digitalising

• Check As-Is relevancy

• Do Value stream mapping

• Check key measurables, turnaround time,

order cycle, and the different steps

Understand and Improve the As-Is

• Getting recommendations from customers.

• Asking for ideas from customers

• identifying the issues

• Building relationships with stakeholders.

• Be present to understand

• Understand and draft the AS-IS

• Looking at what people do

• Use Strategies such as ECS: Eliminate,

combine, and simplify processes.

• Problem-solving

• Use of Kaizen techniques

• Digital tools through the problem-solving

• The three Ps: plant, people, and process

• Document and standardised processes

• Preventive and corrective maintenance

• Check People’s capability and competence

• Understand and map the current process

• Use Process chart and swim-lane diagram

• Identify problems and solve them

• Finding causes of delay and the impact of

manual intervention

• Asking questions, asking Why and using the

Ishikawa tool

• Taking one part of the business

• Define the problem

• Involving people. People are experts.

• Plot the As-is and propose the future

• Simulating to see the scenario

• Drawn it on the board

• Qualitative and Quantitative techniques

• Questionnaire/Survey

• Reduce queuing, approval time, escalation

level, turnaround time, a window of

opportunity, speed up service

• Visibility of Productivity parameter output

and Optimise the process.

• Improve efficiency, company growth, Big

client base, turnaround time, Information

visibility, Transparency, different stages of

approvals, Manual process times, customer

• Process mapping tool

• Customer complaint description

• Checking the servicing time

• process mapping tool

• Lean sigma and Waterflow approach

• Change management

• Engage employees

• Listening to the voice of the customer.

• Understand and document the as-is process

• The data analytics

• Time-consuming process evaluation

• No attempt to improve the process individually

• Interaction with stakeholders

• Identify the As-is process, then to-be

• Three approaches

- See if there is any duplication

- See if people use the process in the same way

- What wastes are in the system using six sigma

through standardisation

• Understand how you're currently doing it

• Currently as-is and then in the future

• Where are the pain points

• Voice of the customer (VOC)

• Getting in a room to brainstorm

• Speed and accuracy, quick analysis and

decision making, traceability, information

sharing

• Risk, Long turnaround, a strain on the human,

fatigue, and human error. It can’t be accurate,

losing concentration, capture information,

avoid delays

satisfaction, Competition, Lack of data use

and Employee dissatisfaction.

• considerable stock value, Manual

accounting, and Streamlining would make

the processes faster and more efficient,

more effective, more efficient, Management

drive, and time-consuming, It was a lot

much.

• To integrate all processes, and reduce the

turner; The ness is growing, inconstancy in how

the operation runs, how many touch points there

are, the voice of the customer

• Driven by top management, lack of knowledge,

the misconception of the digital, lack of data to

measure the process performance, Number of

non-standardised processes

• Enable businesses to work more efficiently in

highly competitive environments, Regulatory

compliance, Compete beyond borders, do the

basics right, Remove silos across the

organisation have standard processes,

customer satisfaction, inefficient processes,

Ability to scale, ability to grow and to minimise

human interactions and Quality or error rate

(internal)

4.3 Findings of Proposition 2: Digitalisation with streamlining

Table 3. Findings of Proposition 2

Theme:

Possibility to achieve efficiency in digitalisation without streamlining.

Definition:

The business processes are supported digitally instead of analogue-driven, manual or paper-based,

and leveraging digital technologies such as 4IR Techs, CRM, ERP systems, Automated Process

Applications and Advanced Software Solutions that drive business efficiency (Boute & Van Mieghem,

2021).

Sub-theme:

Key-codes:

Digitalise without streamlining:

• it depends; get some good results but with streamlining, you get higher efficiency.

• It's possible, even though it is debatable. With some 5% efficiency is guaranteed

• It’s going to be a failure.

• It is impossible because you create more problems than you had.

• No, engaging people will help to improve; you need to understand the end-to-end value chain

• Streamlining is the business and can’t be ignored

• Streamlining would make the processes faster and more efficient

• A technology-driven streamlining to customise and configure the solution to specifications you're

almost configuring the inefficiencies.

• The automation is easy; optimise before digitalising.

• 80% of digitalisation happens without optimisation because most people are skilled in automation

4.4 Findings of Proposition 3: Digitalisation embeds

streamlining

Table 4. Findings of Proposition 3

Theme:

Finding an opportunity to digitalise; streamlining happens in digitalisation to achieve efficiency.

Definition:

Leverage technologies to aid business processes while ensuring the As-Is are relevant and improved.

Sub-theme

Key codes:

Leverage digitalisation and streamlining

(Improve As-Is)

• propose improvement intervention

• opportunity to automate

• It depends on the requirement

• do it in a system and eliminate specific

tasks

• to look at the as-is and what is available

(opportunity)

• Leverage technology or what is available

• Benchmarking processes

• How our competitors do it

• Look overseas

• Standardised to a certain extent, but

flexible enough.

• Project management

• System development life cycle: SDLC

• RFQ process

• Benchmark existing software

• Issue a tender, tendering process

• Quest for a proposal

• Research and development

• Find a better way to hasten the process to

make it as efficient as possible and make

it as accurate as possible.

• Streamline: higher efficiency

• It is iterative checking and improving

• Streamlining is a process similar to

change management; it needs to happen

before, during and after.

• Streamlining is all about answering why

we're doing it.

• Streamlining would make the processes

faster and more efficient

• To streamline or increase efficiencies.

Leverage digitalisation and streamlining (Improve As-

Is)

• Create a business case

• Bring a system demo

• Decision-makers look into the proposal.

• Push-pull from vendors

• Put a justification, a project brief, and a

motivation.

• Case studies

• Project management

• Visiting other organisations

• Vendor proposal

• Third-party digital system

• Project management

• Change Management

• Pilot testing

• User acceptance testing

• Training

• bottleneck and pain points

• look for opportunities to digitise.

• Engaging with people

• saw the opportunity and brought the technology

based on the challenge.

• There was a need to prepare the data

• The research was done on SAP

• SAP consultants

• Which areas can we automate quickly

• The maturity level is different depending on the

industry.

• Financial institutions have specialised skills and

considerable budgets to introduce improvement.

They need to know the output and much

reverse engineering. They need to be flexible

because a lot of structure won’t allow it. Agile

• Streamlining is almost embedded in

digitalisation

enough. The ability to change course and A

rigid structure won’t happen.

• Companies don't go on and have sequential steps;

streamlining is almost embedded there, and much

more could be done in that space before you even

try to increase the suggested technology.

4.5 Summary of the findings

The three propositions discussed during the interviews are summarised in Table

5, showing the number of participants who supported them.

Table 5. Proposition and findings summary

Summary of themes / Proposition

How many participants

supported the proposition

Streamlining happens before digitalisation to achieve

efficiency

Understand and Improve the As-Is

1+1+1+1+0+1+0+1+0 = 6

Digitalisation without streamlining achieves efficiency

Digitalise without streamlining:

0+0+0+0+0+0+0+0 = 0

It depends on the opportunity to digitalise; streamlining

happens in digitalisation to achieve efficiency. It is not

always a sequential approach

Leverage digitalisation and streamlining (Improve As-Is)

1+0+0+1+1+1+1+0+1 = 6

CHAPTER 5: DISCUSSION OF THE FINDINGS

5.1 Introduction

This chapter introduces the demographics of the nine participants interviewed for

this study, then discusses the discovered perspectives, which are structured and

presented by the three propositions, and are further explained in the context of

the literature, which allows the findings to be positioned. In conclusion, the

analytical framework is amended, and a new one is presented based on practical

views of the findings.

5.2 Demographic profile of participants

The participants in this study are business leaders and professionals from South

Africa. The majority of participants have between three to thirty years of work

experience and are currently employed either as consultants or employees. Most

participants were directly involved in business process improvement and

digitalisation in their respective organisations.

5.3 Discussion of streamlining a prerequisite in digitalisation to

achieve efficiency.

The findings reveal that the majority of the business professionals support this

proposition, which is themed as "understanding and improving the As-Is

sequentially before attempting any alternation." Understanding means the

problem or challenge in the business process is known and defined, such as long

turnaround times, a lack of speed, quick decision-making, lower customer

satisfaction, a lack of process accuracy and transparency, etc. And improving

means modelling the as-is process, identifying the gaps, proposing improvement

interventions, mapping the value stream, solving the problem, and listening to the

voice of the customer.

Participants mentioned that this is about the business’s existence, and the

technology does not understand it. It is essential to check the relevancy of the

existing business, do a gap analysis, engage employees, check people’s

capabilities, and do problem-solving by leveraging Lean methodologies or other

industrial engineering tools.

This is consistent with the literature and Altendorfer-Kaiser's (2014) argument

that before digitalisation, streamlining should be performed to optimise the As-Is.

And, in a sequential approach, the theory of good operations fundamentals is to

first optimise and streamline before automating. Therefore, the prerequisite

condition of streamlining is proven to achieve efficiency.

5.4 Discussion on achieving efficiency in digitalisation without

streamlining

The possibility of achieving efficiency by simply digitalising an existing business

is not supported. Some participants mentioned that it depends; some good results

might be achieved but with streamlining, higher efficiency is guaranteed. Another

participant argued that 80% of digitalisation happens without streamlining. Others

said it's possible, even though it is debatable, with some 5% efficiency

guaranteed. But most of them believe that it will be a failure and impossible

because more problems will arise than before.

This finding agreed with the literature and Boute and Van Mieghem's (2021)

argument that optimisation and standardisation should come first to avoid

automating waste. Thus, efficiency is not guaranteed without streamlining.

5.5 Discussion of leveraging digitalisation

Leveraging digitalisation is seen as a requirement and opportunity for many

businesses, with streamlining playing a vital role in achieving efficiency. While

most participants supported this approach, they claimed it was a practical one.

It's important to note that, in practice, modelling the existing process and

improving it using management techniques is not applied sequentially but rather

as an iterative approach to digitalising and streamlining. Bollard et al. (2017) also

stated that the best efficiency is achieved when different improvement levers,

such as streamlining or digitalisation, can build on each other, given the many

variables businesses encounter, such as legacy systems, regulatory

requirements, and centralised globally deployed systems that impact their

operations.

Therefore, there's no universal formula for streamlining and digitalisation, starting

with lean thinking and finishing with digitalisation. Business leaders propose

improvement interventions, look at opportunities to automate depending on the

requirements, leverage digital systems, eliminate specific tasks, benchmark what

is available, and leverage proven technologies. Once the new systems are

implemented, performance objectives are evaluated through the voice of the

customer, project management deliverables, investment realisation, comparing

the before and after, gap closure analysis, as-is relevancy, etc., to ensure that

efficiency is achieved.

The literature reviewed this practical insight of streamlining and digitalisation as

the second school of thought, where efficiency is guaranteed because the results

or objectives are evaluated. The measurement of efficiency through the

parameters listed above provides insight that the literature leaves out. Bauer and

Göbl (2019) added that business processes that implemented a higher level of

digitalisation produced higher efficiency and fewer manual tasks than processes

with no digitalisation. Therefore, the higher efficiency achieved with digitalisation

surpasses the manual process of achieving business objectives.

5.6 Conclusion

The three propositions presented describe how business leaders can integrate

and apply streamlining and digitalisation to achieve efficiency. Firstly,

streamlining can be achieved by understanding and improving processes through

the use of management techniques. Secondly, digitalisation without streamlining

is not supported as it can result in waste and reduced efficiency. Thirdly,

leveraging digitalisation and measuring outcomes is seen as a practical

approach. Streamlining is not a sequential process but is instead embedded in

digitalisation. By combining the first school of thought with the second,

streamlining is achieved through a process of understanding the "As-Is",

mapping, identifying gaps, and improving. With the second school of thought,

streamlining through digitalisation occurs by using business processes to guide

improvements based on their impact on efficiency and opportunity.

CHAPTER 6: CONCLUSIONS & RECOMMENDATIONS

6.1 Introduction

This section emphasises the role of streamlining in achieving efficiency and

provides a clear description of how business leaders can streamline business

processes. Streamlining is achieved through improvement methodologies that

involve analysing and improving the existing processes. Business leaders do not

support simply digitalising processes to avoid automating waste. However, they

do argue that streamlining can be achieved through digitalisation.

Therefore, a new framework and table are recommended to fit the digital level,

the legacy system, and the impact of efficiency, as shown in Figure 2 and Table

6. These tools are designed to help business leaders effectively streamline their

processes and improve their efficiency by providing a clear understanding of the

relationship between digitalisation, legacy systems, and efficiency.

6.2 Conclusions regarding research objective.

Business leaders and professionals approve that streamlining plays a critical role

in digitalising business processes and achieving efficiency. As shown in Figure

2, they all agree that streamlining prevails as the crucial factor to higher efficiency

(understanding and improving the business) and recognizing business

challenges and opportunities. However, streamlining is not always in a sequential

approach as suggested in the analytical framework (Boute & Van Mieghem,

2021) due to factors such as the opportunity, the business legacy, the business

requirement and the resource constraint.

Digitalisation embeds Streamline

Original thought

Second thought

Streamline Digitalise

Efficient process

Streamlining could apply when there is an opportunity to automate requirements.

Combining both strestreamlinedughts by using Business Process Reengineering

(BPR), Lean methodologies, and digitalisation is valuable in reaping the benefits

of Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) technologies (Buer et al., 2021). By

leveraging these tools and techniques, businesses can streamline their

processes to achieve greater efficiency and better leverage digitalisation to drive

innovation and growth.

Business leaders streamline their processes by first understanding the "As-Is" or

the present situation of the business. Improvements are then made based on the

opportunities presented if the appropriate technologies are available. The critical

point is to thoroughly examine the company, its pain points, challenges, people,

and processes, and then leverage technologies to address these challenges and

improve the overall business.

Therefore, streamlining is about optimising the company's existence and finding

the best way to conduct its operations. Whether using improvement strategies or

leveraging digitalisation, the ultimate results should prove efficiency through the

defined objectives or stakeholder satisfaction. In this way, streamlining is not just

about reducing costs or improving processes but also about improving overall

business performance and creating value for stakeholders.

6.3 Recommendations

The controversial debate among business professionals about whether

streamlining should come before digitalisation is addressed by stating that

streamlining happens iteratively when there is an opportunity or a requirement.

In the digitalisation journey, it is important to ensure that streamlining happens by

identifying gaps and concerns and then leveraging the relevant technology that

Figure 2. Emergent Framework

minimises waste and enables greater efficiency and effectiveness (Zoltners et al.,

2021).

Based on the McKinsey report by Bollard et al. (2017), the literature review, and

the findings, this study recommends a non-sequential model that aids in the

selection and prioritisation of business processes, as shown in Table 6. This

recommended tool could apply to any operation, regardless of its digital maturity

level (manual or digital). Business leaders can select the business process to be

studied, define the pain points, challenges, and problems, assess the gap,

opportunity, and the "As-Is" digital maturity, and then choose the appropriate

approach based on the efficiency impact.

The impact on efficiency represents the trade-off of a combination of performance

indicators defined as important to the business, such as customer satisfaction,

cost, speed, flexibility, quality, and dependability. The opportunity to leverage

each approach would depend on the business requirement, available resources,

budget, and legacy systems. This model provides a structured and flexible

approach that can be adapted to any business operation to achieve greater

efficiency and success.

Table 6. Recommended streamlining assessor

Process

Existing

situation (As-is)

Digital Maturity

level (DAS)

Streamlining

approaches

Impact on efficiency

Process?

Problem,

Challenges,

Pain Points,

Gaps,

Requirements or

Opportunity

Assessed level?

Streamline_1

(Lean, BPR)

Low - Medium - high?

Digitalisation_2

(Embedded

Streamlining)

Low - Medium - high?

Business leaders are encouraged to implement digitalisation that fits the purpose,

where flexibility and customisation are applied, as long as efficiency can be

measured and guaranteed. As a result, it is critical to review the current state,

identify opportunities for automation, address challenges and pain points, and

implement automation as needed. To avoid waste and potential issues, it is

critical not to digitalise before first understanding the AS-IS situation and

improving the business. It is important to standardise processes, check that the

technology is relevant and can bring value, and, if necessary, customise existing

solutions based on the business's needs.

This study recommends that leaders should use the proposed assessment tool

and carefully consider deploying resources and budgets when adopting lean,

BPR, or digitalisation. It is crucial that the evidence of achieving higher efficiency

be visible to avoid the associated costs and loss of revenue that can negatively

impact the business (Small et al., 2011).

6.4 Suggestions for further research

This research offers views from a few South African business leaders, but

exploring different professionals and industries would be beneficial. This could

provide new perspectives and potentially quantify the impact of streamlining on

business efficiency, customer satisfaction, and operational and service

excellence. A relevant future study would be the application of the proposed tool,

"Streamlining Business Process Assessor," which facilitates business leaders'

decision-making. This table could be a valuable tool for companies to rethink their

existing processes and identify the right technologies to implement, leading to

increased efficiency and competitive advantage (Vartolomei & Avasilcai, 2019).

Table 4. Consistency table: research objective, propositions, data collection and data analysis

RO#

Research Objective

Prop#

Proposition

Data collection detail

Data analysis method

To explore how business leaders

and professionals streamline

business processes in digitalising

and how they measure efficiency.

1.1

Streamlining prevails as a

prerequisite in digitalising

business processes to

achieve efficiency

Interview guide

questions

1, 2 and 3

Thematic analysis

1.2

Digitalisation without

streamlining produces

waste

Interview guide

questions

Thematic analysis

1.2

Streamlining happens in

digitalisation depending

on the opportunity to

automate and achieve

efficiency

Interview guide

questions

Thematic analysis

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APPENDIX A (The participant information sheet)

Participants ID

Job title

ID01

Senior Industrial Engineer

ID02

Continuous Improvement

Manager

ID03

Operations Manager

ID04

Supply Chain Manager

ID05

Senior Business Analyst

Consultant

ID06

Specialist Business Engineer

ID07

Supply Chain Manager

ID08

Continuous Improvement

Specialist

ID09

Senior Business and Digital

Transformation Analyst

APPENDIX B (Participant agreement and consent)

I.... (Please type your name in the

below space) agree to

participate in this research

project. The research has been

explained to me, and I

understand what my

participation will involve

I agree that my

participation will

remain anonymous,

and I will inform the

researcher if there is

any confidential

information.

I agree that

the

researcher

may use

anonymous

quotes in his

research

report

I agree that

the

interview

may be

audio

recorded

I agree that the information I

provide may be used

anonymously after this

project has ended for

academic purposes by other

researchers, subject to their

ethics clearance.

ID01

YES

ID02

YES

ID03

YES

ID04

YES

ID05

YES

ID06

YES

ID07

YES

ID08

YES

ID09

YES

APPENDIX C (Interview guide)

APPENDIX D (Deductive thematic analysis)

Refer to Chapter 4. Presentation of findings: Tables 2, 3, and 5

Note: The various biases were minimised by selecting business professionals and consolidating their perspectives before making a

conclusion, a member checking was used, and participants were given the transcripts through a follow-up email to validate their

views.

The keywords of participants from P01 to P09 are summarised below:

Participant ID 01

Participant ID 02

Participant ID 03

Participant ID 04

Participant ID 05

Participant ID 06

Participant ID 07

Participant ID 08

Participant ID 09

• manual business

processes

• manual evaluation

• digitized

processes

• manual or

paper-based

process

• real-time logs

• escalation

procedures

• manual and

paper-based

data collection

• Manual to

automatic

processes

• ERP

implementation

• Cost Manual analysis

system

• manual way of

calculating and

negotiating

• streamlining

and integration

of all supply

chain

processes.

• Manual

Inventory

process

• Manually

processing in

Microsoft Office

•

• payments and collections

process

• reduce queuing

• Approval times

• level Escalation

• turnaround times

• customer

satisfaction

• a window of

opportunity

• Speed up service

• information

knowledge

• information flow

• Information

sharing

• decision-

making

• speed of

gathering

• accuracy point

of view

• speed and

accuracy

• Visibility of

Productivity

parameter

output

• Optimise the

process

• improve

efficiency

• company’s

growth

• Big client base

• turnaround time

• Information

Visibility

• Transparency

• different stages

of approvals.

• Manual process

times

• Risk

• Long turnaround

• a strain on the

human

• fatigue, and human

error.

• It can’t be accurate

• losing concentration.

• capture information

• avoid delays

• to integrate all

processes

• reduce the

turnaround

• The business is

growing

• inconstancy in

how the

operation runs

• how many

touchpoints

• voice of the

customer

• big stock value

• Manual

accounting

• Streamlining

would be making

the processes

faster and more

efficient.

• more effective

• more efficient

• Management

drive

• time-consuming

• Driven by top

management

• lack of knowledge

• misconception of

the digital

• lack of data to

measure the

process

performance

• Number of non-

standardised

processes

• enable businesses to

work more efficiently

• highly competitive

environment

• Regulatory compliance

• Compete beyond

borders

• doing the basics right

• Remove silos across the

organization.

• to have standard

processes

• customer satisfaction

• inefficiencies

• Traceability

• Quick decision

• efficiency,

modernity,

faster, reliability

• Quick analysis

• customer

satisfaction

• Competition

• Lack of data use

• Employee

dissatisfaction.

• It was a lot of

work.

• inefficient processes

• Ability to scale

• inefficient processes

• ability to grow

• to minimize human

interactions

• Quality or error rate

(internal)

• model the as-is

• identify gaps

• IE Tools

• propose

improvement

intervention

• opportunity to

automate

• streamline before

digitalising

• As-is relevancy

• It depends on the

requirement

• value stream

mapping

• key

measurables,

turnaround

time, order

cycle, different

steps

• Strategy such

as ECS:

Eliminate,

combine and

simplify

processes.

• Problem-

solving

• PMR, the Step

3 project

• Kaizen

• digital tools

through the

problem-solving

• three Ps: plant

people process

• Document and

standardised

processes

• preventive and

corrective

maintenance

• People’s

capability and

competence

• Understand and

map the current

process

• Process chart

• swimlane

diagram

• putting the time

• identify the

problem and

solve

• finding causes of

delay and the

impact of manual

intervention

• Use the Why

Ishika tool

• taking one part of

the business

• The process of

asking questions

and checking

what

• Define the

problem

• Check people

and competency

• involving people.

People are

experts.

• current

processes and

check the As-is.

• do it in a system

and eliminate

specific tasks

• to look at the as-is

and what is

available

(opportunity)

• Qualitative and

Quantitative

techniques

• Questionnaire/Survey

• Voice of the

customer (VOC)

• getting in a room to

brainstorm

• Getting

recommendations

from customers.

• Asking for ideas from

customers

• identified the issues

• building relationships

with stakeholders.

• Leverage

technology or what

is available

• be present to

understand

• understand

the AS-IS

• Draft the as-is

process

• looking at what

people do

• Process

mapping tool

• Asking

questions

• Customer

complaint

description

• time servicing

• process

mapping tool

• lean sigma,

Waterflow one

• change

management

• employees are

engaged

• the voice of the

customer.

• understand and

document the

process as is

• the data

analytical

• time-consuming

• No attempt to

improve the

process

individually

• Interaction with

stakeholders

• Identify the As-is

process, then be

• Three approaches

-See if there is any

duplication

-See if people use the

process in the same

way

-What waste is in the

system using six

sigma through

standardisation

• Benchmarking

processes

• to understand how

you're currently doing it

• Currently as-is and then

going forward

• Where are the pain

points

• how our competitors do

• Look overseas

• Standardised to a

certain extent, but

flexible enough.

• Plot the As-is and

propose the

future

• simulating to see

the scenario

• drawn it on the

board

• Project

management

• System

development life

cycle: SDLC

• RFP process

• benchmark

existing software

• issue a tender

• quest for a

proposal

• research and

development

• Create a

business case

• bring a demo

• decision-

makers look

into the

proposal.

• push-pull from

vendors

• Put a

justification, a

project brief,

and a

motivation.

• Benchmark

• case studies

• project

management

• visiting other

organizations

• tendering

process

• Vendor proposal

• Third-party

digital system

• Project

management

• Change

Management

• people involved

• agreeing on the

processes and

steps with all

stakeholders

• all new roles

defined

• System demo

• Pilot testing

• user acceptance

testing

• Training

• Proper research to

understand the as-is

• bottleneck and pain

points

• look for

opportunities to

digitise.

• Engaging with people

• saw the

opportunity and

brought the

technology

based on the

challenge.

• There was a

need to prepare

the data

• project change

management

• The research

was done on

SAP

• SAP consultants

• Tendering process

• which areas can we

automate quickly right

• The maturity level is

different depending on

the industry.

• specialised skills are

available. hire specific

black belt sigma.

• Streamline is not

structured like in a Power

utility company

• Banks have a huge

budget to introduce

improvement

• to be flexible. A lot of

structure won’t allow it.

• agile enough. The ability

to change course.

• A rigid structure won’t

happen.

• needs to know the output

and work for reverse

engineering.

•

• value analysis

• anticipated

benefits

• project

management

• Streamline: higher

efficiency

• realizing our value

from the

investment?

•

• the voice of the

customer

• operations

requirements

• service

questionnaire

• factory

acceptance

testing

• Project

management

• Project

deliverables

• Gaps closure

analysis

• Compare before

and after

• satisfaction from

your client

• With a few clicks,

they can find the

information

• The information

is available

• an SLA with the

service provider

• test cases and train

people afterwards.

• Set targets and

verification

• customer

feedback

• turnaround time

• Accuracy

• Turnaround

• Customer

feedback

• working harder

than smarter

before

• improved our

business and

employee

morale

• Management

visibility

• The automation is

easy, optimise

before digitalise.

• 80% of

digitalisation

happens without

optimisation

because most

people are skilled

in automation

• The voice of the

customer

• Customer satisfaction

was measured.

Customer feedback and

defined SLA.

• External error: customer

= Customised the

experience

• Management

control and

insight

• As-is relevancy

it depends; get

some good results

but with streamlining

you get higher

efficiency.

• doing value

stream

mapping

It's possible, even

though it is

debatable. With

some 5%

efficiency is

guaranteed

• People, Process

and Plant

It’s going to be a

failure.

• It is iterative

checking and

improving

It is impossible

because you

create more

problems than

you had.

• Find a better way

solution to hasten the

process to make it as

efficient possible to

make it as accurate

as possible.

No, engaging people

will help to improve;

you need to

understand the end-

to-end value chain

• Streamlining is

a process

similar to

change

management; it

needs to

happen before,

during and

after. I would

say a change of

behaviour. And

streamlining is

all about

answering why

we're doing it.

• What is our

business? That

is part of

streamlining.

• Streamlining

would be making

the processes

faster and more

efficient.

•

• To streamline or

increase efficiencies.

• Companies don't go on

and have sequential

steps

• Streamlining is almost

embedded in there;

much more could be

done in that space

before you even try and

increase the suggested

technology

• a technology-driven

streamlining

• to customise the solution

and configure it to

specifications

• you're almost configuring

the inefficiencies.

APPENDIX E (Ethics approval notification)

ResearchGate has not been able to resolve any citations for this publication.

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