Reduced Month End Close by 52% Through Continuous Improvement for Distributor

Challenge

A wholesale tire distributor was averaging nearly 2 months to achieve Month End Close of their books due to issues with staff, data availability and uniformity, and communication with data providers.

The company needed help to drastically improve their internal processes and reduce Month End Close to less than 3 days.

Approach

  • Conducted interviews, implemented Continuous Improvement approach, and led Kaizen event to map current state processes
  • Identified root cause issues and deficiencies in urgency to close the books, timing of data availability, communication with third party data providers, and IT support to enhance and develop tools
  • Implemented solutions to reduce time to close including discussions with third parties and deadline implementation

Results

I.

Reduced Time to Month End Close by 52%

II.

Accelerated receipt of data through negotiations with third party providers

III.

Moved fixed asset and leases into the pre-close

IV.

Established future state processes to further reduce Time to Month End Close

Experts