This Aarau based investment bank and international asset manager is looking to revolutionize its internal and external facing business processes. Central to this initiative will be the implementation of lean business practices and models upon their banking processes. In order for this to be successful the bank is looking to hire an expert as a full time staff member to initially design, develop, plan and implement these changes and then to continually upgrade them and evolve them moving forward.

The bank requires an experienced process re-engineering consultant, who is Lean Six Sigma certified and experienced in the implementation of lean banking projects.

One key area the bank would like to explore is introducing bank wide lean management and efficiency programs aiming to reduce wasteful processes. Central to success in this the Project Manager & Consultant Lean Banking must identify the root causes of this waste / productivity issues. It is expected you will have to model many of the banks current processes and measure, analyze, improve and control them. For example the bank can point to staff idle time in all client facing and sales teams due to the lack of a smooth demand curve, common to the banking industry. They suspect the employment of level loading for some teams would greatly increase efficiencies and reduce staffing costs and employee unhappiness.

The bank also believes its current electronic banking model could be improved in many areas. Whilst the bank recognizes waste is fairly easy to find in IT banking systems it bis fairly hard and a complex task to eliminate it. However they believe some major efficiencies could be gained there and expect the Project Manager & Consultant Lean Banking will be able to use lean models to redesign, rethinking and review their IT applications. They would also like to see the introduction of real mistake proofing in the design stage of new applications and also the simplification of many IT areas.

Using a number of models like value analysis, process standardization, information flow maps, capacity and productivity management tools it is expected that the Project Manager & Consultant Lean Banking will lead the banks lean banking charge. In some it is expected a full simulation (s) will need to be modeled, to experiment with potential solutions and changes prior to real world adoption. They will be a budget allocated for the purchase of the necessary simulation software assigned to the Project Manager & Consultant Lean Banking.

Once implementation of these lean banking projects has been signed off and during the identification stage, the Project Manager & Consultant Lean Banking will also have to supervise (in conjunction with HR and external training teams) a comprehensive education program. Enterprise wide lean workshops where by employees can contribute to identifying processes that generate waste, are not client essential and are not necessary to meet compliance, risk and regulatory guidelines and standards. It is believed the correct adoption bank wide education, gaining the support via coaching of business units involved in the implementation will help anchor the lean philosophy in the banks mind set.

The banks ideal applicant profile is an experienced lean banking consultant who is comfortable with the lean management methodology and using the Lean six sigma tool set and has done so in real world large enterprise process re engineering projects for a number of years. It would be beneficial if the consultant understood investment banking, but not necessary – likewise whilst English is essential and German and French is a bonus, what is important is the right blend of experience and skill.

Obviously as the bank expects to have to appoint the Project Manager & Consultant Lean Banking who they think would have been working on a project by project consultancy basis as a full time employee, the remuneration package is excellent.