Challenge
Maintpartner, one of the leading industrial maintenance service provider in Northern Europe, decided to improve its cash flow. High level customer service had lead to customized and complex invoicing processes that included a lot of reporting. Furthermore, Maintpartner wanted to further increase the operational transparency with working capital reporting covering all layers of the organization.
What was done
Working Capital Management program was launched in Finland. After understanding the current state, the invoicing process was mapped and implemented, including introduction of KPI’s, follow-up meetings and increased cooperation between different functions. Project also covered improvement of e.g. the supplier payment terms by structured and systematic negotiation program. Also company wide working capital trainings were held to further increase cash flow understanding.
Most important results were achieved with following actions:
- Detailed invoicing process and contract analyses were carried out in order to understand the current state and build the business cases. Main control points for the whole process were identified and new invoicing processes were defined and implemented. In addition, reporting showing delays in different phases were introduced to support daily management of the process.
- The end-to-end invoicing process was improved from a cross-functional approach, involving all important functions such as Operations, Sales, Invoicing and Sourcing. As a part of more structured and standardized way of working, communication between team managers and invoicing function was improved by implementing regular invoicing meetings.
- Ambitious supplier negotiation program with structured payment term follow-up was carried out. With location specific trainings, ad-hoc support and supportive tools for the payment term follow-up process a notable +35% increase in payment terms was achieved.
