Waste Management

Customer Profile

A Northwest England based waste management company serving a diverse range of companies nationally.

Challenges

As an existing trusted technology supplier, the waste management company approached Lynbrook to understand its Document Workflow Solutions and to see how it could help it increase efficiency and productivity. The company receives 4,000 waste certificates each month from its depots. Each depot will email their certificates in PDF format which can contain up to 300 pages of key data that needs to be inputted into the company’s Waste Management Software.

The process was labour intensive and required three operatives to print and sort the certificates into account and date sequence, then input the required data into the Waste Management System to facilitate invoicing. It was clear that significant improvements were required, and the company turned to Lynbrook to find the best solution.

Solution

Lynbrook’s document specialists worked with the operatives to fully understand the end-to-end process, assessing all aspects including incoming emails, printing, sorting, filing, scanning, and inputting. This process was completed over several days to see how the work varied and what challenges and frustrations were faced.

Once the evaluation of the current process was complete, Lynbrook mapped out each step and allocated time to each activity, to see where efficiency gains could be introduced. The study revealed that each certificate was taking an average of one minute to complete, consuming a total of 70 hours per month.

Lynbrook designed a solution that fully automates the process from start to finish, this includes:

Email Monitoring: PDF attachments are copied from incoming emails ready for processing.

Sorting: The software solution sorts all the certificates for the month into Account and Date Sequence.

Data Extraction: Once the documents are sorted, the software extracts key information required for the Waste Management System.

Document Naming: The system names each certificate with its Account Number, Work Order and Date.

Document Storage: Each certificate is then stored in the customer’s folder on the file server.

Working in partnership with Konica Minolta, the solution incorporates its Document Navigator software, which reads the necessary information and intelligently processes the document content. Overall, the solution included a Konica Minolta bizhub C451i multifunctional device, along with Document Navigator Server with an Embedded Licence, three days of Professional Services for installation, plus ongoing support.

For accuracy, a validation process has been introduced so that any documents that do not contain all the required information go through to a verification process.

A proof of concept was developed initially, coupled with a business case to seek approval from the waste management company’s board of directors, before being installed and commissioned.

Benefits, Results, ROI, Future

By adopting the new system, considerable key benefits include an impressive 98% reduction in manual processing manhours per month, along with a £1,050 per month labour saving. The waste management company now has a robust system which saves it time and money as well as ensuring it has a highly reliable document workflow to ensure accuracy.