REAAL chooses custom solutions from TnP Visual Workplace
REAAL Verzekeringen - part of SNS REAAL - is one of the biggest insurance companies in the Netherlands. The company focuses on mortgages, pensions, life and non-life insurance, which they sell exclusively through financial advisers and brokers. What is characteristic is the no-nonsense attitude that is also expressed through the slogan 'Realist in insurance'. There are several REAAL branches in the Netherlands, including in Zoetermeer, Utrecht and Assen. In the modern office there are about 900 employees. Among them Leo Bik, Manager of the Central Input Processing (CIP) department, and Lars Talsma, lean consultant. They are both closely involved in the change process that is currently underway in REAAL.
A new direction
Like many other companies, REAAL faced new challenges because of the economic fluctuations. "There was a time when everything went easily in business", says Leo Bik. "But times are changing; to connect with the end-customer we found that we have to actively put more effort into it, together with the broker. We do this based on our mission: Simplicity in finance." Lars Talsma continues: "To achieve this, we started a development that, according to Toyota's example, should result in making REAAL a 'lean' company. Our change programme is named 'Darwin', named after the scientist who discovered that the person who is able to adapt to changing circumstances best, survives.”
"The idea is that we create a culture on the basis of which we can continuously improve. In addition, we place the responsibility with the employees themselves. They are the ones who have to perform."
Giving directions to change
Whiteboards were initially used to support the process on the work floor where employees could record their schedules, actions and
control mechanisms. People got down to work enthusiastically, everyone in their own way. This was also the biggest problem with these conventional whiteboards.
"We lacked overview, structure, uniformity and clarity," said Leo Bik.
The added value of visualisation
REAAL found the solution at TnP Visual Workplace. Talsma: "What we have learned from that period is what we did want. Based on these experiences we made a model in which, besides the PDCA cycle of the employees, there was space for our strategic goals and customer feedback. We also wanted to link this to the CARE!-values we use internally: CARE! for the result, CARE! for each other and CARE! for the customer. When the design was made the question arose: can we produce this in this way as well?”
"With TnP Visual Workplace we found the bespoke design that we were searching for. We ordered one trial copy and had it tested in the losses department in Utrecht. This resulted in a few points of improvement. We use about 60 copies of the final version of our board, spread out over several of our locations."
More support for the change process
It works. The pre-printed boxes on the board structure the content from the employees. This ensures that the information is readable at a glance off, even for the board of directors.
"They are truly our boards" said Leo Bik. "With our logo and CARE!-values.
They have a professional look and they are very user friendly."
The magnetic windows are well appreciated by their users. People like working with the materials. All of this ensures that there is true support for the changes and transformations we are experiencing at the moment. We did not only
get the structure and the overview we were looking for, but also the usability
and enjoyment.
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