Case Study De Beers Group:
Process optimization for the visual merchandising team
For De Beers, a global company in the diamond business, the role of the Visual Merchandising team is pivotal. To enhance communication processes, BridgeFlow assists the company with an analysis of workflows and the tailored utilization of Asana tools. Their success is evident in the remarkable outcomes: 53% of the projects were accomplished in just 6 months.
Quick Check
Facts:
- Workflow optimisation
- Analysis phase
- Comprehensive Asana training
- Support during the transformation
Goals:
- Determine lead times and communicate bottlenecks in time
- Coordinate deadlines and make them transparent
- Bundle communication and information
- Launch of Asana as a new work and project management tool
Timeframe:
- 4 months in 2021
Results:
- Easy management of the projects’ complexity
- Optimised planning
- Easier interdepartmental communication
- Reduced time spent on status updates
The challenge
De Beers Group is acknowledged as the world’s leading diamond company, employing 20,000 individuals. Visual merchandising stands as a fundamental expertise for presenting luxury items visually, ensuring the ultimate shopping experience for diamond jewelry. The team oversees retail openings, creative development, and the global rollout of all consumable-oriented materials, including new packaging. The challenge addressed with the assistance of BridgeFlow was to optimize the work processes of the Visual Merchandising team. The primary objective was to identify lead times and transparently communicate them to other teams, aiming to make time bottlenecks visible and effectively manage complex projects.
Smooth communication
The operations of the visual merchandising team are intricately complex in terms of planning and execution, demanding absolute transparency and control from everyone involved to ensure the timely supply and opening of business premises worldwide. Issues in these workflows arose due to a lack of coordination with other team members in the marketing department.
This manifested in missed deadlines, project delays, and an excessive amount of time spent communicating status updates in interdepartmental meetings. Communication was scattered across emails, team messages, and Excel spreadsheets, and was not consolidated in one place. So, the search for an optimized workflow was underway. The solution was to use Asana as a new work and project management tool
„Portfolios from Asana – this tool has been a game changer for us. It actually adds value instead of more work.“
Lihsia Jiang, Purchasing Manager
The solution
Working with BridgeFlow’s experts, the department adopted a structured approach to the transformation. An in-depth analysis phase involved more than 25 members of the marketing team at De Beers. The goal was to efficiently organize and manage more than 50 projects, as well as provide insight into project progress and workload to management and the various teams within the department.
Step 1: Analysis and onboarding
The analysis phase spanned several weeks and various departments. Proven methods, such as interviews with stakeholders, yielded deep insights into the previous working methods of the visual marketing team at De Beers. As a result, with BridgeFlow’s support during the onboarding process, stakeholders gained key insights into:
- The effectiveness of portfolios for project organisation,
- The use of workload for capacity estimation, and
- The use of timelines for project lead times.
Step 2: Creating positive experiences with training
The rollout of Asana was characterized by clear lines of communication and efficient implementation. The adaptation of the BridgeFlow platform to De Beers’ needs and the coordination processes went without complications or delays. The team’s experience with the changes in the work process was exclusively positive. This was ensured by comprehensive training and continuous support from the BridgeFlow team.
Step 3: Efficient processes thanks to optimized communication
Previously, keeping track of the complexity of projects posed a challenge, but now, thanks to Asana, this task is easily managed by the visual merchandising team. Employees can define their deadlines with timelines and milestones. Thanks to workload and portfolios, team members can better assess and manage their individual workloads and keep their projects consistent. Even with a standardized application, the flexibility of the tool allows individuals to adapt work to their preferred style.
The result
Work more efficiently, create more
Overall, the transformation process was a complete success. Team members can better perceive responsibilities, optimize planning, and simplify cross-divisional communication—with impressive results! The Visual Merchandising team at De Beers has
- Reduced the time required for status updates,
- Optimised market briefings and
- Increased the efficiency of work, enabling us to complete more projects in less time.
Recommendation
De Beers Group was more than satisfied with the success achieved and is ready to recommend BridgeFlow to other companies. The tools, methods and supportive guidance provided by BridgeFlow during the transformation process played a decisive role in the remarkable results.
De Beers Group is the world’s leading diamond company with expertise in diamond exploration, mining, grading, marketing and trading. Together with its joint venture partners, the company employs more than 20,000 people in diamond production worldwide, many of them in the source countries of Botswana, Canada, Namibia and South Africa.
www.debeersgroup.com
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Paper & Tea
Transparenz bei Verantwortlichkeiten und Überblick über Deadlines ist eine Grundvoraussetzung für die Koordination aller Stores. Wir leisteten bei der Einführung von Asana Unterstützung und passten das Tool flexibel an die speziellen Needs an.
Helm
Wir halfen dabei, die Synergien für die länder- und funktionsübergreifenden Teams zu schärfen. Der Beratungsansatz bei der Einführung von Asana und die Abbildung der eigenen Prozesse sorgte für eine schnelle Adaption des Tools bei den Teammitgliedern.
