{"id":2289,"date":"2015-08-19T17:03:18","date_gmt":"2015-08-19T17:03:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.peeriosity.com\/shared-services\/articles\/?p=2289"},"modified":"2022-08-08T14:10:40","modified_gmt":"2022-08-08T14:10:40","slug":"using-continuous-improvement-strategies-to-mitigateeliminate-ap-invoice-defects","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.peeriosity.com\/shared-services\/articles\/2015\/08\/using-continuous-improvement-strategies-to-mitigateeliminate-ap-invoice-defects\/","title":{"rendered":"Using Continuous Improvement Strategies to Mitigate\/Eliminate AP Invoice Defects"},"content":{"rendered":"

Developing a culture of Continuous Improvement requires much more than sending employees to formal quality management training. Any culture is a reflection of management and therefore needs to start at the top. Management must embrace Continuous Improvement, be an example, and get people excited about the contributions that they can make. While not a simple task, the blending of the Continuous Improvement philosophy within the overall Shared Services culture<\/a> can reap tremendous benefits to the organization as a whole.<\/span><\/p>\n

A recent Peeriosity PeercastTM<\/sup> in the Accounts Payable research area<\/a> featured a major multi-media conglomerate that has focused significant resources over the past decade to streamline its back-office operations<\/a> and implement a world-class Shared Services operation.\u00a0 Utilizing a hub and spoke model, with the primary service center in the United States and additional centers in Europe, Asia, and South America, they have been able to leverage the capabilities of Lean Six Sigma to drive process optimization, with Continuous Improvement being well established within their Shared Services culture.<\/span><\/p>\n

The feature company shared how its Accounts Payable operation has achieved particular success in the area of eliminating invoice defects.\u00a0 Using the DMAIC model, which is a core tenet of the Six Sigma quality discipline, they first defined the problems they were facing in this area and then carried out the process mapping effort. <\/span><\/p>\n

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The invoice defects they discovered were categorized as either Upfront Defects or PO Defects, including the following:<\/span><\/p>\n