Investigating the role of industrial engineering in process improvement in the banking industry: A case study of bank y

With increasing operational costs in banking industries, changing banking policies, procedures and processes, changing staffing framework, changing value chain; banking industries are currently going through a lot of major transformations of improving productivity, reducing costs by implementing Business Process Management projects. Process improvement in the banking industry helps to make sure that policies and procedures comply according to the banking regulatory bodies. The banking industry can benefit a lot when they deploy process mapping as “best practice” and by also adopting or benchmarking the experiences of other industries who have implemented similar tools and methods. This paper aims to investigate the roles of Industrial Engineering in driving process modelling and improvement in the banking industry. Define-Measure-Analyze-Improve and Control (DMAIC) methodology was used to investigate the roles of Industrial Engineering in running process improvement projects. Interviews and a questionnaire survey were used as methods of collecting data in one of the banking organizations in Botswana. Major findings suggest that the role of an Industrial Engineer is very key from the start of the process improvement projects, measuring process maturity, measuring process capability, and cost-benefits of process improvements. Recommendations are made that each segment should hire an Industrial Engineer(s) as they mostly provide technical and business advice concerning procedures, policies, processes, and process re-engineering. Improvements observed in Bank Y are improved process maturity by 10% in eight months (0% to 10%), improved process consistency and increased process audit ratings by 5% (per financial year).