Making product cost and profitability visible.

The challenge

In an engineer-to-order business, the cost and margin position develops as a product moves from enquiry through design, delivery and commissioning. The Rolls-Royce Marine business needed better visibility of that position, including a practical way to compare the profitability of different product models.

My role

As Business Process Integration Manager, I led three connected areas: the business process architecture, the solution design for process localisations for ERP deployments in new countries, and the £2m cost and margin transparency project.

What I did

• Developed the Marine business process architecture using the APQC L1–L5 model, and managed the team modelling the processes in ARIS, our business process management platform.
• Led solution design when the ERP programme entered a new country. I translated local business requirements into configuration changes to the core ERP build, keeping processes standard wherever possible and introducing localisations where there was genuine business value.
• Facilitated workshops with the business to understand the complete engineer-to-order process, from customer enquiry through to product commissioning, and how the cost and margin position developed through that cycle.
• Designed process changes to improve visibility of forecast cost and margin. I supported the technical solution design, which used a minor ERP configuration change to report the improved information.

What changed

• The business could readily compare the costs of different product sizes—for example, different thruster models—and understand their relative profitability. This was the first time it had been able to see this information easily.
• The process changes improved visibility of forecast cost and margin through the engineer-to-order cycle.