Lean in insuranceMaking processes visible before improving them

How we made an invisible process landscape visible, understandable, and optimizable at a nationwide insurance company.

Lean does not only work in production.
Lean works everywhere – especially where processes are not physically visible but experienced every day: in administrative functions, back-office departments, and service organizations.

This was exactly the challenge faced by a large German insurance company.

Employees knew that processes existed, but no one had a clear, shared understanding of how these processes actually worked. Each branch, each team, and each individual followed their own logic, often shaped by history and habit.

Under these conditions, process optimization was almost impossible. Because one simple truth applies:
What you cannot see, you cannot improve.

The approach: Making processes visible at last – using BPMN

Together, we developed a training concept for BPMN, a standardized method for modeling processes in a clear, consistent, and understandable way.

I trained more than 100 employees across Germany, fully online, in group-based sessions of around ten participants each. The format was practical, interactive, and immediately applicable:

  • one full training day per group

  • live exercises

  • breakout sessions

  • strong practical relevance

  • individual feedback

The focus was clear:
Model, understand, and document processes in a transparent, structured, and standardized way.

The feedback was consistently positive: engaging, easy to understand, and highly relevant to everyday work.

The effect: For the first time, the process landscape became visible

Through the training and the follow-up tasks, where each participant documented real processes from their own branch, a shared process landscape emerged for the first time. One that was:

  • visible

  • comparable

  • transparent

  • shareable

  • and above all: optimizable

For the first time, teams were able to see:

  • where redundancies exist

  • where media breaks occur

  • where handovers break down

  • which steps add no value

  • which dependencies create unnecessary complexity

  • where digital tools would make sense

  • how work could be made more efficient and customer-focused

The decisive step: Rethinking Lean in administration

Visibility was the game changer.

Only then was the insurance company able to derive real process improvements:

  • clear responsibilities

  • standardized workflows

  • reduced lead times

  • lower error rates

  • better collaboration across branch boundaries

Lean was not just understood.
Lean came to life in administrative work.

Why this story matters

Because it shows that Lean has nothing to do with machines or bolts.
Lean is about thinking, understanding, structuring, and improving.

When people learn to make their work visible, a completely new quality of collaboration emerges.
Regardless of whether they work on a shop floor or behind a desk.

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