SUCCESS STORIES / Operational Excellence

A culture of continuous improvement fosters the future of Britain’s full fiber connectivity

How a leading connectivity provider in the UK unleashed the full potential of fiber and elevated the customer experience using a continuous improvement approach.

Background

The global fiber market is rapidly growing to fulfill the increasing demands of businesses and consumers for internet and communication services.

However, many developed countries like the UK still stand at just 25% of Total Homes Passed (THP) coverage compared to 40-50% in other developed nations.

Releasing fiber connectivity services faster in a highly competitive environment is crucial. Looking specifically at fiber optic cable operators, we have observed that they still rely on traditional operational improvement activities performed on an ad-hoc or on-demand basis, resulting in less or no benefits.

To stay competitive to deliver fiber service faster, operators must continuously improve or strengthen their operations while controlling costs and ensuring a flawless customer experience.

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15% reduction in OpEx

8% more timely order deliveries in 7 months

10% reduction in deployment costs

Client Situation

Our client is a British fiber connectivity provider that owns, operates, and maintains fiber-to-the-building infrastructure across 60+ cities in the UK. They were looking to achieve 8 million THPs in the UK in 2-3 years to prevent further line constructions for servicing residential equipment.

To cope with rapid business and customer base growth, they sought more efficient processes with low-cost solutions to reduce operating expenses and accelerate fiber deployment. Only a partner with experience implementing an incremental improvement strategy could address their problems.

Embedding a Value-driven Continuous Improvement (VDCI) function helped the client achieve superior customer experience and operational efficiency.

Diagnosis

The client had brought a paradigm shift by adopting a new operating model for their full-fiber product in the recent past. Since their delivery and assurance process model was relatively new, it was necessary to enhance their performance to match their target of 8 million THPs.

Lack of experience in implementing a “best-in-class” continuous improvement strategy led to service delivery delays resulting in prolonged revenue realization and high service costs. The operations needed systems and tools to continuously measure and monitor process gaps.

Solving It

We proposed a Value-driven Continuous Improvement (VDCI) squad to address operational inefficiencies by identifying the root causes and developing a rapid fix. We built a working model of a VDCI function using lean principles. It infuses clearly defined values and fosters a four-step process comprising Discovery, Formulation, Execution, and Evaluation, enabling a gradual upgradation of process, product, and service.

In the discovery phase, we conducted a unified data-driven analysis using various data mining tools like Celonis to discover gaps and improvement opportunities and highlight the potential issues in fiber operations. We leveraged an AI/ML-enabled predictive model to proactively identify and resolve network issues and to drive efficiency and customer excellence.

We formulated change initiatives by conducting workshops and sit-by sessions with business owners and experts and devised the solution considering key elements like investments, cost benefits, and implementation timelines.

We executed and managed change initiatives using industry best practices​ focused on people and processes, strategic applications, and platform solutions. We also provided a change management dashboard to evaluate the key metrics related to organizational changes and implement change initiatives as per the defined objectives.

We created a feedback loop to assess the benefits realized, identify gaps for course correction, and leverage new opportunities.

Our continuous improvement strategy and initiatives helped the client reduce OpEx by 15%. They also witnessed an 8% increase in the timely delivery of orders within 7 months and a 10% reduction in deployment costs in 3 months.

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