Value Stream Mapping (VSM) identifies opportunities for the business

The rapid expansion of one of Latin America's largest agribusinesses has brought new challenges for the company, especially in Commercial Control. The company's growth strategy, which included the opening of new industrial units, significantly increased the volume of contracts and documents to be managed by the department. This context highlighted the need to review internal processes to avoid gaps and ensure the continuity of operations with high efficiency.

The Commercial Control sector now has to manage more than 7,400 documents and contracts related to the purchase of raw materials without having automated tools to carry out these activities. Thus, the analysis, validation and financial execution of these contracts were done manually, consuming a lot of time and resources, as well as increasing the risk of errors.

For this reason, the company hired act digital to conduct a VSM (Value Stream Mapping) project focused on the Commercial Control area. The aim was to identify flaws in the processes and opportunities for automation, and to develop a roadmap of solutions to be prioritized. Besides eliminating manual processes, the approach also sought to integrate systems and workflows to optimize processes as much as possible.

In this article, we will show how the VSM project was crucial for the company to identify the best way to restructure its processes and maximize its results.

Client: leadership in ethanol production and agro-industrial innovation

The company that hired act digital operates in the agro-industrial sector and is undergoing rapid expansion. The company began operations in 2006 with the manufacture of anhydrous and hydrous ethanol, as well as DDGS (Distiller's Dried Grains with Solubles) and corn oil. Today, it has plants in Paraguay and Brazil.

In recent years, the company has experienced exponential growth. This expansion has increased the number of industrial units from one to seven (five plants are already in operation and the other two are under construction).

With a clear mission to transform grains into clean solutions, the company continually invests in verticalizing its products, expanding the technical scope of vegetable oils and developing strategies for producing energy from renewable sources. Today, the agro-industry is recognized as the largest producer of corn ethanol in Latin America.

Challenge: High volumes of documents and manual processes

The main challenge facing the project was concentrated in the Commercial Control area, which is responsible for reviewing, drawing up and managing raw material purchase contracts. Every year, the sector manages more than 7,400 documents, which are analyzed manually.

As the company did not have automated and integrated systems, it was necessary to involve many people in the processes of analyzing these documents. Due to the risk of manual errors, it was common for the same task to be checked or redone several times to avoid failures which, in practice, would represent huge financial losses.

Solution: VSM with a focus on process automation

To tackle the challenges identified in the Commercial Control area, act digital developed a project that included mapping the value chain and proposing the structuring of processes with a view to implementing RPA (Robotic Process Automation) and integrating the company's systems with automated workflows.

The aim of the project was to understand the workflow, identify gaps and opportunities for improvement, and generate a roadmap of priority actions for automation. As a result, the company could make an investment more in line with its real needs.

Methodology adopted

Analysis of the market context (Desk Research)

An in-depth analysis was carried out to understand the market in the corn-based ethanol and biomass industry. This immersion considered the strategic objective set by the company, which is to increase its production capacity in 45% by 2024. Based on this vision, the act digital team led the project, seeking to understand how the growth projection could impact the Commercial Control area.

Analysis of the internal context

Another analysis emphasized the challenges related to obtaining raw materials to better understand the internal context. In this sense, the act digital team focused on assessing how production growth affects the Commercial Control area, considering that all raw material purchase contracts (for corn and biomass) are reviewed by this area.

Individual interviews with stakeholders

Interviews were held with those involved in contract management, which enabled identifying the needs of the area. As a result, it was found that the sector bottlenecks were due to:

• Non-integrated internal systems;
• Lack of traceability of documents;
• Lack of automation;
• Excessive manual review of documents on a daily basis.

It turned out that all of these points hindered contract management and payment flows. In other words, the Commercial Control area was "putting out fires" to resolve urgent requests.

Value Chain Mapping Workshop

A workshop was held with representatives from the areas involved with the aim of mapping out points for optimization and solutions for the main pain points of each journey in the Commercial Control process. At the end, a roadmap was drawn up for implementation and prioritization of the solutions found.

Scenario analysis of solution opportunities

The project came up with 30 mapped solutions, which were analyzed in the matrix of impact (business value) versus effort (complexity). This combined analysis highlighted long-term opportunities with greater complexity (structuring projects) and Quick Wins opportunities (low-complexity improvements that generate value in the short term).

Results: Gains in productivity and operational efficiency

The mapping of the value chain resulted in proposed solutions which, when implemented, will facilitate the process of automating processes in the Commercial Control area, with results that can already be estimated.

Benefits from automation solutions

• Integration with network folders: The reduction in manual search and validation activities for contracts and documents should generate an estimated 10% gain in efficiency;

• Automating data collection on government websites via Application Programming Interfaces (APIs): With the elimination of manual activities, the qualitative result should be an increase in accuracy associated with greater agility in its execution;

• Implementing automated workflows: Standardizing and automating the manual processes of feeding spreadsheets and following up on signatures has an estimated gain of up to 30% in the Commercial Area's weekly efficiency.

How we can help your company

Efficient contract management and process automation are indispensable for companies seeking sustainable growth and innovation. At act digital, we have the necessary experience to conduct processes that provide an understanding of internal operations and the specific needs of companies. Using advanced methodologies such as Service Design and VSM, we are able to identify critical points and opportunities for improvement that drive operational efficiency.

Our work in the agro-industrial sector has shown how a structured approach can transform complex, manual processes into integrated, automated workflows. Starting from a strategic roadmap, we identify solutions that meet both immediate needs and long-term objectives.

Make investments with confidence using VSM to identify the best opportunities for your company. Talk to the experts at act digital!