Kimitec
Design and implementation of an integrated process management system
The project
Kimitec is a high-growth, cutting-edge Spanish biotech, founder of MAAVi Innovation Center, Europe's largest biotech innovation hub dedicated to natural products that researches, develops, produces and commercialises biopesticides, biostimulants, intelligent fertilisers and probiotics for the agricultural industry for the agricultural industry and natural additives for the food industry.
Kimitec's MAAVi Innovation Center uses biotechnology to obtain natural molecules from various sources, such as botany, microalgae, microorganisms, bioinformatics and waste from the agri-food industry. In the case of waste, they focus on giving it a new life through their upcycling model, transforming it into high-value co-products. These co-products are used in sectors such as food, cosmetics, nutraceuticals, healthcare, packaging, construction, and also in their own biological solutions.
Its value proposition focuses on moving towards a future of zero waste and zero residue, promoting an agri-food system free of synthetic chemicals and completely circular through a business model based on disruptive innovation.
In short, Kimitec makes healthy and environmentally and economically sustainable agricultural and food production possible.
The Almeria-based company currently operates in more than 100 countries, with offices in the United States, Latin America and China, as well as sales offices in Morocco, Hungary, Turkey, Italy, the Baltic countries, Argentina, India, Russia, Australia and France. A global team of passionate, committed and talented people from more than 40 different nationalities who share the company's vision: to change the way food is produced globally.
Kimitec is undergoing a development that requires adapting its operations to have scalable processes to sustain and drive the organisation's rapid growth.
In 2022, Kimitec contacted Izertis with the aim of addressing three lines of action in order to propose a global re-engineering of the company's processes. To this end, Izertis focused on the following points:
- Establishing an integrated process management system.
- Creation and implementation of a corporate organisation and processes office to lead a global re-engineering of the company's processes.
- Identification of a first key strategicprocess to be analysed, in this case the LRP (Lean Research Process) macro-process of cross-cutting projects, in order to analyse, improve and implement it.
- Implementation of a process audit system to ensure effective implementation and to identify opportunities for improvement in case of deviations.
- Establishment of an On-Demand Consultancy service for the analysis and implementation of processes and improvements needed by the organisation.
Challenges
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Define and implement a common process framework. -
Manage change by ensuring the actual adoption of the processes in the organisation. -
Facilitate and ensure communication between the different areas. -
Implementing and monitoring the defined improvement initiatives.
The solution
Izertis proposed the creation of an organisation and processes office which, with the commitment of all the departments and areas involved, would coordinate and implement a process re-engineering of the organisation.
In order to achieve this objective, four main lines of service were proposed:
- Establishment of the basis for an integrated process management system starting from the specific strategy of designing natural and innovative solutions to increase productivity and product quality, being able to have control over the organisation to adapt to changing needs. To this end, a 3-pillar management approach was proposed:
- Processes & Procedures
- People
- Technologies
- Implementation of an organisation and processes office responsible for operational excellence through the assurance of the Integrated Management System and the culture of Continuous Improvement. This office serves as a guide for all the organisation's processes by performing 3 main functions:
- Government
- Operation
- Analysis
- Standardisation & optimisation of the LRP Process as one of the core strategicprocesses of the company, as well as others required by the organisation, developing its own methodology, modelling the flows of activities, tasks, mapping inputs/outputs of each activity, establishing process owners, indicators, responsible and consulted committees, checklists, eliminating inefficiencies and standardising best-practice to provide the greatest value to the External Client.
- To address this line of action, a work route was established starting with a Process Mapping, Workshops, Analysis, Improvement and Implementation.
- Accompaniment and change management for the adoption of new working models and the generation of a culture of Continuous Improvement.
- In this line of action, the Office of Organisation and Processes has a special role to play in providing guidance and support for the accompaniment of the transformation.
In order to tackle this project, a series of tools extracted from process analysis methodologies were gathered in order to attack each aspect of the work to be carried out in the most appropriate way and with the highest quality standards.
On the other hand, we opted for Agile Engineering by waves in which we began to obtain visible results from the fifth month onwards, paralleling the analysis of the new phases of the LRP with the implementation of the improvements identified.
Work was also started on a catalogue of Metrics and KPIs to ensure the subsequent control of the processes.
The result
The main achievements of these two years of service have been:
- Establishment of the Office of Organisation and Processes.
- Standardisation and improvement of the efficiency of processes, providing support to the different areas.
- Contribution to the success of Kimitec's Organisation and Processes Plan in its support service for the management of demands and projects, contributing to the execution of the same in accordance with the established deadlines and scope and meeting the expectations of the different areas.
- Implementation of a 360° change management process including, among other activities, training and capacity building, as well as regular communication for the adoption of management processes and models.
- The design of a collaborative space that serves as a lever for communication between departments to achieve objectives.