Reducing lead time in the banking industry: an experimental approach to the loan granting process

Abstract

This paper presents the results of a project aimed at reducing loan applications lead time within the loan granting process of an Italian bank. The loan granting process has been modelled by means of a simulation model and the impact of five factors has been studied: i.e. first, the dispatching rule adopted to manage the queues of loan applications; second, the automation degree of the process; third, the priority of the loan granting activities with respect to the others; fourth, the decision system and therefore the loan applications transfer system; fifth, the demand level. Results show that all the considered factors have a significant impact on loan applications lead time. Furthermore, the decision process and the loan applications transfer system is by far the most effective factor to reduce the lead times. Finally, the new proposed decentralised and asynchronous decision system allows the reduction of the average loan applications lead time by around 50% with reference to the traditional system.

Keywords:

• lead time
• simulation
• service industry
• process redesign