{"id":1062285,"date":"2025-05-27T14:20:16","date_gmt":"2025-05-27T12:20:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qmarkets.net\/resources\/article\/innovation-forvis-mazars-part-2-copy\/"},"modified":"2025-05-27T16:30:17","modified_gmt":"2025-05-27T14:30:18","slug":"swiss-post-kaizen-innovation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qmarkets.net\/de\/resources\/article\/swiss-post-kaizen-innovation\/","title":{"rendered":"How Swiss Post Unlocked Over 2M Dollars in Quick Wins with a Kaizen-Driven Incremental Innovation Campaign"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Swiss Post is one of Switzerland\u2019s most recognized and trusted institutions, responsible for ensuring the smooth flow of communication, commerce, and essential services across the country. Consistently ranked among the world\u2019s best postal services<\/a> by the Universal Postal Union, the company also has a long-standing reputation for innovation – continually evolving to meet new challenges\u2014most notably the continued decline in traditional letter volumes.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

To stay ahead, Swiss Post has expanded decisively into new sectors, including digital communication services, public transport, and financial services. This shift has deepened its focus on innovation\u2014not as a siloed function, but as a core organizational capability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Swiss Post has been using the Qmarkets innovation management platform<\/a> for 14 years, delivering impressive results across a range of innovation and improvement initiatives. As one of Qmarkets\u2019 longest-standing customers, they\u2019ve consistently helped shape the evolution of the platform (and generated some impressive results in the process<\/a>)\u2014introducing new use cases and creative campaign structures that have pushed its potential further.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More recently, they achieved remarkable results once again through a unique adaptation of the Qmarkets platform to power a nationwide improvement campaign. This success story explores how the initiative was built, how it delivered fast, measurable value\u2014and what other organizations can take from its success.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The outcomes speak for themselves: 202 projects, over 600 improvements, and 2.28m CHF ($2.4 million) in identified savings\u2014all delivered in a matter of weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n

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This success story was developed with insights from Daniel Gygax<\/a> and Agim Emini<\/a>, who played key roles in shaping and executing the Kaizenfluencer initiative at Swiss Post<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Innovation and Idea Management at Swiss Post<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

With a workforce of more than 45,000 employees, Swiss Post operates at a national scale\u2014making the ability to innovate efficiently across departments essential. One of the pillars of the company\u2019s innovation efforts is idea management, which focuses on capturing and implementing employee-driven ideas through structured campaigns and tools. To support this, Swiss Post has adopted a decentralized approach. Each major business unit\u2014including Logistics Services, PostFinance, Digital Services and PostalNetwork\u2014has dedicated idea managers who oversee local initiatives tailored to the needs of their teams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These decentralized teams are supported by a central idea management function which helps align tools and methods, maintain a shared language around innovation, and provide strategic support when needed. Daniel Gygax, an Idea Management Specialist within this central team, plays a key role in coordinating the Qmarkets platform and supporting idea managers across the business in using it effectively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This combination of local empowerment and centralized support has proven essential to scaling innovation efficiently, without overcomplicating the process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Role of Kaizen in Logistics at Swiss Post<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

At Swiss Post, progress isn\u2019t driven only by new products or technology\u2014it also comes from improving the way existing operations run. One of the key approaches here is Kaizen\u2014a structured, bottom-up methodology and philosophy that Swiss Post has been using for more than 10 years and that empowers employees to make practical, measurable improvements in their daily work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rather than relying on top-down initiatives, the Kaizen team encourages staff across more than 100 sites to identify issues, propose solutions, and implement them directly. This mindset of ongoing experimentation and refinement is a defining aspect of how Swiss Post applies Kaizen in logistics, helping the division adapt quickly to new challenges while continuing to deliver high-quality service. This bottom-up approach is strongly supported by leadership, whose role in enabling, guiding, and championing continuous improvement is essential.<\/p>\n\n\n

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This dual-track approach is visualized in this diagram, which outlines how idea campaigns and Kaizen initiatives function in parallel. While both processes start with employee input, the paths diverge: idea campaigns are typically managed and implemented by leadership teams, whereas Kaizen stays closer to the ground\u2014owned and executed by employees themselves within their specific areas of expertise.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Unlike idea campaigns, which are initiated by management and often focus on broader strategic themes, Kaizen is primarily employee-led. Teams are empowered to identify inefficiencies, suggest changes, and implement solutions directly\u2014without waiting for top-down approval. It\u2019s a practical, decentralized model that delivers results quickly and consistently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This structure has become a powerful enabler of adaptability. By embedding Kaizen into daily operations across its logistics network, Swiss Post has built a model that allows teams to act quickly and consistently\u2014an approach that illustrates the potential of Kaizen in logistics when applied at scale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This model reflects a mature, well-established commitment to continuous improvement and operational excellence, underpinned by clear roles, fast feedback loops, and local ownership. It was this foundation that made it possible to launch a new kind of initiative in 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Kaizenfluencer Initiative: The Challenge              <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In late 2023, Swiss Post\u2019s Logistics Services division was given a clear mandate by management: deliver immediate, tangible cost savings across its nationwide network of logistics sites. The target was ambitious: assess operations at 73 locations and implement as many improvements as possible in a short time frame. Initially, the team considered hiring several lean managers to conduct the audits using Word templates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Agim Emini, Quality Manager in the Logistics Services division, was closely involved in shaping the response. Instead of relying on external resources, he and his team looked inward \u2014toward the trained Kaizen experts already embedded across the organization. The idea was simple: empower these employees to visit other sites, conduct structured operational reviews, and record their findings using a digital workflow. The only question was how to manage such a large-scale Kaizen initiative without building a new system from scratch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s when the team realized they could configure their existing Qmarkets platform to support the entire process\u2014transforming what had been an idea management tool into the backbone of a national operational audit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Kaizenfluencer Initiative: The Solution<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The campaign, branded internally as Kaizenfluencer, was launched in under three weeks. It enabled 130 Kaizen experts to conduct structured reviews at sites other than their own\u2014ensuring objectivity, fresh perspectives, and cross-location learning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We didn\u2019t need to buy anything or train new people\u2014we used what we already had in place.<\/strong><\/p>Daniel Gygax<\/strong><\/cite><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Each expert opened a \u2018project\u2019 on the Qmarkets platform representing their audit at a specific location. Within each project, they logged:<\/p>\n\n\n\n