Nicolas Volck, AG2R La Mondiale

Managing a complex digital project with obeya

Here is a unique opportunity to visit a real-life obeya! In 2014, Nicolas, improvement leader with AG2R LA MONDIALE, a large mutual insurance group, proposed the obeya approach to improve project management in the company through team collaboration. He launched the pilot project with Isabelle, project director, who has accepted to share her own obeya with you. Nicolas will act as a manager visiting Isabelle's obeya.

Isabelle has been managing a highly critical project for her company for the past few months: automating the processing of employer contributions for social insurance. This is one major strategic step towards the digital transformation of her company. Isabelle's challenge? Deliver a new system company-wide by January 2016, as imposed by French regulation. The risks? Any delay might cause costly penalties and loss of customers. The context? a complex architecture, over 15 teams involved, near-shored development centers, a clearly defined budget and not 1 more euro to spend, and a typical silo organisation to work with. Come see how she uses the obeya to help her face this huge challenge in order to deliver the right product on time and within budget.

Biography: After an experience with the Six Sigma methodology in a global industry, Nicolas wrote one of the first critical approaches to Six Sigma. He joined AG2R LA MONDIALE (insurance company) as a process improvement specialist, where he led and coached improvement projects, involving more than 500 people in Back Offices, IT processes, and in the product design process. He is now improvement leader at AG2R LA MONDIALE. In 2014, he proposed the obeya approach to improve project management in the company and launched the pilot project with Isabelle. He is currently recruiting and launching the new Lean team to address the Digital Transformation challenges in a services environment.