Case Study: Duri Cosmetics Strengthens Interdepartmental Communication Through Groupware Collaboration, Responding to Business Expansion and Export Growth

As exports increase, more small and midsize cosmetics companies are reorganizing interdepartmental collaboration systems to fit the size of their organizations. Behind this trend is export growth.

Duri Cosmetics Co., Ltd. recently expanded the use of its approval forms to respond to business expansion and export growth. The new form includes a consensus function, allowing input from multiple departments to be checked within a single approval document. Duri Cosmetics Co., Ltd. exports to 47 countries and received the $7 million Export Tower in 2022, followed by the $10 million Export Tower in 2023.

Founded in 1998, Duri Cosmetics has grown on the strength of its R&D capabilities based on herbal ingredients. Its flagship brand, 'Daenggimeori,' is a herbal hair care brand that combines traditional Korean herbal wisdom with modern technology, and it holds a patent for its in-house process of decocting more than 30 kinds of medicinal herbs over a long period of time. Duri Cosmetics has recently expanded into areas such as the moisturizing care brand 'Egg Planet,' and since 2018 it has also rapidly expanded its global distribution network after entering Costco in the U.S. and Canada.

As export markets have expanded, business scale has grown, and the need for interdepartmental collaboration has increased, Duri Cosmetics broadened the scope of its approval forms and applied the consensus function at the same time. The expansion of the system was driven by export market growth, business expansion, and the rising need for interdepartmental collaboration.

Accordingly, Duri Cosmetics has enabled the new approval form function to handle drafting, approval, and history management all at once within the system. It also applied the consensus function to matters that require review from multiple departments.

The consensus function replaced the need for separate exchanges of opinions by department. It also made it possible to check reviews and opinions all at once in a single approval document.

Lee Gang-san, team leader in Duri Cosmetics' global business division, said the company is using the consensus line to check opinions from multiple departments. He explained that it became possible to review the necessary departments' comments and opinions in a single approval document, improving clarity in the work process.

At Duri Cosmetics, the expansion of approval forms has broadened groupware use beyond document processing to the mobile environment as well. Lee Gang-san, team leader in Duri Cosmetics' global business division, said that using the BizOffice groupware allows the company to check reviews and opinions from relevant departments in a single approval document, improving clarity in the work process.

Among the areas where groupware is used, the mobile environment stands out in particular. Employees working between the Gunsan factory and Seoul office, among other dual work locations, are quickly sharing and checking work content through messenger.

As a result, tasks that previously required phone calls or in-person confirmation are now being handled quickly. Employees on the production floor, where PC use is difficult, use mobile messenger as a core communication tool.

Team Leader Lee Gang-san said that when holding meetings, necessary materials can be shared immediately using the meeting room ID. As a result, preparing meeting materials has become easier, and brief work reports and progress updates are also being shared quickly by department through messenger.

Duri Cosmetics plans to expand its forms so that mobile approval drafting will be possible in the future. The goal is to maintain approvals and communication even when all employees are absent. The scope of application will cover all employees, including those on the production floor, as the company aims to build a mobile-centered work environment.

This push builds on the experience of operating the groupware 'kt cloud BizOffice' stably for nearly 10 years since 2017, after introducing it to resolve the inconvenience of checking documents in a paper-based work environment. Before adopting groupware, Duri Cosmetics handled approvals and work processes using paper documents.

At the time, when information needed to be checked, it was common to separately contact the relevant department, and the same was true when trying to track the progress of approvals. This awareness of the problem led to the introduction of groupware.

After the introduction, the company has operated electronic approvals, messenger, and schedule management as one integrated system, and the system has run without major issues. This stable operation became the foundation for the recent expansion of approval forms and also for strengthening the consensus function. Photo 3 shows the exterior of Duri Cosmetics' Gunsan plant.

Given the nature of manufacturing, where multiple departments such as product planning, R&D, production, sales, and marketing must work together, Duri Cosmetics operates in an environment where sharing schedules is especially important. The company sees a need for a tool that can support its collaboration system, since poor interdepartmental schedule sharing could disrupt overall operations.

Team Leader Lee said the company chose BizOffice groupware because it prioritized usability that fits naturally into existing work processes and a stable operating environment over more complex functions. Duri Cosmetics uses the scheduling function of the groupware as a core pillar of collaboration.

The calendar screen displays the production schedule and order schedule for the Gunsan plant, allowing employees to check the production schedule at all times. The linked vacation schedule is also used so that department members' leave schedules can be checked on a single screen.

Tasks that require review and approval between departments, such as production, purchasing, and quality, are handled through electronic approval. For matters requiring input from multiple departments, the strengthened consensus line is being used to continue interdepartmental coordination.

Based on stable groupware, Duri Cosmetics is continuously improving how it works. It is expanding approval forms, strengthening the consensus function, and preparing to expand mobile drafting as well. This is not a matter of simply using fixed functions as they are; Duri Cosmetics points to BizOffice's strength in its ability to configure forms tailored to actual work needs. As a result, the number of tasks that will be moved into electronic approval is expected to keep increasing as needed.

Against this backdrop, Duri Cosmetics' case is being cited as a reference example for reorganizing work systems. As there are small and midsize cosmetics companies expanding their organization sizes alongside export market growth, Duri Cosmetics is being presented as an example of how a growing small and midsize cosmetics company can reorganize its work system.

Source: IT DAILY · Kim Ho
Original: https://www.itdaily.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=241644

References

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