Multi-Department Approval Workflow Automation
Purchase requisitions required 5-7 sequential approvals that took 2-3 weeks, blocking operational purchases
Context
Manufacturing company with 200 employees across production, procurement, finance, and operations departments. Purchase requisitions over $500 required approvals from department manager, procurement, finance, and operations director. Approval process was email-based: requester sent email, each approver forwarded to next, no tracking or visibility. Average approval time: 2-3 weeks. Urgent operational purchases (repair parts, materials) delayed due to approval bottlenecks. Finance team spent 2 days weekly tracking down approval status via email searches. No audit trail—couldn't determine who approved what or when.
The Real Problem
Email-based approval process had no structure—approvers didn't know if they were next in chain, sometimes skipped steps. No visibility into approval status—requester didn't know where requisition was stuck. Approval routing wasn't consistent—same type of requisition might follow different paths depending on who initiated it. Time delays: approvers checked email irregularly, requisitions sat in inboxes for days. No enforcement of approval rules—some requisitions approved out of order or by wrong person. Urgent purchases couldn't bypass slow approval process—had to wait same 2-3 weeks as routine purchases. Off-the-shelf workflow tools were too complex for simple approval needs, or too generic to handle department-specific rules. Budget constraint: enterprise workflow platforms were expensive. User constraint: approvers resistant to learning new complex systems.