The project degree is written within the department of Industrial Engineering & Management at Uppsala University. The object with this study is to improve the current capabilities of the Internal Collection process at the service credit company Hoist Finance with the improvement methodology Lean Six Sigma and associated DMAIC cycle. In order to find out how the methodology should be adapted a case study and a literature study was carried out. The literature study was about previous research in the area of processes, Lean Six Sigma and the company Hoist Finance. The case study was performed over 4 months at Hoist Finance in the operational excellence team to understand how the methodology should be used on the company. The degree project shows great potential to apply the methodology to improve the process and if the recommendations on how the process should be performed is implemented, the process time can be reduced with 25 days and the costs with 23.34 euros per debt.

Thesis (MBA) --University of Limpopo, 2010

This thesis deals with performance of law protection function and a subsequent recoverability in the field of debt collection. The subject of this work is to compare debt collection effectiveness via judicial proceedings and private entities. Exercise of judicial power is one of the basic functions of the State; however, given the knowledge of the low success of the recovery procedure, it is extended to alternative methods of dispute resolution. Private executors focusing on exercising judicial power, debt collection agencies dealing primarily with extrajudicial debt collection and arbitration facilitating extrajudicial dispute resolution by means of independent arbitrators all provide other means of law enforcement. This work focuses on and analysis of the above mentioned systems and comparison of their effectiveness with regard to their efficiency and success when attempting to protect creditors' rights. The aim of the mentioned comparison is to prove a debt collection efficiency increase caused by an entry of private entities into the market (alternative ways of dispute resolution).

This diploma thesis consists of two parts. The first part deals with theory and practice of credit risk management in non-financial enterprises in the Czech Repulic. The other part focuses on collection agencies - it defines their services, describes legislation that regulates their business, state their advantages and disadvantages in comparison to other ways of collecting debts and provides an analysis of the debt collection agencies market in the Czech Republic based on a questionnaire survey.

The priority of the thesis is to evaluate economic reason for the existence of executors in comparison with current institute of state bailiffs. The thesis further analyzes the powers of executors and their potential misuse in the execution process. Last but not least, the state regulations of this institute are described. The goal is to use general economic theory to find out the effective way of protecting creditor's rights.

Summary of theoretical knowledge in the field of debt management. Definition of receivables from legal, accounting and tax aspects. Stating the procedures used in the management of receivables, collateral, financing and debt collection. Analysis of receivables management in selected company with an emphasis on prevention, insurance and debt collection. Assessment of the situation and proposals of steps to increase labor efficiency claims.

Le créancier qui entame la procédure simplifiée de recouvrement des créances instituée par les Etats de l’OHADA est exposé à des complications processuelles qui tiennent au risque d’inéligibilité à la procédure, au risque de prescription de la créance, au risque de contestation abusive, au risque de nullité du titre injonctif, au risque d’inexécution du titre exécutoire, surtout dans les affaires transfrontalières et dans les contentieux qui touchent les personnes morales de droit public. Ces risques rendent la procédure complexe, longue et coûteuse pour les sociétés commerciales et les institutions financières. La procédure ainsi peinte est également inapplicable pour les artisans, les commerçants et les micro-entreprises qui portent souvent des créances modestes, mais dont la consolidation, à l’échelle des dix-sept Etats de l’OHADA, peut atteindre des milliards. Ces difficultés portent à s’interroger sur la manière dont d’autres Etats ou organisations régionales ont résolu les problèmes qui se posent aujourd’hui aux Etats de l’OHADA. L’étude explore à cette fin le droit de certains pays européens, notamment le droit allemand qui, grâce à sa procédure injonctive, arrive à étudier huit millions de requêtes par an et à accepter 90% des demandes. Les règlements du Parlement européen et du Conseil sur la lutte contre les défauts de paiement constituent aussi un champ d’investigation car, ces instruments abordent des problèmes qui ont échappé au législateur de l’OHADA, notamment ceux qui touchent au besoin de déjudiciarisation, de simplification de la procédure et à la livre-circulation des titres exécutoires dans l’espace l’OHADA. Cette analyse prospective, doublée des enseignements de la pratique, permet de mettre en évidence les « Best Practices » et les réformes nécessaires pour faire de la procédure simplifiée de recouvrement un instrument efficace de lutte contre les retards et les défauts de paiement dans les Etats de l’OHADA. / A creditor who initiates the simplified debt collection procedure established by the OHADA States is exposed to procedural complications that hold on to the risk of ineligibility to the procedure, the risk of prescription of the claim, the risk of abusive dispute, the risk of nullity of injunctive title, the risk of non-execution of the enforceable title, especially in cross-border cases and in litigation affecting legal entities of public law. These risks make the procedure complex, lengthy and costly for corporations and financial institutions. The procedure thus depicted is also inapplicable to craftsmen, traders and micro business that often carry small debts, the consolidation of which, on the scale of the seventeen States of OHADA, can reach billions. These difficulties lead to question oneself how the other States and regional organizations solved the problems now facing the OHADA States. The study explores, for this purpose, the law of some European Parliament and Council’s regulations on the fight against defaults also constitutes a field of investigation because these instruments address the problems that escaped OHADA’s legislator, particularly those relating to the need for diversion, simplifications of procedure and to the free movement of enforceable titles within OHADA. This prospective analysis, coupled with lessons learned from practice, allows to highlight the “Best Practices” and the reforms needed to make of the simplified recovery procedure an effective instrument to fight against delays and defaults to pay in the States OHADA.

The area of individual reclamation of receivables in the form of court-ordered distraints has undergone significant changes since the year 2000. The initial practice, when the claims used to be enforced directly by judicial officers, proved to be largely ineffective and with difficult to apply. The Ministry of Justice has responded by adopting an amendment to the Act (Act no. 120/2001 Coll., on bailiffs and executor activities), which introduced the independent bailiff offices. Then, the law itself understood the bailiff authorities as a separate entrepreneurs. Currently, in the Czech Republic, there can be seen the distribution of the market with distraints according to the Pareto rule. Approximately 20% of bailiff offices manage over 80% of distraints. It is obvious that this is an unsatisfactory condition for the majority of bailiff offices. In response to this fact, the Czech Chamber of Bailiff offices calls for the introduction of territoriality, which would eliminate by law the market environment from the market with distraints and every single bailiff office would have a stable allocation of distraint proceedings. The analysis carried out clearly shows that there are significant differences between bailiff offices in terms of speed and in success of the debt recovery. The actual demand for the introduction of territoriality would not merely be a reallocation of the market with distraints. Putting it into a practice would greatly influence the transactional costs of business and non-business entities in the Czech economy. The thesis comprehensively describes the issue of territoriality and quantifies how much the debt collection will decrease in case of its introduction. In the conclusion, an alternative draft is formulated, which might, according to the author, allow effective regulation and supervision of the activities of bailiffs' offices without compromising the inherent efficiency of the reclamation of receivables in terms of market environment.

This work is devoted to issues of law and ensure the enforcement of claims in commercial contractual relationships. Due emphasis was placed on individual ways of ensuring, in particular on the grounds that well-secured claims subsequently facilitate the recovery process.

The thesis has been involved in the receivables management in a selected business corporation, namely management of trade account receivables. Measures, the application of which should improve the situation in the selected company, are proposed with regard to the development and status of receivables at the reporting period.