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BPM nieuws - BPM:The Intelligent Assembly Line

An Introduction to Business Process Management and Workflow

In the early 20th century, Henry Ford revolutionized manufacturing when he installed the first moving assembly line at his automotive plant near Detroit, Michigan. However, the assembly line concept had existed for centuries. From the Chinese Terracotta Army, assembled in 210 BCE, to sewing machine and bicycle manufacturing in the mid 1800s, the modern assembly line was the culmination of wildly divergent experiments with interchangeability, creativity, innovation and logic– spurred by technological changes and applied to improve production for competitive advantage.

Assembly lines addressed only the mechanics of processes. Without assessing the value of the overall process, the structure of the workflows that composed the process, or the productivity of the people involved, the benefits of assembly lines were limited to technical improvements. In 1911, The Principles of Scientific Management (also called Taylorism or the Taylor system) began to address the value of processes by analyzing and integrating workflows with the objective of improving labor productivity. Taylorism targeted efficiency improvements by eliminating unnecessary steps and actions and replaced processes based on rules of thumb with precise procedures developed through methodical review. In short, the concept of reinventing production, processes, workflow, and job descriptions through analytical methods supported by available technology (e.g., stable electrical power, accurate machining tools, power-driven conveyers) existed long before the phrase “business process management” (BPM) was ever invented.

Similar to the Industrial Age of the last century, the Information Age has necessitated a new business process paradigm for the 21st century. Rather than optimizing the physical labor needed to produce goods, modern organizations must find ways to optimize the services provided by knowledge workers. Though we are well into the Information Age, knowledge workers can still be found using processes and procedures designed decades ago to produce a physical product, service, or transaction.

Predominantly manual and labor-intensive, most of these processes are based on paper information access, isolated applications with limited data, and wholly discrete outcomes. These conditions are hardly relevant to business processes in the Information Age. Whether tasked with delivering value to the internal organization or to the customer, knowledge workers are saddled with inefficiencies and obsolete preconceptions that seriously diminish their productivity and compromise their company’s ability to compete.

The principles of BPM still apply. In fact, given today’s challenging economic environment, BPM is more relevant than ever. The difference lies not in the practice, but in the premise. Today’s work product is most likely to be digital, content-driven, and multi-threaded. Value, efficiency, and effectiveness are measured in minutes and seconds rather than in hours and days. As maximizing productivity and efficiently using human and technology resources become increasingly vital to corporate survival, BPM as a concept, a practice, and now a set of enabling technologies, offers transformative opportunities to modernize and automate aging processes. Technology is the key to this transformation. Just as technology enabled “Taylorism” in the Industrial Age, it enables BPM for the Information Age.

One of the core technologies that support BPM is the orchestration, or workflow management, engine. This paper discusses several areas that benefit from BPM and workflow engines, and describes how to realize those benefits. Peter Drucker once said “Efficiency is doing things right; effectiveness is doing the right things.” Together, BPM and workflow enable companies to do the right things in the right ways.

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Onderwerpen| BPM, business process management, BPM systemen, bedrijfsprocessen