This chapter argues the use of BPM as the central tool to support next-generation business processes to transform the operations of manufacturers. Next-generation business processes? Dr. Max More, a strategic business futurist, postulates the process-driven enterprise, in the foreword to the book, The Real-Time Enterprise, “The ideal vision of the process-driven RTE is one of companies where information moves without hindrance, and business processes are continuously monitored and trigger rapid reactions, usually automated according to embedded business rules. RTEs also sense shifts in tastes and practices and respond by offering new products and services. Automated processes easily traverse corporate boundaries, time zones, media and systems. Batch processes and manual input are minimized by ensuring that real-time information among employees, customers, partners and suppliers is current and coherent. The Now Economy is the instantaneous, frictionless economy of economists’ legend—the mythical beast that may finally be emerging from the mist. The Now Economy is a web of RTEs that form a virtual supply and demand chain continually seeking information, monitoring, and responding, guided by humans, mostly at the highest strategic level.” A flight of fantasy? I think not, for Dr. More’s vision is indeed possible by harnessing the universal connectivity of the Internet with the emerging category of business software, the business process management system.
This chapter, “Applying Business Process Management Tools in the Manufacturing Enterprise,” is by Michael McClellan from In Search of BPM Excellence. Reprinted with Permission of the Publisher.
