Supply Chain & Manufacturing

The manufacturing industry is one sector that is very process dependant and relies heavily on an efficient and responsive supply chain for business success.

Manufacturers are continually trying to increase process efficiencies across the diverse functions of their organizations — from product development to manufacturing, distribution, supply chain and customer service. Gaining new visibility into existing processes is only part of the challenge; linking these processes across the enterprise gives organizations the opportunity to break down the silos that exist between supply chains, manufacturing environments, and distribution channels. Though SCM and ERP applications have tried to deliver on these requirements, many manufacturers have turned to BPM to deliver the process efficiency improvements they need.

Re-engineering business processes for optimised process execution will have significant impact on the supply chain for quick communications with suppliers and shorter manufacturing cycles.

BPM Opportunity

Manufacturers are increasingly looking to BPM as a platform capable of meeting their process improvement requirements across a variety of operational areas and are realizing the following benefits:

• Gain real-time visibility and control over processes.
  Process performance can be viewed by managers in real-time to reduce bottlenecks and improve productivity.
• Ensure data quality and integrity.
  Process models that actually run the process provide consistency and adherence to manufacturer’s business requirements.
• Enable collaboration across and beyond the enterprise.
  Automatic notifications and work routing across departments, outside vendors, and suppliers reduces time, errors and the manual handling of process exceptions.
• Extend the value of existing applications.
  Leverage existing applications like ERP and SCM by filling in the gaps created through more efficient Web-based forms, interfaces and reporting.
• Respond to change faster.
  Revise processes to respond to business or market changes quickly and with minimal impact on the business.