Business Process Management « Daily PLM Think Tank Blog

PLM and Multi-domain business processes.

September 3, 2009

I’d like to continue the topic I started yesterday in my post “PLM vs. ERP: Demand for Business Process”. Even from the small amount of comments I’ve got from yesterday, my impression is that there is no agreed position about how PLM and ERP related to business processes and what are their roles in the establishment of organization business processes. I think, there is a significant consensus with regards to ERP and Business Processes. At the same time, I think a role of PLM in a business process is not as agreed.

My topic today is about “Multi-domain” processes. I don’t think this term is widely used and agree, but I think, it reflects quite well a company situation. As a background, from my view, there are several organizational and business trends.

1. Business becomes more connected. In the today business situation, number of connections, communication and dependencies inside of organization are growing exponentially. Business becomes much leaner, agile and this is required to work more efficiently and, therefore, need of connections becomes obvious.

2. Organization activity needs to be optimized independent on boundaries of business systems. Companies accumulated huge amount of separate systems and operate them for the particular needs in the specific situations, scenarios and needs. These applications and systems were built in different time and almost always are not connected.

3. Process-oriented systems can provide a solution by connect people from various domains. Growing trend in understanding how business process systems and technologies can help to streamline business and support overall corporate operation is growing. We had chance to see signs of growing BPM even during a current turbulent time.

So, I think to establish cross domain business processes can be very beneficial for an organization. However, I see multiple problems that prevent business from do so.

1. Application boundaries. Most of the enterprise applications we have today were developed with a specific business domain in mind. Historically, application focused and improved their functionality and experience in the specific domain. Issues related to communication of application with external systems were considered as complex and in most cases companies were investing in consulting and professional services to establish cross-boundary work and integration.

2. Business silos. This is an organizational problem. Business units, departments in many cases are separate and operate independently or in very loose control mode. To establish horizontal business relationships in an organization is another challenge.

3. Multiple systems. This is one of the most serious problems, in my view. Historically, company implemented lots of systems they are using for business needs. To connect this system zoo in something that can work together is very difficult. There are some positive movements related to SOA technologies we can see during last few years, but situation remained very complex.

So, what is a special role of PLM? I see in cross-domain business processes. Product Lifecycle Management, by nature is a discipline that creates a large amount of connection between different aspects of product development in an organization. Today, to establish and maintain these connections and interops is one of the most complicated business and technological problem in PLM. If PLM will be able to invest and/or cooperate with process management technologies and products, it will create a process-level foundation for enterprise system connections around product development. From the technological standpoint, I think, PLM needs to invest in processes technologies and openness to make cross-domain processes happen.

How do you see business process support related to product development organized in your company? Do you think, such PLM approach can improve your current situation with process development and will make your organization leaner?

Best, Oleg.

17 Comments | Business Process Management, Daily PLM Think Tank, PLM and organization | Tagged: BPM, Cross-Domain, PLM, Process Management | Permalink
Posted by olegshilovitsky

PLM vs. ERP: Demand for Business Process

September 2, 2009

I want to start today with twitter quote “PLM vs ERP – ERP a transactional system, not suited to manage development of product, integration of all info such as ingredients”. Well, PLM/PDM vs. ERP discussion is old, and I remember it for the last 10-15 years or even more… However, I’d expect some changes in this non-stop confrontation.

The original capabilities of PLM and ERP came respectfully out of their business roots – CAD Design/Data Management for PLM and manufacturing transaction from MRP/MRPII/ERP. However, both domains had demands to grow and make an expansion in organizations. PLM is looking for attractive domains such as requirements, manufacturing, supply chain. ERP is interested to expand toward product development. Both system domains (PLM and ERP) are looking how to establish connected space for enterprise organization business. So, how to achieve it?

I think, very interesting is that both classes of systems are very in favor of business processes. Even if PLM and ERP have a different notion of business processes, I’d say Business Processes can provide good synergy between both systems. PLM traditionally focused on very high level of people involvement in processes. Human based and hybrid processes is something that PLM requires. On the opposite side, ERP is focusing on automation and streamline of processes in organizations.

I think vendors on both (PLM and ERP) sides need to look very pro-actively how adopt Business Process Management technologies. This will be the key to success in organizations. From a technological standpoint, maturity of standards like BPMN and BPEL can provide a solid technological foundation for this work. But, at the same time, both PLM and ERP need to worry about growing capabilities of dedicated BPM vendors. They can take an attractive $$$ from aged PLM and ERP providers and establish strong BPM leadership in organization. I wrote about this in my previous PLM prompt.

So, what is my conclusion today? Business process have strong demand from both sides- PLM and ERP. The road toward successful BPM implementation can be very bumpy for PLM and ERP. Need to watch it out. Multiple vendors can still business and establish success business in front of enterprise behemoths.

What do you think about it? What are your practices with regards to process management in organization?

Best, Oleg

28 Comments | Business Process Management, Collaboration, Daily PLM Think Tank, PLM+ERP | Tagged: business process, ERP, PLM | Permalink
Posted by olegshilovitsky

PLM Prompt: PLM and the rise of Business Process Management

August 29, 2009

I was reading Gartner research showing that BPM (Business Process Management) is rising despite the turbulent time and bad financial situation.

“Gartner Survey Shows More Than Half ofRespondents Plan to Increase Spending on BPM by More Than 5 Percent inNext 12 Months. Most business process management (BPM) practitioners expect their organizations to increase their spending on BPM by at least 5 percent over the next 12 months, according to recent surveys by Gartner, Inc. Despite economic turbulence, more than half of those surveyed plan to increase their spending on BPM efforts by more than 5 percent, and over a third of respondents plan to increase BPM spending by more than 10 percent”.

I found it as a significant danger for Product Lifecycle Management. PLM is trying to grow outside of engineering domains and focus on global enterprise process and collaboration. This is exact place where PLM can meet BPM vendors… So 10% BPM growth can be projected on potential $$$ loses of enterprise PLM vendors.

Just my thoughts, Good weekend! Oleg.

8 Comments | Business Process Management, PLM Prompt, Technology | Tagged: BPM, PLM, Process Management | Permalink
Posted by olegshilovitsky

How PLM can use power of BPM rising stars?

August 20, 2009

The following article “The State of BPM: Poised to Take Off” drove my attention few days ago and took me to think about BPM and PLM intersection. Recession can spur business growth. In the Business Process Management (BPM) space, current recession presented major marketing opportunity to come to customers and IT that looking to cut cost. BPM can be easy double their numbers in the next coming years. BPM community shows signs of growth and development. Examples: pure BPM player Global 360, significantly upgrade their offering in July-2009, IBM significantly upgraded their WebSphere product line. In addition, Software AG, major German BPM player announced acquisition of BPM IT consulting firm IDS Scheer for almost $700M. Some BPM background. There are three main groups of Business Process Management vendors: 1/Integration centric; 2/Human Centric; 3/Document Centric. The BPM market, initially dominated by few pure BPM players, have changed. At the same time, pure BPM business is much smaller in comparison to an overall PLM market. However, if we will compare Process Oriented PLM offering (excluding parts of PLM such as CAD, CAE etc.) we can see very compatible numbers.

Do you think BPM may have positive impact on Product Lifecycle Management business? Yes, I can see this opportunity. Here my top 3 “why” PLM can use power of BPM providers to improve PLM position in organization in current turbulent time.

1. Re-use well-developed BPM technologies

BPM vendors today grew up to demonstrate tools and technological infrastructure on a very matured level that everybody can use. BPM platforms became part of general IT infrastructure, especially by big IT vendors (IBM and Oracle) entered this market.

2. Optimization of IT infrastructure

How many process technologies do you need in your organization? If today’s economies, people cannot keep two systems to manage business processes, therefore PLM and BPM have an opportunity to present IT cost saving by unification of process infrastructure.

3. Jump to the cloud based space.

There is a good chance for BPM to become part of private cloud infrastructure for organizations. Tight re-use of BPM technologies in BPM can help to PLM companies to make their cloud shift.

So, what is my conclusion? The BPM boom, in my view, is only matter of time. Everyone wants to streamline and optimize processes. So, BPM is not luxury anymore. PLM could be potential interested in re-use of BPM technologies to increase adoption and span product oriented processes across organization. I see very sensitive situation in today’s PLM process oriented offerings by trying to re-develop or ignore BPM suites and technologies. The potential shift can come from customer’s side by trying to implement and integrate BPM and PLM products together.

Just my thoughts.
Best, Oleg

2 Comments | Business Process Management, Daily PLM Think Tank, Technology | Tagged: BPM, PLM, Process Technologies, Trends | Permalink
Posted by olegshilovitsky

What is the right time to implement PLM Workflow and Processes?

July 23, 2009

Every time I’ve been talking with customers about processes, work flows and PLM, the conclusion was that one of the important factors of process implementation is to choose right timing. You need to have company ready to think about process improvements. So, the point was very clear – to change business processes in organization is not simple. To make it happen you need to have all stakeholders on board and do it with timing, which will be aligned with overall organizational changes.

In today’s turbulent time, many companies are thinking about rationalization, improvement and changes. So, I think this should be right time for companies to think about PLM processes in organization. I want to propose a possible 3-steps plan to achieve it.

Step 1: Make analyses of existing organizational processes. To focus on these processes that require improvement first. Capture existing process definitions with process/workflow tools you have in your PLM systems.

Step 2: Plan your data and IP management for these processes. Your processes and workflow can work efficiently only in the case they will have access to the right data. Without accessing right data, your processes will not reflect reality, and you will not be able to follow them as well as use them for your decision support. So, by creating right data modeling and/or connecting PLM system to right sources of data, you will prepare solid basement for good process orchestration.

Step 3: Optimize and run your process/workflow environment. As soon as you existing processesand data in your hands, you can start planning process optimization and executing. This is time when you will need to analyze captured processes, make improvement and right first pilot and second production environment.

What is my short conclusion? Use right timing, capture and improve your PLM related workflows and processes now. You will be able to optimize your organization now and be prepared for future growth.

2 Comments | Business Process Management, PLM Daily Think Tank | Tagged: Improvement, PLM, Process, Workflow | Permalink
Posted by olegshilovitsky

How to increase “Business Process Technology” Adoption Rate for PLM

July 8, 2009

One of the things I see very important is user adoption. We can develop brilliant technologies, but if nobody uses it, the value of these technologies will be very low. I see Process Technologies as very important for the Product Lifecycle development… One of the problems I see today is that there is inconsistence between the definition of the Process and its usage.

I think definition side of “process technologies” works very well. We can define who is doing what and when, how information is flowing and many other details. But as soon as we start this process, many things change. People move, new tasks and changes appear, and at the end it’s not easy to understand what is going on, how to execute, monitor and manage the changes in this process. Therefore, at the end, many of processes slap and become very formal or less usable. So, what can we do in order to prevent it?

I’d propose three steps that can improve Business Process Technology adoption:

Flattering Processes Definition. A process needs to become more modular, simple and changeable.
Simplification of the User Interface. We need to remove complexity. Simple… Actually, users need a list of tasks to perform on daily basis and a list of follow up tasks. We need to massively use mobile and other alternative communications and collaboration tools to allow users to follow up the processes.
Flexibility and Change. Changes will come very fast. Life and organizational processes are really dynamic. Process implementation must allow managing those changes. It should be easy-to-make step. We need to be able to re-assign people, change/cancel tasks and to change the process itself.

So, what do you think?

12 Comments | Business Process Management, Daily PLM Think Tank, User Experience | Tagged: Adoption, BPM, PLM, Process Technology | Permalink
Posted by olegshilovitsky

PLM vs. BPM or What do you think about IBM PDIF?

July 2, 2009

In one of my previous posts, I raised the question if PLM needs to develop its own process tools. Looking at the few announcements made by IBM and Siemens PLM, I asked myself the following question again: Where is PLM going regarding the implementation of Business Process Management (BPM) and SOA related frameworks? For the moment, I have more questions than answer, but my basic assumptions follow:

From the PLM standpoint, business processes (or collaborative business processes) are a significant portion of what enterprise PLM does.
There are about 100 companies in the world that are doing something more or less associated with Business Process Management (analysts normally talk about 10-20 top players).
Pure BPM players are rarely involved into PLM implementations; PLM companies normally provide workflow and process functionality by themselves.

Comparing PLM and BPM process capabilities, I have concluded that:

PLM provides a very good product-oriented workflow, but is relatively weak in enterprise functions and administration, and other middleware components.
The BPM offering is always more agile and more generic compared to PLM business processes.
BPM normally provides connectivity adapters… and for PLM products too.

The very interesting piece of IBM PDIF framework is related to IBM Web Sphere Process Server and additional process-oriented middleware components. I wonder what combination of PLM software from Siemens PLM will support the process components of PDIF and how they will work together. Similar frameworks are available with other big enterprise stakeholders such as Microsoft, SAP, and Oracle. How can their respectful products provide similar functionality?

Speaking broadly about PLM and BPM, I found the following questions interesting.

Will PLM follow the traditional path and continue to develop BPM components to make their PLM Process technologies stronger?
Will PLM vendors be interested in the acquisition of one of the available BPM pure players to get more “process stuff” on board?
Will PLM adjust more to the BPM capabilities of large enterprise and platform vendors?

I look forward to your comments and opinions.

6 Comments | Business Process Management, Daily PLM Think Tank, Technology | Tagged: BPM, IBM PDIF, PLM, Process Management | Permalink
Posted by olegshilovitsky

Process Thinking with the Development of Social Collaborative Business Processes for PLM

March 6, 2009

I’ve been thinking about how a company can use business process tools to manage their processes. In one of my previous posts, “How to improve PLM process before PLM system using BPMN,” I discussed the possibility of using process tools supporting BPMN to capture business processes in the organization. One of the key ideas in this post was that you can use BPMN tools to capture process definition, and later, to implement these processes using tools and systems you already have in your organization. PLM and dedicated BPMS products are systems that can be used for this process implementation.

When I started to think about how process capturing may occur, I came to the conclusion that the business process capturing process is very painful for an organization. As for product development in a manufacturing organization, this process can differ greatly from organization to organization. So process capturing is natural step for the organization when they implement Product Lifecycle Management and create a collaborative business process environment.

What we can do to change this? One of the ways is to reuse the practice of social networking and crowdsourcing for process capturing. My key point in formulating this conclusion is that process development knowledge in an organization is spread over many departments – engineering, manufacturing and others. It is very problematic to have people efficiently involved in capturing their existing processes – too many people, too much time… Also, people are busy running their businesses and claim not to have time for processes capturing. Allowing all people in the organization to be involved in ‘capturing processes’ which I refer to as “Process Thinking” changes the rules of the game. With everyone involved, people are able to do multiple reviews. Step-by-step adjustments can make a significant change in the product development process implementation for PLM. In addition, this process can improve people’s process adoption. Socially created processes will reflect the existing processes accurately. Afterwards business process management tools can optimize and improve existing processes.

How can we make this happen practically? The answer probably comes from software providers. What if process tools were to support a staged process of continuous process changes? Each person would be able to adjust the process to reflect the way people manage their work. Allowing everyone to vote and approve process changes will let all people be involved in the process definition possible right from the beginning. Another important achievement would be an increased trust in the process definition – normally, people trust something more if they were a part of it and defined it collaboratively together.

I believe that you may have some experience in this by trying to centralize the definition and approval of processes. However, making process definition open and transparent for all people in the organization can allow PLM companies to leapfrog the overall adoption of PLM systems in an organization.

1 Comment | Business Process Management, Collaboration, Daily PLM Think Tank, Technology | Tagged: business process, Process Management, Social Software | Permalink
Posted by olegshilovitsky

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Daily PLM Think Tank Blog

PLM and Multi-domain business processes.

PLM vs. ERP: Demand for Business Process

PLM Prompt: PLM and the rise of Business Process Management

How PLM can use power of BPM rising stars?

What is the right time to implement PLM Workflow and Processes?

How to increase “Business Process Technology” Adoption Rate for PLM

PLM vs. BPM or What do you think about IBM PDIF?

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