Apriso Identifies Need for Global Process Framework to Improve Agility, Efficiency and Profitability

Dec. 6, 2012 - PRLog -- Apriso, the leading provider of manufacturing software solutions, today announced availability of a new white paper by Michael McClellan that presents a compelling case to adopt a process-centric perspective to manufacturing operations management (http://www.apriso.com/solutions/manufacturing_operations_management.php), hereinafter referred to as Production Process Management, based on Business Process Management (BPM) concepts. By adopting this strategy, manufacturers can more efficiently gain efficiency, agility and profitability across their enterprise and associated value chain.

Too often manufacturers take a myopic approach to addressing operational challenges. Instead of fixing problems by adding new IT applications, a better approach is to instead consider if a process change is a better strategy. Manufacturers that establish a process-based platform can address many of the challenges faced while seeking to gain efficiency, reduce costs or increase service levels to their suppliers, partners and end users.

“A process-centric approach is different and promises to have an impact on manufacturing and supply chain agility as great as the Internet has had over the past 15 years,” states Michael McClellan, co-author of Improving Manufacturing Excellence: Managing Production Processes across the Value Chain. “The challenge is to focus neither on data nor the application, but the process as the basic unit of computer-based automation. The idea of systems-of-record must be revisited to view systems-of-process and layers-of-process, to achieve the required goal of becoming more process-centric.”

As the volume of manufacturing data dramatically expands, the value of quickly accessing the right data at the right time has escalated. Data stuck in disparate “application silos” is no longer a viable strategy – access to business and manufacturing intelligence (http://www.apriso.com/products/flexnet_global_manufacturi...) is restricted if data is spread amongst various IT applications. A process-based framework with a common unified data model can solve this challenge.

“The first step to establishing a production process framework is to achieve executive buy in and sponsorship. With this support, the next step is to build a governance capability that might include a steering committee and a process center of excellence, or COE,” explained Chris Will, co-author of Improving Manufacturing Excellence: Managing Production Processes across the Value Chain. “A COE team coupled with a process platform-based solution such as Apriso’s FlexNet can then enable adoption of a process-based organization.”

Access a free copy of this white paper here: Improving Manufacturing Excellence: Managing Production Processes across the Value Chain (http://www.apriso.com/library/white_papers/1207.4_Improvi...).