Florian Johannsen

A Six Sigma approach for integrated solutions

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to develop a proposed Six Sigma approach for integrated solutions of goods and services.Design/methodology/approach – This conceptual paper follows the principles of design research in developing a Six Sigma approach for integrated solutions. The approach is tested in practice in the context of a financial services company in the automotive industry.Findings – The study demonstrates that the differential characteristics of service processes and manufacturing processes must be taken into account when developing a Six Sigma approach for integrated solutions. Evaluation of the proposed approach in cooperation with a financial services company reveals considerable benefits.Research limitations/implications – The detailed description of the approach is limited to the “Define” phase of the Six Sigma program. Moreover, the proposed approach is tested in only one setting; its application in other settings should be an objective for future research.Practical implications – Th...

Six sigma as a business process management method in services: analysis of the key application problems

Apart from being applied in production, Six Sigma has grown considerably in importance as a business process management (BPM) method in services. The transfer of the method from production to service applications does, however, pose problems which affect the success of implementing Six Sigma as a BPM method in services. For a successful application of the Six Sigma method in services it is helpful to know these possible problems in order to be able to avoid them and to achieve the goals of Six Sigma improvement projects. In addition from a theoretical view knowing the problems is a first step for further development of the Six Sigma method. Therefore, the present article deals with the following questions: which key problems regarding the application of Six Sigma in services are mentioned in the literature and which phases of the Six Sigma cycle can they be assigned to? The existing literature on this subject is reviewed and a qualitative content analysis of its contents is presented. Additionally, a survey based on the problems found in the literature is conducted to compare theory and practice. The evaluation of the results shows, on the one hand, that to date the problems of the application of Six Sigma in services have little been dealt with. On the other hand the evaluation provides a survey of the problems structured in accordance to the phases of the Six Sigma cycle. Thus, the present paper offers new findings as regards the state-of-the-art of the Six Sigma method.

Wand and Weber’s Decomposition Model in the Context of Business Process Modeling

Whereas the benefits of decomposing process models are obvious, the question what actually characterizes a “good” decomposition of a business process model has been given little attention to date. In addition, the process of decomposition itself is considered as being an “art” in literature. Our approach for achieving a “good” decomposition is Wand and Weber’s decomposition model for information systems. As a first step in our investigation we aim to explore in how far the decomposition model can be adapted for business process modeling at all. The potential this model might bear for evaluating decompositions of process models has been promoted in literature quite often, while a corresponding investigation is still missing. We address this gap by the following research. In the long term, we intend to establish guidelines for decomposing business process models in a structured way.

Implementing Six Sigma for Improving Business Processes at an Automotive Bank

Today, in the eyes of both customers and suppliers, product-related financial services take an eminent position. This does also apply to the automotive industry and its financial service providers (e.g. automotive banks). As a consequence, quality management and especially business process improvement methods (e.g. Six Sigma) attract growing attention in financial services. Above all, the Six Sigma approach is being increasingly discussed in both literature and practice. This chapter is the result of the prototypical implementation of Six Sigma at an automotive bank; the focus is on the selection and the combination of quality techniques used at an automotive bank which are the crucial points of the successful implementation.

A Knowledge Perspective on Big Data by Joining Enterprise Modeling and Data Analyses

In this paper we discuss how knowledge management can contribute to the analysis of big data by joining enterprise modeling methods with data analyses. The goal of this approach is to enable the seamless interaction and exchange of information between knowledge-oriented representations as provided by enterprise modeling on the one hand and methods for analyzing data on the other hand. For the realization of the approach we revert to techniques of metamodeling. These permit to describe the necessary extensions of enterprise modeling methods and implement them as IT-based tools using metamodeling platforms. For evaluating the feasibility of our approach we describe a generic implementation using the ADOxx metamodeling platform and the R toolkit. In addition, we discuss the application to a use case from the area of business process improvement and the according implementation within the ADOxx-based RUPERT tool.

RUPERT: A Modelling Tool for Supporting Business Process Improvement Initiatives

Business process improvement (BPI) will be a high priority topic for CEOs in the near future. Currently available BPI approaches, however, lack means for adequately codifying, documenting and processing knowledge created in a BPI project. Therefore we developed RUPERT (Regensburg University Process Excellence and Reengineering Toolkit), which is a tool for managing knowledge in a BPI project, covering all stages of the knowledge lifecycle. In this paper, we describe the design and implementation of RUPERT.

Wand and Weber's good decomposition conditions for BPMN : An interpretation and differences to Event-Driven Process Chains

– The purpose of this paper is to specify the decomposition conditions of Wand and Weber for the Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN). Therefore, an interpretation of the conditions for BPMN is derived and compared to a specification of the conditions for enhanced Event-Driven Process Chains (eEPCs). Based on these results, guidelines for a conformance check of BPMN and eEPC models with the decomposition conditions are shown. Further, guidelines for decomposition are formulated for BPMN models. The usability of the decomposition guidelines is tested with modelling experts. , – An approach building on a representational mapping is used for specifying the decomposition conditions. Therefore, ontological constructs of the Bunge-Wand-Weber ontology are mapped to corresponding modelling constructs and an interpretation of the decomposition conditions for BPMN is derived. Guidelines for a conformance check are then defined. Based on these results, decomposition guidelines are formulated. Their usability is tested in interviews. , – The research shows that the decomposition conditions stemming from the information systems discipline can be transferred to business process modelling. However, the interpretation of the decomposition conditions depends on specific characteristics of a modelling language. Based on a thorough specification of the conditions, it is possible to derive guidelines for a conformance check of process models with the conditions. In addition, guidelines for decomposition are developed and tested. In the study, these are perceived as understandable and helpful by experts. , – Research approaches based on representational mappings are subjected to subjectivity. However, by having three researchers performing the approach independently, subjectivity can be mitigated. Further, only ten experts participated in the usability test, which is therefore to be considered as a first step in a more comprising evaluation. , – This paper provides the process modeller with guidelines enabling a conformance check of BPMN and eEPC process models with the decomposition conditions. Further, guidelines for decomposing BPMN models are introduced. , – This paper is the first to specify Wand and Webers decomposition conditions for process modelling with BPMN. A comparison to eEPCs shows, that the ontological expressiveness influences the interpretation of the conditions. Further, guidelines for decomposing BPMN models as well as for checking their adherence to the decomposition conditions are presented.

Supporting Business Process Improvement Through a Modeling Tool

Business process improvement (BPI) ranks among the topics of highest priority in modern organizations. However, considering the rapidly changing customer requirements in times of high market transparency and the increasing collaboration between organizations, the development of BPI projects has become very challenging. Implicit process knowledge from diverse process participants needs to be elicited and transformed into improvement opportunities. In this context, the results achieved need to be properly documented, communicated and processed throughout a company. To face these challenges, we introduce the so-called BPI roadmap which is a concept for systematically performing BPI initiatives based on a set of easy-to-use and proven BPI techniques. Further, tool support is established allowing the efficient codification of results via conceptual model types, the easy sharing of the outcomes and the automatic generation of reports.

Meta Modeling for Business Process Improvement

Conducting business process improvement (BPI) initiatives is a topic of high priority for today’s companies. However, performing BPI projects has become challenging. This is due to rapidly changing customer requirements and an increase of inter-organizational business processes, which need to be considered from an end-to-end perspective. In addition, traditional BPI approaches are more and more perceived as overly complex and too resource-consuming in practice. Against this background, the paper proposes a BPI roadmap, which is an approach for systematically performing BPI projects and serves practitioners’ needs for manageable BPI methods. Based on this BPI roadmap, a domain-specific conceptual modeling method (DSMM) has been developed. The DSMM supports the efficient documentation and communication of the results that emerge during the application of the roadmap. Thus, conceptual modeling acts as a means for purposefully codifying the outcomes of a BPI project. Furthermore, a corresponding software prototype has been implemented using a meta modeling platform to assess the technical feasibility of the approach. Finally, the usability of the prototype has been empirically evaluated.

Process-related value propositions of enterprise social media use for the external communication with end consumers

The purpose of this paper is to identify process-related value propositions in terms of process execution when using enterprise social media (ESM) for external communication purposes. Additionally, capabilities of ESM technologies to realize the value propositions are identified.,A literature review of case studies, describing ESM usage for external communication purposes, is performed. Further, face-to-face interviews with employees from companies are conducted to complement the findings retrieved from the literature.,It is shown that manifold process-related value propositions for different business processes can be realized by ESM application for external communication purposes. However, certain value propositions and the corresponding capabilities of ESM technologies are particularly emphasized.,This research is different from existing studies about ESM usage because an explicit perspective on business processes is taken. Therefore, the findings contribute to the existing body of knowledge of beneficial ESM usage. Analyzing the literature and interview transcripts underlies a certain amount of subjectivity, a circumstance addressed by engaging two researchers in the coding procedure.,Practitioners discussing potentials of ESM application are provided with concrete hints as to which business processes will most likely profit from the use of social technologies for the external communication with customers.,This paper contributes to a better understanding of the beneficial impact of social technologies on business processes and thus prepares the ground for a better alignment of ESM and processes. An extensive overview of value propositions for a company’s business processes has so far not been compiled in this form.