Marcus Laumann

Designing IC structures by variety engineering

Value creation increasingly relies on the bundling of physical products and services from different providers in networks such as supply chains. The complexity that arises from this cooperation is of utmost importance for management since the provision of an undisturbed flow of information affects the performance of the whole network. In this paper we develop a method for the analysis and design of information and communication structures. Building on the Design Science Research Framework and using an exemplary case, we show how coordination complexity can be analyzed and measured. The results are combined with theoretical concepts from management cybernetics and create the foundation for the constructed method.

Towards Managing Business Process Variants within Organizations -- An Action Research Study

Understanding the Business Process Standardization (BPS) requirements of the operating model is one important aspect for the adequate design of the underlying Enterprise Architecture (EA). Moreover, the benefits and drawbacks of BPS have been discussed thoroughly in literature and the alignment of business processes and IT is considered to be of high importance for organizations. BPS especially deals with architecting and managing business process variants. However, there are hardly any specific methodologies available on how to identify and evaluate business process variants within organizations and how to properly design processes in this context. In order to close this gap, we develop a bi-directional rigorous procedure model that enables managers to design the organizations business architecture in the BPS context. We apply the developed procedure model and a construct for documenting process variants in an action research study, in order to test their applicability and utility.

Integrating Management Views in Supply Chain Environments — An arvato (Bertelsmann) Business Case

Business integration depends on integrated process relevant information. Based on a business case at arvato (Bertelsmann), Germany, we sketch why and how business information from different supply chain partners should and can be integrated into a global supply chain data warehouse. We are convinced that data warehouses are key components of a business integration IT architecture. Nevertheless, the successful integration of business processes, called business integration, depends on the conceptual integration of processes and management views. To integrate management views on business processes we apply the MetaMIS approach.