Mojca Indihar Štemberger

Process Approach to Supply Chain Integration

Purpose: Business renovation, the effective utilisation of information technology and the role of business process modelling and simulation are all vital in supply chain integration projects. The main idea is to show through a combination of these methods how the performance of the supply chain can be improved with the renovation and integration of processes at various tiers in the chain and by the sharing of information between companies.Methodology/Approach: Simulation-based methodology for measuring the benefits of the creation and renovation of business process models combines the methodology of developing process models and its simulation with the simulation of supply and demand. A procurement process in the oil/retail petrol industry is examined in a case study.Findings: Using the proposed methodology, different business process models can be investigated and simulated. The benefits for each company involved in the presented case are substantial and can be estimated through a simulation. Substantial benefits in costs, quality and lead times were identified, however, their distribution is not symmetric. Inter-organisational IS and applied technology were enablers for supply chain integration. However, organisational changes and new business models were prerequisites for obtaining those benefits.Practical implications: The process approach to supply chain integration presents a mechanism that can be applied to any industry. It represents a systematic methodological business renovation approach involving cost cuts, quality improvements and lead time improvements. The costs of supply chain integration projects were not studied. The benefits should be measured against the cost of testing the economic feasibility of such projects.Originality/value of paper: The effective utilisation of business process modelling and a simulation of the necessary business renovation is shown. The novel combination of business process and demand/supply simulation enables an estimation of changes in lead-times, process execution costs, quality of the process and inventory costs. Although the methodology is presented through a case study of the oil/retail petrol industry, it can also be used to estimate the benefits and monitor supply chain integration projects in other industries.

A global investigation of key turning points in business process maturity

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to report on the results of research into the precedence of the maturity factors, or key turning points in business process maturity (BPM) implementation efforts. A key turning point is a component of BPM that stabilizes within an organization and leads to the next maturity level.Design/methodology/approach – Several years of data from over 1,000 companies in the USA, Europe, China, and Brazil that have completed a BPM assessment are analyzed to identify which components of BPM stabilize, when and in what order. Different analysis methods are employed in order to identify global commonalities and differences.Findings – The paper identifies key turning points from several different perspectives using several different approaches and develops some conclusions common to all methods used in this research.Research limitations/implications – The relationship between the components (dependencies) is only suggested but not statistically analyzed. Several data sets are also o...

Towards E-government by business process change-A methodology for public sector

E-government is becoming extremely important, however, it cannot be successfully implemented without changes in business processes that are performed inside governmental institutions. Public sector has some specifics, which make renovation projects considerably different. It is clear that radical changes in the execution of business processes and in the organizational structures are not suitable because they are not possible for many reasons. Therefore, classic business process change methodologies have to be adapted. This paper presents such methodology that has been successfully applied in a process change project at one of the Slovene Ministries, which is presented as a case study. Activities, techniques, and tools are proposed for each of the six traditional business process change projects stages.

Achieving top management support with business knowledge and role of IT/IS personnel

The business-IT gap is still present in many companies and IT/IS professionals often impute the responsibility for this to management and claim they lack top managements support for their initiatives. The aim of this paper is to show how IT/IS personnel can achieve top management support. Based on more than 50 in-depth interviews with CIOs and CEOs in the last 10 years we hypothesize that top management support can be attained with the business and managerial knowledge and skills of IT/IS personnel as well as with the business-oriented role of the IT/IS department. The impact was empirically tested via structural equation modeling (SEM) using data from 152 Slovenian companies with more than 50 employees. Based on findings some implications for top managers and IT/IS professionals are given, especially for CIOs, on how IT/IS personnel can contribute to bridging the gap.

Assessment of E-Business Transformation Using Simulation Modeling:

Business renovation is a key aspect of electronic business and a high-level strategy for managing change that generally cannot be handled by continuous improvement and organizational restructuring methods. Business process modeling and the evaluation of different alternative scenarios for improvement are usually the driving factors of the business reengineering process. This study investigates business process simulation as a tool for deriving new knowledge about current business processes, such as additional in-depth understanding of how the process is executed and identifying sources of the problems observed during the process execution. The main objective of the paper is to investigate the potential benefits and outcomes of e-business transitioning that can be assessed in advance by using simulation modeling. An example is presented of how simulation modeling can be used to understand a procurement process and evaluate how the proposed improvements and the introduction of electronic business will influence system performance.

Adoption of Business Process Orientation Practices: Slovenian and Croatian Survey

Adoption of Business Process Orientation Practices: Slovenian and Croatian Survey Process orientation has been empirically linked to corporate performance. Several studies have shown that more process oriented companies perform better than less process oriented companies. Consequently, many researchers attempted to define what makes a company process oriented, which resulted in numerous frameworks and conceptualizations of process orientation. Based on concepts of business process orientation (BPO) the authors have developed and operationalised a concept of extended BPO to study its adoption in two countries, one EU member and one a candidate for EU membership (Slovenia and Croatia, respectively). Extensive field study has been carried out in these countries. The results of the analysis show that there are many statistically significant differences, namely companies in Slovenia have implemented process oriented practices to a higher degree than their counterparts in Croatia. The paper shows the main differences in BPO areas and practices.

The Impact of Business Process Orientation on Organizational Performance

The extensive literature on business process management suggests that organizations can enhance their overall performance by adopting a process view of business. It has been shown in previous studies that the companies which have reached higher business process maturity level consistently outperform those that have not reached them. The paper presents the results of the empirical research that confirms the impact of business process orientation on organizational performance in transition economy by using structural equation modeling. The link is even stronger than in the original investigation. Besides that more detailed specification of organizational performance that includes non-financial performance measures has been used. The results show that business process orientation leads to better non-financial performance and indirectly to better financial performance.

A Methodology for Increasing Business Process Maturity in Public Sector

Non-profit organizations such as public sector organizations have some specifics, which make renovation projects significantly different. It is clear that radical changes in the execution of business processes and in the organizational structures are not suitable for the public sector because they are not possible for many, also political, reasons. A business process change in public sector mostly means unification of business processes, automation of some activities and elimination of some unnecessary ones. Organizational changes are achievable only to a certain limit. Therefore classic business process renovation methodologies have to be adapted. The proposed methodology that is presented in the paper has been successfully applied in a process change project at one of the Slovene Ministries, which is presented as a case study. Activities, techniques, and tools are proposed for each of the six traditional business process change project’s stages. Problems and topics to which special attention has to be paid are also discussed.

Absorptive Capacity as a Precondition for Business Process Improvement

Improving organizational performance by redesigning business processes and supporting them with a proper information system is a daunting challenge. We analyze the possibilities of business process management in general and in the healthcare sector in particular. The role of business process modeling as a way to increase an organizations absorptive capacity is analyzed. A longitudinal case study of a European public healthcare insurance company identifies the factors either increasing or hindering absorptive capacity. The case presents that the dilemma between radical and incremental approach to improve business processes is somehow artificial since the radicalness of changes depends on the difference between the absorptive capacity and the extent of the proposed changes. The paper shows that business process management projects should not merely focus on the development of methodologically correct models, but should be used as an opportunity to increase the absorptive capacity of an organization.

Business Process Management Software Selection - Two Case Studies

Abstract The interest in business processes management (BPM) is intense among practitioners and scholars and is still growing. Many business process management software (BPMS) tools that are used to serve a variety of applications in BPM are on the market and it is quite difficult to select the appropriate one. The paper presents a flexible method for BPMS selection, which can be applied in different companies and for various project types because the selection criteria are connected to project goals and critical success factors. The method has been developed on the basis of relevant literature and practical experience in BPM projects. It is based on Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) method. The applicability of proposed method is demonstrated with two case studies that are also used to analyse and discuss it.