Pierre-Alain Millet

Survey paper: A survey on the recent research literature on ERP systems

The research literature on ERP systems has exponentially grown in recent years. In a domain, where new concepts and techniques are constantly introduced, it is therefore, of interest to analyze the recent trends of this literature, which is only partially included in the research papers published. Therefore, we have chosen to primarily analyze the literature of the last 2 years (2003 and 2004), on the basis of a classification according to six categories: implementation of ERP; optimisation of ERP; management through ERP; the ERP software; ERP for supply chain management; case studies. This survey confirms that the research on ERP systems is still a growing field, but has reached some maturity. Different research communities address this area from various points of view. Among the research axes that are now active, we can, especially, notice a growing interest on the post-implementation phase of the projects, on the customization of ERP systems, on the sociological aspects of the implementation, on the interoperability of the ERP with other systems and on the return on investment of the implementations.

A classification for better use of ERP systems

Companies have invested considerable resources in the implementation of enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. The results initially expected have rarely been reached. The optimisation (or efficient use) of such information systems is nowadays becoming a major factor for firms striving to reach their performance objectives. After presenting a synthesis of several studies on ERP projects, we build on the findings of a French investigation into the assessment and optimisation of ERP performance. A classification of company positions regarding their ERP use, based on both software maturity and strategic deployment directions, and an improvement process are proposed. Industrial cases allow validation of this approach.

The SCOR model for the alignment of business processes and information systems

The alignment of business processes and information systems is a critical factor for both business process management (BPM) and enterprise resource planning (ERP) system efficiency. Analysing existing approaches of alignment shows the need for an independent reference model to support the mapping between organisational and informational views. The SCOR model represents a strong management tool to evaluate, control, measure and improve existing supply chain process structures, based on a business process view of supply chain highlighting the functional requirements of best practices identified. We have critically analysed the contribution of the current SCOR model to the alignment of business processes and information systems. As the alignment is currently only based on the functional realisation of best practices, we show that this alignment risks neglecting important process dependencies. An extended reference model is then proposed, including the structuring of information exchanged between processes. That results in a more complete process map highlighting all physical and informational dependencies, in a multi-view of ‘business process mapping’ including the informational dimension, and thus a more precise alignment of ERP systems with processes.

An ontological approach for strategic alignment: a supply chain operations reference case study

Firms cannot be competitive if their business and information technology strategies are not aligned. Yet achieving strategic alignment continues to be a major concern for business executives. A number of alignment models have been proposed in the literature. Enterprise modelling (EM) can deliver models that are understandable by all participants and formalised enough to map the Enterprise Engineering and Reengineering activities directly onto the business process execution. However, models need terms (names, verbs, etc.) to identify and describe the constructs modelled in the EM language used. To share business knowledge, a common modelling language is not sufficient. A common business language is required to share the understanding of any constructs used in the modelling language at a semantic level. The aim of this article is to present the importance of knowledge formalisation for strategic alignment. Our work is based on knowledge contained in a well-known reference model for supply chain: Supply Chain Operations Reference (SCOR) model. To analyse this knowledge, we transform this model into ontology. Finally, we will explore the respective advantages of the different representations of SCOR model (original text, using a business modelling language, ontology), and more generally, the contribution of ontologies as they are becoming a major issue in business modelling.

Toward a model-driven, alignment-oriented ERP methodology

Current methods for project management in the software engineering field consider a project as a process that transforms a specific business need into specific software. The role played by standard applications such as enterprise resource planning (ERP) raises questions about the relationship between the business needs of the company and the conditions required to implement the applications that exist independently of these needs. The historical answers of software engineering to the issue of strategic alignment between business, organization, information system and architecture are not sufficient to support an ERP project. This paper proposes a model-driven ERP project approach, focused on alignment and taking into account models of a companys requirements and models of the capabilities of existing applications and technologies. The companys needs are analyzed as dependent on existing applications. IS (re)engineering then becomes a process of alignment between models of needs, of solutions, of organizations and of contexts. Our engineering project approach supports this idea of alignment as a process of consistency built between partial models, characterizing all of the dependencies between their constructs. We illustrate the construction of this approach with the analysis of three typical cases from our consulting experience, ranging from projects that focus on technical migration to projects that require the complete re-engineering of a business. We then characterize the different situations of alignment between business and technology, for different models set in our modeling framework, taking into account standard business knowledge and applications.

A business repository enrichment process: A case study for manufacturing execution systems

Abstract A key characteristic of the software applications supporting manufacturing business processes is their heterogeneity. This is due not only to differences in their development and deployment, but also to the variety of processes and actors in complex organizations. Heterogeneity at the semantic level is one of the major problems in any process of interoperability and/or integration. There is therefore a need for developing new approaches and methods to ensure interoperability between different software solutions. In the context of a case study with a consortium of MES (Manufacturing Execution Systems) publishers, we propose a semantic alignment process of repositories used in the construction of a MES solution called “MES On Demand”, using multiple applications and driven by business processes. Through the study of semantic heterogeneities, we use an enrichment-based alignment for business repositories applied to ISO/IEC 62264. Finally, we evaluate the contribution of this approach to enterprise maturity in the application of standards and reference models, using Nascio’s Enterprise Architecture Maturity Model. This proposal, which is useful for practitioners and experts, is a contribution to academic study on semantic alignment for master interoperability.

A Method to Create a Process Reference Model Adapted to Heterogeneous Organizations

In some cases there is a need to compare similarities between different process models. For example, given two organizations that offer products or ser- vices with similarities, we would like to know how much they differ from each other. This paper aims at defining a method to create a process reference model, which can be adapted to heterogeneous organizations. In order to construct this, we propose a method using BPMN language and based on the value chain ap- proach. This process reference model issued from heterogeneous structures could enable managers to achieve a more comprehensive and unified vision of their organizations, and promote a coherent monitoring of activities. This work pre- sents a unified method of communication between managers and organizations as well as throughout the structures comprising the organization. It provides a basis to establish an alignment of different structures in term of goals and business process following two axes.

Process Alignment Maturity in Changing Organisations

Companies have invested considerable resources in the implementation of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems, but the outputs are strongly dependent on the process alignment maturity because of continuous change within organisations. Commonly, the initial implementation rarely gives the expected results and the post-project phase becomes of research interest (Section 10.2). Making efficient use of such information systems is nowadays becoming a major factor for firms striving to reach their performance objectives. This is a continuous improvement process where companies learn from failure and success to acquire a “maturity” in information system management. This concerns the mapping of reengineered processes to changing organisations, the set up of software packages and technologic hardware, but also the organisation of roles, skills and responsibilities, performance control through indicators, scorecards, sometimes called “orgware”.

A standard-based business repository for on-demand manufacturing execution systems

Abstract In manufacturing execution system (MES) projects, knowledge is heterogeneous and is applied partially in each software package. Consistency is therefore critical. Some standard business reference models exist, such as the IEC/ISO 62264 standard for MESs (also known as ISA S95), or the Supply Chain Operations Reference model for supply chain planning (SCP) and execution (SCE). These reference models have some overlaps. For example, traceability is part of both MES and SCE packages. A consortium of manufacturing software editors for industry has launched an ‘MES on demand’ platform using services from different packages. This paper presents the enriched business repository model built to facilitate business heterogeneity. It is used to align different business repositories (B–B alignment) and different business and software packages (B–S alignment). It likewise serves to align customer requirements with the repository (B–C alignment). The consortium platform is then ‘S95 compliant’ when knowledge supported by the different actors is included.