We are on the threshold of realizing a big dream for IT in manufacturing: systems that can reflect and support our best-practice activities as they change. This is coming not a moment too soon. The post-recession “new normal” of constant change and volatility, plus an array of business pressures, will require such capability.
Many companies are using systems that were built on the concept of business process reengineering, and they’ve created IT support processes that are not easy to change. In many cases, these systems cannot accommodate data flows between applications that don’t share a core database. Today, manufacturers need process innovation to enable new business models — and information technology to support those changing processes.
You need the ability to configure, connect, and reconfigure data flows to match the business process exactly. Services-oriented architecture (SOA) is a foundation for this. And you need to ensure a timely, reliable information exchange between the systems and the people involved. Business process management (BPM) does this. At the same time, you need to know immediately when a process diverges from its “happy path” and to take action either automatically or with human intervention. This alerting is the domain of business activity monitoring (BAM).
Several approaches can help you achieve this level of agility, and they are not mutually exclusive. Some manufacturers are seeing benefits from IT and application platforms and composite applications or mash-ups — alone or in combination.