Relationship Between ERP and process management

Process Management is the foundation of enterprise management, while [B] ERP [/B] is an information process that uses information technology, process Management runs through [B] ERP [/B] and always [B]. [/B] relationship between ERP and process management

Now in the Age of ERP, it is no longer a good topic for enterprises and academia to use ERP. Followed by a series of high slogans such as "Popularization of ERP", "personalization of ERP", and "Putting ERP to the end. While admiring the courage of the ERP implementers, we should support the "ERP business" with the utmost enthusiasm. After all, it is a "full participation" undertaking.

In the process of ERP application, enterprises have the joy of success and the pain of failure. For the time being, we do not need to discuss the success or failure of enterprise ERP applications, let alone the hero of success or failure, because every ERP application always has a very practical problem to solve: how can enterprises after ERP is launched better integrate ERP with their business processes to improve system efficiency?

For a long time, the existence of ERP has doomed its origins with bpm (Business Process Management, on the one hand, it is the conflict and break-in between the inherent process of the ERP system and the existing organization and process change of the enterprise; on the other hand, with the deep application and research of the enterprise and software vendors in ERP, the requirements for integration and automation are in conflict with the ERP function-oriented transaction processing system, which lacks effective control and management over the entire business process, in the continuous process management and optimization, enterprises also put forward challenges and requirements for the flexibility and adaptability of ERP systems. At present, many ERP vendors have also considered workflow systems as part of their products, and some vendors have proposed solutions for integrating OA or bpm with ERP on this basis. Process Management is the foundation of enterprise management, while ERP is an information process that uses information technology. No matter what solution is used, close links between BPM and ERP cannot be ignored.

[B] [/B] [B] [/B] [/B] [B] "[/B] [B] [/B] [/B] [B]" [/B] [B] is not in the same category, how to integrate? How to combine and optimize it? This seems unrealistic, but integration is more necessary for this reason. [/B] [B] [/B]

[B] BPM [/B] [B] and [/B] [B] ERP [/B] [B], how to integrate? [/B]

Let's take the BPM abbreviation of Enterprise Process Management apart. B, P, and m respectively refer to the business, business process, and enterprise management of the enterprise. Although the scope is very broad, but one thing is always inseparable-the organization's business, because only by improving the profit source of the organization's business can we talk about the Organization's performance and development. In this case, the optimization and value-added of enterprise processes constitute the core of the entire bpm.

ERP involves the enterprise's people, finance, things, production, supply, sales, etc. The content is rich and complex, so far, ERP has reached a new stage-ERP ⅱ, which not only deepens the connotation of ERP but also expands the extension of ERP, from the past limitations to the enterprise's internal resources to the enterprise's external, suppliers and customers are more closely linked, gradually blurring the Supply Chain Management (SCM) and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) in this way, the concept of ERP community is also formed.

If BPM and ERP are classified based on structured and unstructured data as well as data and non-data, BPM reflects the characteristics of non-structured and non-data, ERP reflects the strong structural and data features. How can we integrate these two categories that cannot be "touched" together? How to combine and optimize it? This seems unrealistic, but integration is more necessary for this reason. Obviously, there is a prerequisite for integration between BPM and ERP.

So what is the premise of BPM and ERP integration? There are at least six prerequisites:

L organizations have the willingness to integrate;

L good internal organization environment and corporate culture;

L determination and driving force of the Organization's top managers;

L pragmatic, professional, and efficient process "Diagnosis and Treatment" teams, including external experts and internal business backbone;

L The process may be constantly optimized;

L platform-Based ERP system.

[B] [/B] [B] integration of ERP [/B] [B] and [/B] [B] BPM [/B] [B, it is closely related to the organizational structure, organizational processes, and [/B] [B] ERP [/B] [B] software processes. [/B] [B] [/B]

[B] process management throughout [/B] [B] ERP [/B] [B] [/B]

• ² [B] enterprise '[/B] [B] la' [/B]

I remember that when I first went to Hangzhou, there was no need to mention the beautiful scenery in Hangzhou. People I Want To Know can feel it. what impressed me more is that the road in Hangzhou is smooth and the car is driving fast, besides, it was Sunday. The normal elements we think of as fast as driving are wide roads, gentle terrain, low traffic, fewer vehicles, and a large number of traffic police. However, this is the opposite of the actual situation in Hangzhou. The roads in Hangzhou, especially the West Lake, are narrow. The roads in Hangzhou are mostly fluctuating while in Hangzhou, they are tourist cities, there is a lot of traffic, and there is no way to go. But why is the road so smooth? I think this is closely related to Hangzhou's urban planning and overall urban development layout, that is, the overall architecture.

Whether the process of an organization is closely integrated with the application of the ERP system is the first reason to check whether the structure of the Organization is reasonable. We know that the strategic direction of an organization determines its business model. The business model determines the organizational structure, and the process belongs to the organizational structure. That is to say, whether process management is good or not, and whether the organization can pay enough attention to process management, the direct deciding factor is the organizational structure. As we have mentioned above, the example of "Why are Hangzhou roads so smooth?" shows that Hangzhou's urban layout and urban planning are like the architecture of enterprise organizations, traffic flow and Flow flow are like organizational processes. The factors that directly affect smooth roads are Hangzhou's urban architecture and layout planning, only a reasonable layout and architecture can fundamentally change the organizational process.

As we all know, changes or optimizations to organizational processes have roughly gone through three stages of development, namely, process reengineering, BPI, and BPM. From these three stages, we can see that the industry has been researching and exploring better ways and means for the work of organizational processes. However, whether it is the reform, optimization, or management of organizational processes, changes to the organizational process are not easy to implement and do well. One important reason is that the change process often needs to influence or affect the organizational structure.

To this end, some organizations have set up a separate "Process Management Department" or "Process Management Specialist" when considering the architecture and setting up functional departments, in addition, the organizational model centered on functional departments is gradually reduced. For example, in the organizational structure of a famous home appliance group, a "Process Management Specialist" is set up in the Operation Management Department to improve the overall operational efficiency of the Organization, specifically handles enterprise process matters such as the formulation, modification, and optimization of organizational processes. The direct leadership of the "Process Management Specialist" is the manager of the Operation Management Department. The direct report of the manager of the Operation Management Department is the president of the group. Therefore, modern organizations often define "Process Management Department" or "Process Management Specialist" in their organizational structures as an integral part of the overall architecture, it provides an ever-optimized possibility and vision for the integration of BPM and ERP in an organization.

While enterprises are constantly changing and adjusting their organizations, the ERP architecture is also changing. If ERP was previously implemented to solidify the enterprise management process, ERP will take into account the development based on the process direction in the future, making it solutions more flexible and ready to adapt to changes in the enterprise's organizational structure, at that time, BPM will become the "heart" of the ERP solution ". Of course, this requires a long period of discussion and application practices.

• 2 [B] ERP [/B] [B] and organizational process [/B]

In fact, the biggest challenge for enterprises and their IT systems comes from their business processes. High uncertainty is one of the essential features of an enterprise's processes. At present, most enterprise processes have become an integral part of the business environment. This is not obtained through careful planning, but is just a natural response to doing well. Enterprise processes generally run through the enterprise system. The process strengthens the relationship between the system and individual employees in the enterprise. In addition, the process is usually adjusted according to certain rules to meet the requirements of new customers and new business environments.

To enable better integration between BPM and ERP, enterprises should consider the following points in the organizational process:

L cultivate organizational process management awareness and formulate feasible processes;

L enterprise leadership should first realize the value of process optimization;

L within a certain period of time, the organizational process should be relatively fixed;

L all members of an organization should keep in mind every process of the Organization, which is one of the guarantees of continuous improvement in work efficiency;

L process is not a system. Do not make Process Management a standard for enterprise management;

L regard process management as an optimization of the process, especially to differentiate the differences before and after process changes.

"Clear objectives, in place, and continuous optimization" throughout the Organization's BPM and ERP integration. Throughout the process, the process awareness of the entire organization, the relatively fixed and feasible processes, the value of process optimization, how to measure the process optimization, and the process-based ERP are all issues that need to be paid attention.

We can consider the following three aspects: changes to enterprise business processes adapt to ERP system processes, changes to ERP system processes adapt to enterprise business processes, enterprise business processes and ERP system processes have been modified to achieve the purpose of integrated optimization.

We know that from the early order point method to the Enterprise Resource Planning Management System, in the process of ERP formation and development, there is always a core that is to reduce costs and increase profits. The rationality and feasibility of the process of the Organization in procurement, R & D, design, production, sales, storage and transportation directly affect the value of the entire organization. In fact, there are one or more problems with advanced ERP systems or excellent organizations.

A transformer manufacturer has successfully launched an ERP software and found that some enterprise processes cannot be implemented in ERP. For example, "After receiving a batch of sales orders, the transformer manufacturer must ensure the timely delivery of transformer products required by the customer, the Planning Department should conduct planning decomposition, the purchasing department should prepare materials, the production department should arrange production, and prepare for production. When the production task was not completed to a certain extent, the Sales Department received the second batch of sales orders, however, the delivery time required by the second batch of sales orders is earlier than that of the previous batch of orders being organized for production. In fact, the production capacity of the transformer manufacturer is limited, production of these two batches of orders cannot be organized at the same time. In order to meet the delivery date requirements of the second batch of orders, the manual solution is to stop the first batch of unfinished order products in actual production and switch to the second batch of Order Production in the Organization, there is a conflict between the processes required in order processing or the processes required in actual production and the processes that ERP can achieve ". Why is this happening? We can do the following analysis: Do transformer manufacturers often encounter this situation? Is it necessary for the sales department to approve the contract and receive the order? Do sales and production departments often communicate and communicate with each other? Can the half-finished products in the first batch of orders being produced be directly used as the half-finished products in the second batch of orders? Can I add machine devices and workers? Can I negotiate with the customer to modify the delivery date? Can the entire production process be shortened? Can the production process be reduced ?......

The solution to these problems can be considered from changing the company's original business process, changing the ERP system process, or changing both. To change the business process of an enterprise, we can consider optimizing the entire enterprise's supply chain or optimizing and adjusting one of the sales, production, R & D, and procurement, for example, the subitem of order approval in the sales process is used as the starting point for optimization and adjustment. For how to change the ERP system process, on the one hand, the design concept of the ERP system, the architecture of the entire ERP system, whether the business process can be flexibly configured, whether the secondary development or customization can be convenient are all considered as ERP systems; for business processes or ERP system processes that are particularly complex or difficult to be optimized unilaterally, you can make appropriate adjustments to both of them.

• 2 [B] process engine and new-generation ERP [/B]

[B] [/B] the contradiction between the personalization of enterprise management and the relatively fixed functions of traditional ERP systems is the biggest problem facing enterprise informatization.

Michael Hammer defines a process as a series of business activities, but in traditional ERP, we can only see activities, rather than processes. Therefore, in traditional ERP, we cannot see how a business is completed at the end? Who are participants? How does each link work together in tasks? What resources does this process occupy? How much performance has this process created? How to evaluate the performance of this process? How can we evaluate the relationship between a process and other processes? How can we further improve these processes? These problems need to be considered in the new generation of ERP. The so-called process-driven ERP is relative to the data-driven traditional ERP. The essential difference between the two is that the business activities of traditional ERP are actually bound with the data model, the business activities of the new generation ERP are bound with the process model. 1. The business activities of the new generation of ERP are linked with the business processes, business processing, business data, and organizational structure, and the process is pulled to the user interface of each node through a unified process-driven engine. In this way, you can directly process the process on the "common process" interface, or view the processing status of the relevant process.

Figure 1 new generation ERP

So how can a new generation of ERP respond on demand?

Support custom business documents;

The workflow can be flexibly defined and adjusted as needed;

Support secondary development of partners and customers through software platform tools.

In the next-generation ERP system, process administrators can manage business processes using a visualized process configurator.

The process administrator manages four process elements: "activity", "Route", "Audit Unit", and "flow line ". "Activity" corresponds to various business activities, such as Bill of Lading maintenance and credential maintenance; "Route" corresponds to the process condition judgment, such: after the maintenance of the database migration ticket, the transportation ticket may be maintained or the warehouse picking ticket may be maintained. The judgment here is based on the "Route", and the "Review Unit" reviews the process; "flow line" is the corresponding flow direction. With the rational configuration of these four elements, a new business activity flow can be formed, which is simple and clear. Comprehensive Business Process Management 2 is shown.

Figure 2 Comprehensive Business Process Management

In recent years, a survey has been conducted by European and American countries on enterprises. The results show that 80% of companies that already have ERP and other information systems report that if they have a chance to re-Execute ERP, they will first optimize the production and management processes. The company's understanding of the process is no longer a new topic. However, why are there still so many enterprises looking back at the pain points of Process Optimization after implementing ERP? This survey not only reflects enterprises' lack of understanding about the process before implementing ERP, but also reminds us that not only does the survey show that, before implementing ERP, we should all realize that business process management is never a permanent task. What enterprises really need is a sense of continuous optimization. For ERP software vendors and implementation consultants, the exploration of process management and ERP application is still long.

AMT-Enterprise Resource Management Research Center