Manufacturing

Manufacturers are continually trying to increase process efficiencies across the diverse functions of their organizations — from product development to manufacturing, distribution, supply chain and customer service. Gaining new visibility into existing processes is only part of the challenge; linking these processes across the enterprise gives organizations the opportunity to break down the silos that exist between supply chains, manufacturing environments, and distribution channels. Though SCM and ERP applications have tried to deliver on these requirements, many manufacturers have turned to BPM to deliver the process efficiency improvements they need.

BPM Opportunity

Manufacturers are increasingly looking to BPM as a platform capable of meeting their process improvement requirements across a variety of operational areas and are realizing the following benefits:

• Gain real-time visibility and control over processes.
  Process performance can be viewed by managers in real-time to reduce bottlenecks and improve productivity.


• Ensure data quality and integrity.
  Process models that actually run the process provide consistency and adherence to manufacturer's business requirements.


• Enable collaboration across and beyond the enterprise.
  Automatic notifications and work routing across departments, outside vendors, and suppliers reduces time, errors and the manual handling of process exceptions.


• Extend the value of existing applications.
  Leverage existing applications like ERP and SCM by filling in the gaps created through more efficient Web-based forms, interfaces and reporting.


• Respond to change faster.
  Revise processes to respond to business or market changes quickly and with minimal impact on the business.

Lombardi In Action

To improve its product shipment process, one global PC manufacturer used Lombardi's BPM platform to reduce the number of products that were sent back to the company after being shipped. Through direct integration to an EAI hub, Lombardi detects return or distressed shipment events and orchestrates efforts by customer care and shipping representatives to
avoid unnecessary product returns. By proactively addressing these events, the company has improved their rate of saved shipments to over 70% and saves several million dollars per quarter in reduced returns.