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Question 1

So with this type of model structure -- all steps in one EPC -- how do you reuse parts, globalize, etc?  Whether this is an IT type model or a business process model reuse and globalization need to be considered.  Let's say that our Brazil region for whatever government regulation needs to add three steps.  How do you represent this?  Also, say we operate in 20 countries and all 20 have their own couple of steps that "have to be" included.  How is this handled?

Question 2

I would be very interested to hear how others are handling the situation Ms. Ellen Kahler refers to?   Or a little more detail on what Mr. Pinaki Ghosh refers to as variance models? We have the same situation in our organization, where we've tried to split our processes into "re-usable" pieces in order to achieve an End-to-End view of a larger process.  This means sections of the E2E process are reused by multiple other processes - sometimes it's a straight "plug & play" and sometimes a few steps need to be adjusted/tweaked.  Is there a "best practice" way to achieve this - both in how you represent it on the EPC, as well as how you organize your group structure?

I received to questions which are quite similar. I have faced this situation couple of times so based on my experience here are the solutions.

I will use few terms

  1. Processes
  2. Sub processes
  3. SAP and Non SAP processes (using Solman or not using Solman)
  4. Tenant Organization

We have to look at the processes according to the point of control for example there is a Engineering Design Release Process and it is a global process. It has the following potential users Product life cycle Management (PLM), Manufacturing, Costing (finance), Engineering Change Order Group, MDM group, PDM (Product Data Management), Inventory Control Planning, Production Planning (8 groups)

Now this situation can easily become very complicated since if the company has operations in 20 countries and each of them has a little bit of a different process for each of the above users then we are looking at maintaining 160 processes just for this one set of activity.

So this is what you do – every processes has a best known method (BKM) which is maintained by the COE. This BKM is an EPC which is published by the COE and audit groups use it for general audits. In this process there are some steps (which are associated to risk and compliance) which every branch has to follow (does not matter where you are). These are designated by an attribute symbol.

Then there are process steps which are not mandatory or country specific. These mandatory step objects are stored in enterprise object library which is owned by the COE. The local groups create there own processes by using variance copy but for mandatory objects they use the same objects. For local objects they use tenant objects which are not in the enterprise library but in their local folders. They can change the attributes of the local object but not the mandatory objects.  This works very well if the control is very tight and the organization is CMMI level 3 or above.

When organizations are not so matured they will have a common process called “Engineering Design Release “. The COE will also release a BKM but that is where it stops. It has no control over the branches or tenant organizations. These tenant organizations can adopt the BKM or create their own processes. But then the question comes how to bring them into compliance. Well the answer is simple – show them the measurement – every process will have some KPIs with them and that shows how the performance is measure and trust me they will start following your process. The other way is to show the risk and corresponding compliance. The tenant or branch org can follow any process they want but they have to mitigate those risks. It is more than likely they will follow your process because they know they will be audited against those risks.

For SAP it is different ball game because in Solution Manager you will have the global template and implementation projects. You can follow the same principal as mentioned above. So at the end of the day it is all about the controls. If you show where you are measuring then organizations will automatically comply.

I have seen in my experience , breaking up processes in modular processes etc are quite tiring and difficult but controlling it through KPIs is much easier because at the end it is the behavior which you are trying to control. The real challenge is cultural because in some countries they will never say "no" and in some country the first answer is "no" and in at least one country everything is driven by "hope". (could not resist the joke).

You can also have a process called "Engineering Design Release" and assigned to it is " Engineering Design Release_CountryX, Engineering Design Release_CountryY etc) but the question is what value do you gain from it.

by Ellen Kahler
Posted on Tue, 09/13/2011 - 19:49

What is the benefit from introducing another model -- BKM (Best Know Method) if no one uses it?

Say, Process A has Steps 1, 2 & 3

Most regions do Steps 1, 2 & 3 however, Region 1 does all steps however adds 4 before step 3 is done.  Why not store Step 4 in a Region 1 folder and Process Interface to/from it?

If we need to know all the special steps that Region 1 completes they are all stored in the Region 1 folder.

Likewise, say Region 2 does all the steps (1, 2, 3) extept adds step 5 before step 3.  Again, why not store Step 5 in a Region 2 folder and process Interface to/from it?

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