Applying business process modeling to an engineering design change process

The purpose of this paper is to present the application of business process modeling to an Engineering Design Change (EDC) process in an engineer-to-order manufacturing plant. The primary contributions are the application of process modeling to a non-routine knowledge-based process and the exploration of the representation formalism adopted. In particular, the event-driven process chain (EPC) method was used to define a multi-dimensional process representation including function, data, organization, and control components. Results of the modeling effort are presented and analyzed indicating their relevance in improvement initiatives targeting both manufacturing and service process types. Last, directions for future related research are identified.