5 Process Mining Articles for Process Excellence Leaders Looking to Unlock Hidden Potential

Processes lie at the core of enterprise execution. If you’re in the business of process excellence, you already know that streamlining and optimizing your processes across departments — from finance to supply chain and beyond — is the key to success.

The reality is that rigid and fragmented systems often throw a wrench into corporate growth and success. Only by identifying and eliminating inefficiencies can you save both money and time and maximize performance.

Previously that meant hours spent in process mapping workshops and on subjective customer interviews. Enter Process Mining — the keystone of the Celonis Execution Management System (EMS). Process Mining technology is rightfully gaining a lot of traction in process excellence circles. It’s the talk of the town right now when it comes to maximizing the capacity of your processes and driving better outcomes.

No more whiteboards. No more sticky notes. Just objective, actionable insights that will save your company millions as you move from manual process mapping to automatic process mining and get full, real-time visibility into how your processes actually run.

With that said, here are five must-read articles for process professionals looking to unlock potential in real-time and activate their corporate X-ray vision.

1. NYT: How to Get an Essential Product to Market, Stat

At the start of the pandemic, Houston-based Ascend Performance Materials launched a customer-centered product line after finding a market in PPE designed to help limit the spread of COVID-19. The company used Celonis Process Mining — the technology at the heart of the EMS — to zoom in on its supply chain, unlock enhanced visibility, and solve problems as or even before they arose.

“There’s what I call a ‘hidden factory’ in most businesses, meaning the unofficial loops and blocks going on in the background,” said Debbie Keehn, Ascend’s chief supply chain officer. “It can be very inefficient and require a lot of brute force to process an order. Celonis was instrumental in allowing us to replace the chaos of this hidden factory with smooth, efficient processes.”

Read this article to get a comprehensive overview of how Process Mining helped Ascend successfully launch three new product lines in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

2. CNN: The Anatomy of Inefficiency

This CNN article highlights the gaps between average performing and top performing businesses to capture the value of Process Mining when it comes to breaking through bottlenecks and optimizing process performance.

Let’s zoom in on Purchase Orders for a moment to unpack the differences companies experience when it comes to execution capacity — the average Purchase Order (PO) costs $15 to process. But top tier companies are only spending about $1.35. Using Process Mining, companies can gain complete visibility over their processes and identify opportunities to bring that cost down, for example — like eliminating unnecessary manual rework.

Read more about how you can maximize corporate capacity and become a top performer by mining your processes across departments like Accounts Payable, Order Management, and Accounts Receivable.

3. Wired: An intelligent approach to execution management

According to Southard Jones, vice president of product marketing at Celonis, processes, execution and corporate success are all linked.

“Ninety-nine percent of business success is good execution,” he said. “And good business execution is intrinsically tied to your core processes — the way you run your business day-to-day.”

Check out this article to read more about why combining process mining, machine learning, and automation — as the EMS does — could help you identify and unlock at least $10 million currently trapped inside your systems.

4. WSJ: The Truth Lies Within

If you’re a process excellence expert, you know that inefficiencies are hampering your KPIs and hurting your working capital. The issue isn’t knowing there’s a problem — it’s knowing where and why it’s happening and what to do about it before it starts costing you.

As we’ve established by now, this is where Process Mining can help. With a clear, real-time visualization of your processes based on the data in your underlying systems, you can filter through different process variations and noise to get to the root of the problems slowing down your corporate performance.

Check out this Wall Street Journal article to gain a better understanding of how Process Mining can help you streamline your order-to-cash and purchase-to-pay processes — and how multinational giant AB InBev benefited from doing just that.

5. WSJ: You're an executive. So, how's your execution management?

We live in a fast-paced, digital world with an ever-changing market. To function at full capacity, companies and their leadership must lean into automated processes to optimize their business models and enhance productivity.

Still, automation isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution to inefficiencies.

The Celonis Execution Management System lets companies like Dell Technologies combine Process Mining, machine learning and automation to help people be more effective in their day-to-day tasks. Click here to read more about how Dell Technologies uses Celonis to enhance its customer service operations — and how Process Mining is the essential first step to effective execution management.

Tap Into Hidden Treasure With Process Mining

After reading these articles you’ll be throwing out those sticky notes and whiteboards and starting your deep dive into Process Mining. It’s time to play smarter, not harder, to drive better outcomes.

Ready to go from zero to Process Mining? Join our live demo.

Anna Cincotta

Content Marketing Associate