Jonathan Brock successfully completed her doctorate on the topic of "Systematic approach to increasing the performance of manufacturing processes through process mining" under Prof Dr. Roman Dumitrescu.
Abstract:
Today’s manufacturing is developing into a mass production of customized goods. Approaches like Industry 4.0 generate more data but also increase the complexity in manufacturing. Manufacturers are at risk of losing transparency over their value generation. Process mining (PM) facilitates the capability to display and analyze business processes from a data-driven perspective. However, while PM enjoys a great popularity in administrative processes, it is less frequently used in manufacturing. This is due to various characteristics of the manufacturing environment, such as heterogenous IT-system-architectures or the needed process and data knowledge.
The aim of this thesis is to develop a methodological framework for increasing the performance of manufacturing processes through PM. It is based on the structuring and classification of the term of PM use case in organizations. Additionally, three core components allow for the selection of a relevant PM use case, the execution of PM projects in manufacturing process, and an overall maturity-model-based performance improvement of the PM initiative. Artifacts specially developed for this purpose, such as a PM data canvas or a PM maturity model, are provided. This enables manufacturers to implement relevant PM use cases and to incorporate this experience into the long-term development of their PM activities. The framework is demonstrated using the example production process of a German mechanical and plant engineering company and extensively evaluated.
