Configuration Logic of Standard Business Processes for Inter-Company Order Management

Abstract

Today’s manufacturing companies embedded in non-hierarchical production networks are facing multiple and dynamic customer-supplier-relationships. In the course of increasing complexity of products and growing needs for flexibility and product variation companies focus more on core competencies and thus more production processes are shifted to external suppliers. This complex environment leads to growing coordination-efforts and wasteful turbulences throughout the entire network. The result is a delivery reliability of usually less than 65% within the European machinery and equipment industry generating an estimated loss of efficiency of 1 billion Euros per year. Besides additional costs the missing delivery reliability entails poor customer satisfaction and increased lead times compromising the competitiveness of individual companies as well as the entire machinery and equipment industry (Gunasekaran, 2000; Reinhart, 2006).