Wide Area Workflow Management in practical application

Abstract

In mid 1996 the author and his research team started doing the case studies, which are described in Chapter 2 and in the following sections. At that time, the management of both companies surveyed was strongly of the opinion that the processes dealt with here should be improved. The wave of business process reengineering (BPR) was about at its peak. Project teams had been formed and there was much hope that new information technology would help to remove major inefficiencies soon. In initial meetings, the time frames needed for the implementation of improved procedures was estimated to be around 18 months. It is astonishing that this estimated time frame was the same for both the brewery (IB) and the lighting manufacturer (LLM), since the areas of optimization are of a very different nature.