5 steps to get started with Process Intelligence in your supply chain

Supply chains are as close to ideal candidates as we could possibly dream up for Process Intelligence. They’re mega-processes made up of many smaller processes, and every single process has the potential to be reshaped and optimized through Process Intelligence.

But — assuming you’re interested in making Process Intelligence work for your Supply Chain — how do you actually get started? Where do you even begin?

Try following these five steps to start and scale Process Intelligence for your supply chain enterprise, all based on tried and true learnings from some of Celonis’ most successful Supply Chain clients.

STEP 1: Get the lay of the (process) land.

Because of how interconnected you are with both suppliers and customers, businesses working within supply chains can frequently be geographically spread-out and idiosyncratic in processes from department to department.

This leads to complicated processes that may take some work to understand — so if you’re interested in bringing Process Intelligence to your business, begin with an idea of an area in which it may be most effective, and then, get digging. What processes within that area are mature enough to analyze and improve? What do the digital twins for your target processes look like, and what aspects or paths surprise you?

Insider tip: Though the most complex processes in your enterprise may be the ones most in need of Process Intelligence, they’ll be the toughest to start any process transformation initiative with, especially if process mining is new to your teams. For example: If your delivery process is constantly backlogged, depends on lots of outside factors, and seems too overwhelming for anyone to untangle, you can and should transform it with Process Intelligence down the road — but it may not be suitable as an entry point. Your initial deployment should focus on a process with readily-available data and minimal external influences so that change can be affected as simply and quickly as possible.

STEP 2: Train your team and acquire allies.

While you’re investigating your existing processes and choosing an entry point, make sure people at your organization are on board with Process Intelligence and ready to start learning how to use it. Most companies start with a small team for their proof of concept.

Celonis’ Process Intelligence Graph is system-agnostic and compatible with nearly any software you use (yes, even your ultra-specialized inventory management system or your older ERP!), from the factory floor to the back office. But anyone involved in your Process Intelligence implementation will need the time, motivation, and curiosity to learn how to actually use process mining software — so don’t skimp on time and resources for training your team.

Insider tip: Thoughtfully recruit allies for your Process Intelligence projects across levels and departments as well as within the high-level supervisory ranks of your organization. A common refrain from many of the live supply chain sessions at Celosphere 2023 was that executive sponsorship is essential to a lasting, effective process mining implementation. Your CTO, for example, may not need to learn to use process mining software firsthand, but you should make sure they understand its transformative potential for your work in supply chains so they can vouch for you if/when needed.

STEP 3: Choose a starter process that sets you up for success.

We’ve heard one thing from businesses again and again: a quick win with real value tied to it is key to getting any long-term Process Intelligence initiative off the ground. And for many supply chain enterprises, the best place to get that first win has proven to be in an area that’s full of opportunities for optimization: Order Management.

Order Management (OM) is one of the places where Celonis customers often find many snags in their processes that are causing issues. For example:

• Some companies’ processes for prioritizing and shipping orders don’t proceed efficiently, leading to late deliveries and customer complaints.
• Some companies end up repeating processes unnecessarily, such as running credit checks hundreds or even thousands of times for the same customer.
• One global CPG brand using Celonis told us that problems with their OM processes led to a whopping 70% of orders being expedited, incurring huge additional costs.

All of these things become opportunities for improvement when you have more insight into — and control over — your processes through Process Intelligence. And because of how valuable OM is to your organization, OM process hiccups are very worth fixing. OM is a major cash driver for your enterprise as part of the larger Order to Cash process. L’Oreal’s teams were able to find many issues within their OM process within 24 hours after go-live with Celonis, and they used this visibility to increase touchless orders by 700%. You can imagine how much time and money this saved for them!

Beyond OM’s value to your business, you can also take advantage of how intertwined it is with many other processes. Though those ties can sometimes be hurtful, they can also be advantageous. For example, OM’s connections to Accounts Receivable (AR) can mean that fixes in processes on the OM side (like improved processes for validating address data) can extend back to AR for the better, improving payment times. Corrections and upgrades in Order Management processes will nearly always be magnified through OM’s ties to other business areas — creating an immediate, positive ripple effect.

Celonis has worked with companies like Sysmex, Siemens, and Johnson & Johnson over the years to create and refine Order Management offerings, and now there is a suite of purpose-built OM applications that can be deployed in a matter of weeks or even days.

And once you’ve mastered your OM processes? Many organizations subsequently expand into other established processes, such as Inventory Management or Procurement.

Demo: Supply chain transformation through optimizing Order Management

STEP 4: Empower your Process Intelligence practice with a CoE.

If your first process transformation was a success (and we bet it was!), now is the time to set up your Center of Excellence (CoE). Fun fact: Celonis customers with a CoE are nearly 9x more likely to achieve a positive ROI on their Process Intelligence projects!

A process-focused CoE can keep pushing things forward in ways that loosely-associated, temporary teams can’t. For example, after your initial implementation, a CoE can conduct a postmortem and guide the expansion of your supply chain Process Intelligence program using learnings from your first go-round, pinpointing areas of opportunity for the next project and fine-tuning things to fit in your organization’s work styles and constraints.

Here are some real-world stories of how companies working within complex supply chains have deployed Celonis Process Intelligence using CoEs:

• Famed automaker BMW started with two process proofs of concept before expanding to a Celonis Citizen Developer program managed by a Process Center of Excellence. Their CoE now centrally supports 200+ Celonis use cases from their production floors to back offices and supervises thousands of Citizen Developers.
• Consumer goods legend Johnson & Johnson uses their Process Center of Excellence to manage and deploy “templates” for their Celonis Process Intelligence practice, helping the company use standardized frameworks for finding opportunities and implementing process changes. The J&J CoE acts as a central point of contact, managing change projects and uniting efforts across departments.

CoEs can also help evangelize Process Intelligence to more of your company, gaining new supporters and creating a culture of ongoing optimization. The more visibility Process Intelligence has, the greater your chance of fostering a genuinely process-first organization — which is good for everyone working with supply chains!