ایجاد مدل نوآوری فرایند برای مهندسی مجدد کسب و کار و تولید

The purpose of this paper is to develop a basic model of process innovation to support reengineering of business and manufacturing. The proposed model introduces basic relations between source, object and performance characteristics of process innovation at conceptual level. The model aims at improving “assessment of process innovation initiatives”. It points out the effectiveness chain from an original initiative through process changes to potential increase in “performance of processes” and “competitiveness of the whole enterprise”. Discussion of the proposed model suggests the basic relations of effectiveness to be operationalised as assessment tools for a decision support system of process innovation

There are many challenges that industrial enterprises face to maintain their competitiveness. Running industrial operations effectively is not enough in the long run. Capabilities of innovation and utilising innovativeness in new ways are required in future competition. First we discuss shortly some key concepts of the topic stressing the point of view of manufacturing enterprises. 1.1. On industrial innovation terminology What is a process? A process is a specific ordering of work activities across time and place, with a beginning and an end, and clearly identified inputs and outputs: a structure of action [1]. In this study we consider typical industrial processes of manufacturing, engineering and materials management combined with customer related processes of product and sales management. Linking these processes to chains we specify business process as follows. Business process is a structured set of activities designed to produce specific outputs for internal or external customers or markets. It implies a strong emphasis on how work is done within an organisation, in contrast to product focus's emphasis on what. Further more business processes have cross organisational boundaries and they are generally independent of formal organisational structure [2]. Activity is a combination of people, technology, raw materials, methods and environment that produces a given product or service. By pointing out process view of business and manufacturing this study emphasises the need for understanding and tracing chain effects on processes and on the whole enterprise. Process Innovation means performing a work activity in a radically new way. Process innovation is generally a discrete initiative and it also implies the use of specific change tools and technology for enterprise engineering and transformation of business processes [1]. Innovation is usually concerned with creation and development of new ideas and solutions. However innovation is not completed until its economic impact becomes apparent. Noori has compared process innovation with product innovation and studied relations between them [3]. So in the way of product innovation also process innovation must be “commercialised” before it is completed. Reengineering of business processes (BPR) has in recent years been a very popular item in management literature. It is often connected with adopting new technology in processes. In this study reengineering works as an object element of process innovation. 1.2. The field and aim of this study To emphasise the importance of innovative customer approach to business and manufacturing processes we first outline the industrial innovation field, see Fig. 1. The four important innovation elements in the field have linkages and interdependencies between each other.Linkages at this general level work in both directions, either as internal customers or suppliers to each other. In manufacturing companies the main stream runs in five relations: technology for processes, technology for products, processes for products, processes for customers and products for customers. In this study we focus on the elements relation of technology for processes in industrial innovation field. The aims of this study are: 1. to propose a basic model of process innovation to support assessment of process innovation initiatives and projects; 2. to discuss opportunities and competence of the basic model as a decision support aid for reengineering of business and manufacturing. 1.3. Previous study on process innovation approaches The need for systematic approach to innovation management is widely recognised in industrial innovation field, see Ref. [4]. This implies the need for supporting tools, methods and models at different management levels and even an innovation system for the whole company. A number of methods and models have been presented aiming at modelling the entire procedure of innovation or supporting different phases of innovation procedure. Some process approaches are presented as follows: (i) The model of gradually detailing process concept by Jensen and Westcott [5]. The contribution of this study was the development of process concept model and a structured approach for translating a manufacturing strategy into a set of tactical manufacturing innovation projects. (ii) The process application of fusion model by Ishii and Ichimura [6]. The main finding of this proposed method is that it is possible to develop production design as a product characteristics deployment process, from the technical characteristics to the manufacturing characteristics. The use of fusion model stresses creation of something new or combining in a new way. (iii) A case study of technology adoption, product design and process change introduced by Greis [7]. The case revealed that changes in product and process design will affect the technologies and operations of numerous organisations along the production supply chain. (iv) The generations of industrial innovation is clarified by Sweeting and Davies [8]. 1. Technology push: emphasis on R&D 2. Need-pull: emphasis on marketing, reactive R&D 3. Coupling model: emphasis on the integration of the R&D and marketing interface (push/pull combinations). 4. Integrated model: emphasis on integration between R&D and manufacturing (strong supplier linkages, design for manufacturability). 5. Systems integration and networking model: emphasis on corporate flexibility and speed of development (co-development with customers and suppliers). Progress of industrial innovation requires readiness to handle all the more complicated structures also when assessing new process initiatives and projects. Also several techniques for justifying advanced manufacturing technology (AMT) have been presented. These are usually grouped into three categories: (1) economic, (2) strategic and (3) analytic approach. Inferences from industrial practices were made by Small and Chen [9], who found that firms that adopted more than one approach were likely to attain higher levels of success than firms that used only one method. However these approaches stress performance factors straight, not investigating change effects in processes or innovative nature of changes.

The main purpose of the process innovation model presented at conceptual level in this study is to direct development activities towards necessary enterprise goals. The model is intended to support assessment of innovation initiatives and projects in business and manufacturing processes. One important contribution of this study is applying the essence of “customer”-based approach to process innovation practices. Translating process conformable needs into a new process concept e.g. through technological enablers is a field for an innovation model. Also analysis of effectiveness chain could give more information for innovation decisions. The elemental structure of the basic model of process innovation is introduced in this paper. Further study should aim at operationalising the model for decision aid of process innovation. This implies grasping the basic relations of effectiveness and development of description techniques. The plan for the future is to develop a simple, spread-sheet-based software support system which should make application of the basic model of process innovation simpler. Usability and competence of the refined model should be tested with product line cases in manufacturing enterprises. Creation of a new model, especially that of process innovation, is very challenging and creative work. Integrative and systematic approaches and models are requested when dealing with process close innovations!