Nowadays, companies operate in an increasingly dynamic and complex environment. This is due to a combination of factors such as rising competition, the increase in globalization, business internationalization, the rapid development of information technologies, the growing level of uncertainty in organizational environment analysis, and the shortening product life cycle. All these factors have made information a cornerstone within organizations, as it enables not only their proper functioning but also their development and survival in the market. Process mining plays a crucial role in managing this information. If you want to learn more about this concept, keep reading this article.
Information Systems as the Cornerstone of Organizations
When we talk about the concept of information within a company, it is impossible not to think about Information Systems (IS). A much broader concept, but one that is intimately connected to the information generated and shared daily within a company.
IS can be defined as a set of processes aimed at collecting, processing, and selectively distributing valuable information generated within the organization. In other words, the role of IS is to capture events as they occur, whether internal or external, process all the collected data, and communicate it to the relevant parties within the organization, so they can respond and make decisions quickly.
Therefore, the importance of IS at the business level is vital to improve functionality, effectiveness, efficiency, and the quality of daily operations.
What is Process Mining?
Process mining is a process management technique that allows the analysis of business processes based on event logs. Through this activity, the goal is to extract knowledge from event logs of processes stored by systems. This knowledge involves tracking the processes under study, including information about the actors performing them, the times involved, among other details. One of the objectives is to control the processes, but it also aims to discover processes, controls, information, and organizational structures based on event logs.
Process Mining is typically used when there is no formal description of the processes, or when the available information is of poor quality. For example, patient care logs in a hospital can be analyzed through process mining to uncover models that describe the patient’s flow. On the other hand, event logs can also be compared with probabilistic models to contrast reality with the proposed model.
Since the discovery of process models is an initial step, the next stage of process mining is to improve the studied processes by detecting bottlenecks, finding better routes to achieve the same goals, detecting congestion early, and other improvements.
An Analytical Method
Entonces, el Process Mining, o la minería de procesos, es un método de análisis de procesos que tiene como objetivo descubrir, supervisar y mejorar procesos reales (es decir, procesos no asumidos) mediante la extracción de conocimiento de registros de eventos fácilmente disponibles en los sistemas de información actuales de una organización.
It goes beyond presenting raw data of process key metrics by recognizing the contextual relationships of processes and presenting them in graphic analysis form to diagnose problems and suggest improvements in process models. With process mining, it will be possible to detect or diagnose problems based on facts, not assumptions or intuition. Process mining seeks to compare event data (i.e., observed behavior) with process models (either manually created or automatically discovered). By matching event data and process models, it is possible to check conformance, detect deviations, predict delays, support decision-making, and recommend process redesigns.
Types of Process Mining
In research papers, the term "process mining" is sometimes referred to as "automated business process discovery" (ABPD). This concept describes a set of techniques used to create, evaluate, and expand process models. The IEEE Working Group on Process Mining distinguishes three types of process mining techniques:
- Discovery: This type of process mining technique is used to identify processes and create process models.
- Conformance: With this type of process mining technique, the event log data and existing process models are compared to determine whether they match.
- Enhancement: These process mining techniques involve adapting and improving processes based on actual data.
Advantages of Process Mining
- Objective and Fact-Based Reports
It provides objective, fact-based information derived from real data, helping you audit, analyze, and improve existing business processes.
- 2. Faster, Cheaper, and More Accurate
It is faster, cheaper, and more accurate than the lengthy and often subjective process analysis workshops it replaces.
- No Need to Replace Equipment
Process mining works with existing systems, so there is no need to replace equipment.
Perspectives of Process Mining
Process mining encompasses four different levels of observation:
- Flow Control Perspective: Process mining focused on flow control aims to represent a sequence of activities within a process that forms a process model (for example, as seen in Petri nets, UML activity diagrams, CPE, or BPMN models).
- Organizational Perspective: Process mining based on the organizational aspect, which highlights how people and IT systems interact when participating in a business process. Profiles and activity roles are defined and then compared. The result of this type of analysis is a social map that visualizes a network of relationships.
- Case Perspective: Process mining focused on specific cases is used to analyze individual process instances. These are described and categorized as cases based on their properties. Classification is done using the data values recorded by each relevant process instance, considering factors like the involved parties.
- Time Perspective: Process mining focused on time studies absolute and relative time and event frequency. For this to be possible, all event logs must include a time stamp. With this type of analysis, simulations can be run to draw conclusions about patterns, trends, and bottlenecks in the process flow. For example, bottlenecks within the process chain can be identified.
When Should You Use Process Mining?
Process mining can be used whenever there is information about the individual steps of business processes, detailed, recorded, and consistently stored through IT systems. It serves companies, for example, in the following cases:
- Development of workflows using workflow management systems
- Execution of transactions via ERP systems
- Management of technical support requests through ticketing systems
- Ensuring the quality of medical treatments through clinical protocols
Therefore, process mining techniques can be applied in diverse fields such as retail, original equipment manufacturing, banking, insurance, development, and sales departments to improve business processes like orders, production, or cash flows.
Application Areas
The main application areas for process mining techniques are workflow management and knowledge management. Additionally, the knowledge extracted from process mining is used in the development of support systems.
Numerous companies use technologies such as databases, ERP systems, or knowledge management systems to discover and make use of information. Normally, processes are not analyzed directly; thanks to the methods used by process mining, it is possible to extract explicit knowledge from implicit processes.
Workflow management systems describe business processes from a normative perspective and automate the coordination and control of individual steps within each process. The system provides users with interfaces to perform communication tasks and access data and programs.
Workflow management relies on modeled workflows that allow the system to recognize events (such as receiving a document by email) and react automatically. This automated procedure is based on process models that can be created, monitored, and improved through process mining methods.
Information management and process automation are areas that always require attention to help grow your business. Contact us for professional advice.
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