A fractal enterprise model and its application for business development

Abstract

This paper suggests a new type of enterprise models called fractal enterprise models (FEM), with accompanying methodological support for their design. FEM shows interconnections between the business processes in an enterprise by connecting them to the assets they use and manage. Assets considered in the model could be tangible (buildings, heavy machinery, etc.) and intangible (employees, business process definitions, etc.). A FEM model is built by using two types of patterns called archetypes: a process-assets archetype that connects a process with assets used in it, and an asset-processes archetype that connects an asset with processes aimed to manage this asset (e.g., hiring people, or servicing machinery). Alternating these patterns creates a fractal structure that makes relationships between various parts of the enterprise explicit. FEM can be used for different purposes, including finding a majority of the processes in an enterprise and planning business change or radical transformation. Besides discussing FEM and areas of its usage, the paper presents results from a completed project in order to test the practical usefulness of FEM and its related methodological support. Communicated by Dr. Selmin Nurcan.

Business process architecture design methodologies – a literature review

“…The present section refers to the 17 BPA design methodologies found among selected works. These correspond to 18 publications referred to in Section 4.3.1, namely, Adamek et al (2016), Barros and Julio (2011), Becker et al (2007), Bider et al (2016), Burton and Pennotti (2003), Castano and DeAntonellis (1996), Chourabi et al (2009), Dumont et al (2016), Eid-Sabbagh (2012), Frolov et al (2009), Green and Ould (2004), Gruhn and Köhler (2009), Gruhn and Wellen (2001), Heinrich et al (2009), Kudryavtsev and Grigoriev (2011), Ould (1997), Vidgen (1998) and zur Muehlen et al (2010). Findings are presented according to the categories of the proposed BPA methodology evaluation framework available in Appendix.…”

Engineering management for high-end equipment intelligent manufacturing

“…Considering the self-similarity of structures in factories, Pirani et al (2016) introduced fractal theory into the modeling of smart factories as a scalable tool to promote production efficiency. Bider et al (2017) put forward a fractal enterprise model. The fractal factory model created by the proposed method obtains clear relationships among all parts of the enterprise.…”

Research-Oriented Practical Problem Solving as a Learning Goal for Thesis Courses

“…3. Business context is an IT solutions provider. Theoretical background is a new technique for enterprise modeling (Bider et al, 2017). The task is to discover new areas of application for the technique.…”