Process excellence the key for digitalisation

Abstract

Purpose The new digital era brings several opportunities and challenges that accelerate the need to implement digital solutions in organisations. This speed of change creates many questions, but unfortunately, references cases to answer them or general guidelines to succeed are still rare. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to present four cases that illustrate the procedure followed by companies to introduce digital elements in their operations (automotive industry supplier, toy industry, catering company and circuit trainings company). Each case offers inspiration and knowledge about the procedure to introduce digital elements and facilitates the proposal of a general procedure that aims to become guidance for practitioners. Design/methodology/approach The research implements comparative analysis in a multi-case design. It sensitises the concept of “digitalisation path” as a research instrument. Projects documentation and informal conversational interviews allow the researchers to describe each organisation and their digitalisation path. The interviewees review, enhance and approve the cases. Furthermore, the research compares the paths and summarises the findings into a digitalisation path model that explains the digitalisation of these organisations and it serves as a guide for other organisations. Findings The digitalisation paths evidence the necessity of business process management to develop digitalisation. Technology is not the goal, but the instrument and process excellence is the driver to introduce new technologies in the operations. Furthermore, the four organisations share a similar pattern and activities within their digitalisation paths. Research limitations/implications The multi-case methodology lacks generalisation, but it provides detail over the digitalisation paths. Practical implications The paper presents a guideline for practitioners to introduce digital elements in the organisation. Originality/value The paper presents a practical perspective to introduce digitalisation in organisations, which is currently rare in literature.

Digitalisation and quality management: problems and prospects

“…Naturally, a lot of research around digitalisation focuses on the technological innovations per se. However, digitalisation impacts not only digital capabilities but also business models (Ghobakhloo 2018;Zangiacomi et al 2020), operational processes (Martinez 2019), and customer experiences (Henriette, Feki, and Boughzala 2016). According to Orlikowski and Iacono (2000), such an impact is not merely restricted to the internal organisational structures, but also has consequences for the external interconnected environment of the organisation.…”

The Link between Business Process Management and Quality Management

“…It should be noted, however, that the IT standardization should follow the standardization of processes and not the other way round (Schönreiter 2018). A study by Martinez (2019) illustrates that the process improvement approach allows organizations to incorporate digital elements into their processes. This procedural approach encourages organizations to improve their business models by incorporating new digital elements.…”

“…Digitization of business processes in many cases becomes the key to increasing business efficiency (Osmundsen et al 2019). In other words, in recent years, the digital transformation has been changing the economic environment of organizations (Fischer et al 2019), which highlights the importance of business process management while developing digitization (Martinez 2019). Business process management (BPM) is one of the most popular business practices nowadays, which is being explored both in the business world and by the scientific society.…”

Overall Equipment Effectiveness: Systematic Literature Review and Overview of Different Approaches

“…Digital transformation has enabled information to be obtained quickly to accommodate the market changes. Martinez (2019) [4] suggested including digitalization as part of the business aspect of the evolution. In the Industry 4.0 framework, the digitalization of the production process in factories and data collection is important for improving business efficiency.…”