Process mining entering golden era in business adoption says technology’s ‘Godfather’
Process mining will soon be an essential component of business success, according to Wil van der Aalst, as new use cases are developed and the argument for incorporating process mining into operations becomes overwhelming
Add bookmark
Process mining is continuing to grow in popularity as businesses across the world realize that its abilities to remove operational friction, increase efficiency and avoid the replication of resources are helping them streamline internal processes and improve their bottom lines.
Speaking exclusively to PEX Network ahead of his keynote session at Process Mining Live 2020 in March, Wil van der Aalst, otherwise known as “the Godfather of Process Mining”, gives his views on why companies are catching on to the potential of the technology and why he believes it will become almost unavoidable as an integral part of process management platforms and activities.
PEX Network:
Although the technology has been around for over 20 years, some PEX professionals are encountering it for the first time. What is it like for people coming to the technology in 2020?
Wil van der Aalst:
PEX professionals are encountering process mining more like a service than a product, with many process platforms adding process mining capabilities. These platforms are not just providing tools that others don't have, but they are making it easy to integrate process mining into the tech that is already in place.
In the next year or two, companies will add more process mining capabilities and it will reach more countries. We will get to a situation where people will need to justify why they are not using process mining, because having the data available and not making use of it will open companies up to accusations that they are ignoring reality. I expect that process mining will become as obvious as personal hygiene -here does not need to be a business case, it is the normal thing to do.
PEX Network:
Since its introduction to business processes in Germany and the Netherlands in the late 1990s, are we finally seeing process mining catch on in other industrialized countries?
Wil van der Aalst:
Thanks to successful applications, process mining is becoming more visible in the US and Asia Pacific. For example, a few months ago I spoke at the first Japanese process mining conference, which had around 500 participants demonstrating the potential in this region. Japan has a rich tradition in process quality and this mindset fits well with techniques that can be used to identify and address performance and compliance problems.
PEX Network:
What are the best ways to introduce the uninitiated to process mining?
Wil van der Aalst:
If you are completely new to process mining, take time to understand what makes it different from any of the other tools you may have used. Businesses start to think about adopting process mining when they have some administrative processes they want to streamline. Once they understand its capabilities, they often go beyond this, as BMW did when they used process mining to analyze sensor data in their production plants, or when airports like the one in Copenhagen used process mining to analyze how suitcases are handled.
As companies discover these unexpected new applications that go beyond what they originally intended, the business case for process mining makes itself.
Wil van der Aalst will be the keynote speaker on Day One of PEX Network’s exclusive online event, Process Mining Live 2020. During his session, he will discuss how process mining can remove operational friction, increase efficiency and reduce costs by avoiding the replication of resources to improve quality and effectiveness via the industrialization of service processes.
