Every organization has business processes—it’s how work is accomplished. But, too many organizations rely on outdated procedures, with reliance on paper forms or other manual steps. By becoming comfortable in how they get work done, leaders and workers alike cost their organizations a lot more than lost efficiencies. They lose sight of the opportunity cost of getting work accomplished the way “it’s always been done.”

In the manufacturing world, workflow automation has so far been used almost exclusively in commercial support processes such as accounting, personnel or purchasing. This helps to reduce overhead costs, but companies only gain a real market advantage if they make their production more flexible, faster or more scalable. In production processes, automation with workflow engines is new territory. The advent of Industry 4.0 is expected to dramatically change the manufacturing industry as we know it today. Highly standardized, rigid manufacturing processes need to become self-organizing and decentralized. This flexibility leads to new challenges to the management of smart factories in general and production planning and control in particular with Prusight.