Manufacturing Today Issue - 221 February 2024 | Page 28

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to wasted storage space . To address this , businesses require a comprehensive , real-time view of their operations to efficiently reallocate resources , prioritize orders , and proactively engage with suppliers aligned with their supply chain sustainability objectives .
The lack of information for climate-friendly operations is compounded by the growing complexity of business operations . Today ’ s landscape involves hundreds of systems and applications , leading to undetected vulnerabilities , increased costs , and avoidable CO₂ emissions . Addressing these challenges requires innovative approaches , as traditional methods fall short in managing the intricacies of modern manufacturing operations .
Where process mining comes in
There ’ s tremendous potential for improving sustainability in production , materials management and logistics , largely as a result of the resources and energy loads used across the supply chain .
This is exactly where process mining comes in . Process mining can illuminate and subsequently optimize critical business processes . It does this by visualizing the current state of internal operations , including all process variants on the basis of data . With valid , data-based insights across all procedures , manufacturing businesses can break down silos and incorporate sustainability into every decision or measure . Process mining brings together data from common IT systems , such as SAP , Oracle or Salesforce , and maps them in their actual form , providing complete visibility into how business processes actually run .
Once process mining identifies improvement opportunities , that data can be combined with intelligence and automation to take corrective action and capture value quickly . Companies can therefore shrink the time it takes to find a process problem from years to hours and make great leaps and bounds in sustainability goals in a short time span .
A greener future through process mining
For any business , carbon commitments and sustainability goals can no longer be an afterthought . Sustainability is now a fundamental part of every company ’ s overarching business strategy . Organizations that fail to get a grip on sustainability across the whole of their supply chain will be punished by both investors and customers ‘ voting with their wallets ’. Processes determine how businesses run , so they are the perfect vehicle for operational change , and can even spark systemic change around sustainability . When processes are analyzed , understood
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