Enterprise Architecture Method for Continuous Improvement of PLM Based on Process Mining

The complexity and dynamics of IT landscapes and related PLM strategies of engineering enterprises are continuously growing due to trends such as Industry 4.0 and ever shorting product development cycles. To ensure interoperability, robustness, flexibility and efficiency of the IT systems and PLM, methods are needed that can handle these dynamics and complexities. In this paper, a method is presented that combines principles from enterprise architecture as well as business process mining to enable continuous improvement of PLM processes and the related IT systems. In particular, process mining is applied to validate the alignment of IT systems with related PLM processes. The method is demonstrated using an industrial case study that highlights the requirements from industrial practice and the applicability of the approach for PLM related processes. The method is shown to be particularly beneficial for the enterprise architects to support them with quantitative data as a basis for the design of continuous improvement cycles to make the PLM evolve. Future work will address the application of process mining for PLM related processes with distributed IT systems and the handling of the related complexity.