Discovering distributed processes in supply chains

Processes such as tendering. ordering. delivery, and paying are executed by several parties in al most all supply chains. However, none of these parties has a proper overview over the whole set of activities executed. Therefore, none of the parties can take the lead in business process redesign. Business processes are often not described in an explicit manner, and therefore they are not available for analysis. However, in the information system of each supply chain party, partia! information about the business process are recorded. We claim that lhe overall dislributed process can be induced, by using this partial information of all involved parties. In this paper we present an overview of methods available to discover processes across supply chains. based on the assumption that there is a common point of reference at all involved parties. e.g. an order number. Such an induced or discovered process enables ana!ysis across the supply chain, and can become an important tool to facililate business process redesign in networked organizations.