Systems thinking and functional modeling of batch process management using projects

Abstract Intense competition and rapid environmental changes are revealing severe limitations in the effectiveness of the hierarchical, stable and Tayloristic management system currently used by the vast majority of batch manufacturing industries. A project-oriented enterprise model of batch plants which results of integrating together systems thinking and functional modeling is proposed here. The latter refers to the set of intents and relationships between goals, functions and components (both physical and abstract) that comprise an analytical viewpoint of batch processes involving product recipes, equipment capabilities, constraints and human competencies (skills and knowledge). Complementarily, the systemic perspective accounts for the organizational setting (roles, objectives and actors), and provides an orthogonal view through the duality of whole-parts relationships and the ubiquitous concepts of boundary, emergence and hierarchy upon which the project-oriented enterprise model is built. A case study that comprises a dairy facility involving the production + 100 different fresh products using an order-driven management system will be presented. To support the prototype implementation of a plant information system using a hierarchy of project-based objects, a conceptual design has been developed. The implementation of the resulting enterprise model in Project 98 ™ will be discussed to highlight its easy and cheap implementation, and a number of advantages including: accumulation of information and knowledge, direct tracing of activities and cost analysis.