While this year’s camp takes place in Eindhoven again, we were still gathering online last year. For one week, we spent two relaxed hours of process mining per day on the internet together, with a mix of practice talks, lab sessions, and Process Mining Cafés.
Here are the recordings of the opening keynote, Daan’s practice talk, and the process mining café from the first day.
Welcome & Opening Keynote
We looked back at the talks from the past nine years of Process Mining Camp, and we categorized them into industries and use cases. Categorizations into industries are helpful if you want to see examples of how other companies in your line of business have used process mining. Another way, however, to look at these same case studies and camp talks is to group them into use cases. A use case is less concerned about the industry where you apply process mining. Instead, it focuses on who is using process mining and why.
It is helpful to look at process mining examples from this perspective because it helps you understand how process mining fits into the methodologies you already use (and how it will change your current way of working). For example, process improvement teams often work with the DMAIC approach from Lean Six Sigma, or the PDCA cycle. Auditors have their own procedures. Based on three examples, we show how you can integrate process mining into these existing methodologies.
Analysts and Domain Experts are Complements
The first practice talk was given by Daan Jabroer from Volksbank in the Netherlands. Volksbank is a Dutch bank that includes brands such as SNS, ASN Bank, RegioBank, and BLG Wonen. Daan is a business improvement consultant at Volksbank.
For more than eleven years, Daan has worked on architecting, (re)designing, modeling, and improving the business processes at various banks. The processes are constantly changing, and process mining is a great tool to explore the impact of these changes over time. However, for Daan, the real value lies in the collaboration between the process mining analyst and the domain expert. During the first quarter of 2020, the mortgage provisioning lead time was above the stated limit. Daan shows how only the process analyst and the domain expert together can solve the problem.
Process Mining Café: Mind the Gap
For the daily Process Mining Café, our speakers of the day were joined by old friends from previous process mining camps. On Monday, Daan and Anne got together with Sudhendu Rai, from AIG in the United States. Sudhendu is Head of Data-Driven Process Optimization in AIG’s Investments organization and combinedprocess mining with discrete-event simulation in the past.
Does it make a difference which improvement methodology is used with process mining? How do you best explain process mining to others? And how do you ensure that the right actions are taken after the analysis?
Together with Sudhendu and Daan, we discuss the typical questions and the daily challenges of a process improvement practitioner working with process mining.
Together with our guest Fred van Middendorp from Heijmans, Rudi, and I will talk about project vs. process thinking. Project-driven organizations like construction companies approach everything from a project perspective. However, process improvement initiatives require process awareness. How do you deal with this as a process mining practitioner?
Discuss with us this week, Wednesday 18 May, at 16:00 CEST! (Check your timezone here). As always, there is no registration required. Simply point your browser to fluxicon.com/cafe when it is time. You can watch the café and join the discussion while we are on the air, right there on the café website.
We are always excited to learn about new research from our academic partners. Today, we would like to highlight an interesting paper about the design and implementation of video-based process mining that Wolfgang Kratsch, Fabian König, and Maximilian Röglinger have published in the Decision Support Systems journal.
Manual activities often leave blind spots in the process analysis because you cannot see them in the data. Especially for manufacturing processes, there is an opportunity to use video data to fill these blind spots. The video data contains valuable process-related information, but there is no standardized approach to creating event logs from unstructured video data yet.
The authors developed a reference architecture that bridges the gap between computer vision and process mining. The computer vision capabilities that are the basis for extracting the process-related information from video data are shown in Figure 1 below (click on the image to see a larger version). The extracted low-level events are then aggregated to the level of detail required for the process mining use case.
Figure 1. Illustration of computer vision capabilities
What if you had twice as many people? What if you didn’t do that process step? Simulation is such an exciting topic because it allows you to test complex “what if”-scenarios without having to make the change in the real world (yet).
In the latest Process Mining Café, we talked with Lambros Viennas from Bridgnorth Aluminium and Sudhendu Rai from AIG about combining process mining with simulation. Based on an example in Disco and AnyLogic, we show how you can use process mining as a starting point for your simulation model. If you missed the live broadcast or want to re-watch the café, you can now watch the recording here.
Thanks again to Sudhendu and Lambros and all of you for joining us!
Links
Here are the links that we mentioned during the session:
In his follow-up talk at Process Mining Camp 2020, Sudhendu talks more about how they used real-world data and discrete-event simulation optimization for improving insurance business processes within AIG
Summer is on the horizon, and that means one thing: It is time to dust off the old tent and get ready for this year’s Process Mining Camp on 23 June!
As any camper will tell you, process mining is not something you just own or buy — process mining is something we are doing. It is not just a tool but a discipline.
Some things you have to learn on your own, other things you can learn from books. But we learn best when we share experiences with our peers. When we get together and talk about how exactly we do process mining.
This one goes up to eleven
Ten years ago, we got together for the first Process Mining Camp, and it has been the highlight of our year ever since. At Process Mining Camp, you meet people who face the same challenges as you. You exchange experiences and learn from each other. And you might just make some new friends along the way.
After two years of online camps, we will hold this year’s Process Mining Camp in person again. While our talks are the backbone of the event, the whole camp experience is interactive, spontaneous, and personal. Plus, clearing your schedule and being away for camp allows you to be present in a very different way.
We know that traveling to a conference requires more time and effort than tuning in to an online event. So, we will make sure that this trip is worth your while. To maximize your time with other process miners, we will have discussion roundtables in smaller groups and plenty of social time.
What’s on the menu
Here is what you can expect from this year’s camp:
We are already working with some great speakers on their practice talks. So, the program will be top-notch. And of course, you can meet the speakers over coffee later in the day.
You can join one of our discussion roundtables and go deeper on various process mining topics. The discussion groups will be small so that you meet and get to know everyone in your group.
We will have a process mining clinic. Bring your most tricky process mining problems and get expert advice.
There will be plenty of time for socializing so that you get the chance to catch up with everyone.
By moving much of the camp outdoors, this will be the most summer-campy camp ever! We will even have a sort-of campfire in the form of a BBQ at the end of the day.
Join us for the tenth anniversary of the Process Mining Camp community!
Of course, Corona is still in the air, and we do not have our heads in the sand. So, this is how we are going to make camp a safe experience for all of us.
The practice talks will be presented in a large, well-ventilated room with lots of space. We will provide masks, and we will all be wearing them indoors.
All the breaks, lunch, dinner, and coffee will be outside. Many parts of the camp program will also take place outdoors. So, you can breathe fresh air while conversing with your fellow process miners.
We want everybody to feel safe and comfortable at camp. If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to let us know at camp@fluxicon.com.
Making the camp safe also means keeping the number of attendees lower than usual, which means that tickets will be even more limited this year. Be sure to sign up for our waiting list here, and we will give you a heads up right before we open registration very soon.
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