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Process Mining 101
Tamas Mahr
September 23, 2024
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Try ABBYY TimelineTamas Mahr
Head of ABBYY Timeline Development, Administrative Director of ABBYY Hungary
Connect with Tamas on LinkedIn.
September 23, 2024
Tamas Mahr
Head of ABBYY Timeline Development, Administrative Director of ABBYY Hungary
Connect with Tamas on LinkedIn.
Business processes can get complicated quickly. Things might look smooth on the surface, but behind the scenes, hidden roadblocks could be slowing your work down—without you even realizing it. And unfortunately, with today’s complex software and technology, traditional methods of spotting issues through manual observation or anecdotal evidence just don’t work so well.
That’s where process mining technology comes in. It uses the data already in your IT systems to empower you to see your business with a clearer eye. In this “process mining for dummies” guide, we’ll take a close look at process mining to understand its basic principles. Then, we’ll get more hands-on and explore its many uses for improving the way you execute your business.
Jump to:
What is a process?
What is process mining?
Why does process mining matter?
How process mining works
What are the benefits of process mining?
How to turn process mining insights in improvements of business performance
Process mining examples and use cases
Essential process mining tool features
Getting started with our process mining platform
Put simply, a process is a simple series of steps or activities, strung together to achieve a bigger goal. In business, you generally want to keep your processes as repeatable and consistent as possible. Why? Reinventing the wheel every time can sap a lot of time and energy, and you want to get work done as efficiently and effectively as possible.
Process mining is a technique that turns your data into a clear, visual map. This map lets you see how processes really work in your business, from beginning to end—not just how you think or hope they work. With that vision, you can spot delays and inefficiencies to root out, as well as opportunities for improvement you may not have been aware of.
Picture a manufacturing company struggling to stay on top of all the information that comes into its factories, with data inputs from a variety of locations at many different points in the workflow, written in several different languages, to boot. Process mining can gather and analyze data from all the different systems involved in your intricate processes—from customer orders to inventory management to shipping and production and more—to reveal the hidden inefficiencies that might be slowing you down. Even if your workflow is spread across multiple departments and systems, you’ll be able to see exactly where delays are happening, such as spots with repetitive, manual steps or poorly designed workflows.
Basically, process mining turns raw data into knowledge you can use. Process mining reveals the true paths taken by your workflows so you can make smart decisions. Think of optimized procedures, reduced costs, improved customer experience, and confidence in regulatory compliance.
Process mining is itself a process that can be broken down into four steps. Let’s explore how it works:
The journey begins by collecting data from the systems used in your business procedures. In process mining in the healthcare sector, for example, this data might come from electronic health records (EHRs), a laboratory information management system (LIMS), and enterprise resource planning (ERP) software, among other sources. The data from these many systems, often called event logs, is then cleaned up and organized to call out important details—like which patient or lab test each piece of data relates to, what actions were taken (such as “test ordered” or “appointment scheduled”), and when these actions took place.
Once you’ve got your data organized, process mining software transforms the information into a flowchart of sorts, so you have a clear visual map of your actual operations. With this map, you can see how each customer, order, and end-to-end process moves through, slows down, or even jams up your system. Plus, you can check to make sure you’re in compliance with company guidelines or industry regulations.
With the findings from this analysis, you can make smart choices about how to make your workflows sing. Let’s go back to the hospital example. If the facility discovers patient discharge procedures are often delayed, it can decide to automate more of the paperwork or look for faster communication methods between the departments involved. If the analysis reveals that delays are due to staff shortages, the hospital could decide to hire more personnel or reallocate existing resources.
With process mining, you get a watchful eye keeping track of your processes in real time. Any time a process deviates from the expected path, automatic alerts can notify you immediately. For example, a hospital might set an alert for those instances when a patient’s discharge process takes longer than usual. This lets staff quickly look into the situation and investigate the delay, taking corrective action if necessary to get processes back on course. Some advanced process mining tools can even trigger automated actions in other systems, like triggering robotic process automation, so problems are solved in a timely manner.
Process mining also isn’t a one-and-done process. Business conditions are always changing, after all. In the case of a hospital, a sudden influx of patients during flu season might overwhelm their usual admission procedures, leading to longer wait times and unhappy patients. Process mining can track these types of changes in real time, revealing where slowdowns are happening so the hospital can reallocate staff or streamline paperwork to adapt quickly to changing situations. With process mining, you can make the most informed decisions for your business, no matter what challenges arise.
Process mining can serve as a catalyst for leveling up your entire organization. Here are just a handful of the benefits:
Process mining acts like an x-ray for your business, making transparent the inner workings of your operations. You no longer have to guess at what might be causing glitches or problems. Instead, you can see exactly where work flows slowly and where it gets stuck. This visibility lets you make data-driven decisions to make sure your operations run at peak efficiency.
Process mining helps your business run like a well-oiled machine. By pointing you to unnecessary delays and wasted resources, it helps you fix slowdowns and unlock the true potential of your operations.
When goods and services are processed slowly or held back by mistakes, customers can quickly turn frustrated. Process mining lets you pinpoint those hurdles so you can create a seamless customer experience.
Few employees like doing busy work like manually entering data—multiple times for multiple systems—when they could instead be connecting with customers, solving interesting problems, or innovating. Process mining helps you root out and automate the boring, time-consuming tasks so employees can do more of the work they truly enjoy.
Every business wants to eliminate waste and inefficiency. Process mining shines a light on hidden opportunities for cost savings, freeing up resources for what truly matters. You can work smarter, not harder, with data as your guide.
Process mining can point out hidden risks and compliance issues in your workflow before they turn into major problems. A hospital, for instance, can use process mining to spot unusual patterns in medication dispensing—like repeated overrides of dosage limits or discrepancies in patient EHRs. With this kind of foresight, you can protect patient safety and ensure compliance with healthcare regulations.
When you have a clear view of your entire operations, you can figure out new, innovative ways to work. This is the clarity process mining provides: a bird’s-eye-view that lets you adapt swiftly and stay ahead of the curve.
Process mining isn’t just about seeing what’s going on, but actually doing something with that clearer vision. The trick is to take what you learn and turn it into real changes that improve your business.
So, how can you actually put this into practice? Begin by pinpointing the problem areas, such as congestion points or error-prone steps. Then, start brainstorming solutions. Could you automate a step to keep things from slowing down? Might a simple notification help prevent errors? The key is to use your data to guide your potential fixes.
Finally, pick a solution to try and put it into action. From there, process mining will help you again by tracking the impact of your solution in real-time. Continue to fine-tune your solutions to ensure continuous improvement.
Process mining is an incredibly versatile tool that can transform operations across many different industries. Let’s explore how it works in a few specific sectors:
In the BPO space, efficiency is everything. Process mining acts as a powerful tool, helping you find ways to make customer service smoother, cut out extra or duplicative work, automate tedious tasks, and more. With these insights, BPO providers can deliver exceptional service while boosting their bottom line.
The insurance industry relies on efficient claims processing and risk assessment. Process mining helps you through these complex tasks by providing a clear picture of your claims journey. From first notice of loss to final settlement, you’ll be able to reduce processing times while staying compliant with all regulations.
Too often, complex workflows and administrative burdens can get in the way of excellent patient care. Process mining lets you take a close, in-depth look at these inefficiencies to give you a detailed review of everything from patient intake to discharge. You’ll be able pinpoint delays in lab results or figure out error-prone parts in the scheduling process. With these insights, healthcare providers can streamline operations and improve the overall patient experience, all while freeing up valuable time for medical professionals to focus on delivering top-notch care.
In the public sector, process mining fosters transparency and accountability. A deeper understanding of citizen requests, permit applications, or even procurement tasks all become possible. Government agencies can then maximize their resources and reduce costs to better serve the public.
From shipping routes to inventory management, the transportation and logistics industry has to interconnect a lot of moving pieces to make business run smoothly. Process mining helps you see clearly through this complexity. Ultimately, it gives you the knowledge you need to minimize costs, reduce delays, and ensure timely deliveries.
Not all process mining tools are created equal. Look for a solution that offers the following essential features to truly understand and perfect the way you do business:
Think of end-to-end process visualization as a visual map of how work flows through your systems. This powerful view lets you see exactly how things work in the present—from simple processes to the most complex, including ad-hoc case management.
Data-driven insights turn a chaos of information into helpful intelligence so you can make smart choices backed by hard numbers. Insights should be delivered in a logical, self-service way, from the moment the data is loaded—so you can take real-time action.
Pre-built, best-practice analysis tools make it easy for you to analyze your “as-is” processes and understand why they behave as they do. You can start using them as soon as your data is loaded. Easily drill into identified issues and discover their root cause.
By connecting all of your data sources with a process mining tool, you can break down silos and create the complete picture essential for a truly holistic analysis. Look for a process mining solution that offers low-code/no-code implementation for quick time to value.
These features alert you when rules are broken, predict future outcomes by using past and present insights, and provide a digital twin of your processes to test potential changes before putting them into effect. Next-generation process mining abilities like these are often referred to as “process intelligence”. Make sure that these features are included and readily available.
Our market-leading process mining platform ABBYY Timeline gives you the power to look deep into your operations. It lets you spot deviations, inefficiencies, and opportunities you never knew existed. But the benefits don’t stop there. ABBYY Timeline also offers insights to solve problems and innovate so you can drive efficiency, reduce costs, and make your customers happy.
See the magic yourself. Experience the power of process mining with ABBYY Timeline and discover just how much more your business can do.
