Deploying process mining successfully – our proven approach

In this second part of our series on process mining we introduce our tried and tested approach for process mining at scale, laying the foundation for reaping all the benefits and achieving the full potential of process mining, as outlined in our first article.

Our approach to process mining

Our process mining framework consists of a three-step process (focus, act and scale) to build core capabilities in process mining through digitally enabled operational excellence and the principles of lean. With each phase the value realised and the business benefits captured progressively increase. The focus phase begins the journey with the first attempts to mine process data, enhance process transparency and gain the first data-driven insights. The subsequent act phase extends the scope of process mining further through a proof of value diagnosing the process, identifying areas for improvement, and driving value through the execution of selected improvement initiatives. The final scale phase focuses on industrialising process mining within your organisation, the build-up of larger capabilities and an enhanced skillset, and ultimately embedding new ways of working into your company’s culture and DNA.

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Below we deep-dive on each one of the three phases and explore the main activities, their associated pitfalls, and key learnings. More detailed descriptions of the three steps and the underlying frameworks will be the subject of our upcoming articles.

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What is Drug Operations and what is its relevance
Launching a new drug on the market requires adherence to a long, multi-year process of filing documentation, requesting permission and obtaining appropriate approvals in order to meet regulatory requirements. As this is a highly complex process for drug operations, which must be carried out on both a global and local country level, increased management effort is required. After the appropriate approvals have been granted, clinical sites need to be established and set up and patients recruited to test and prove the effectiveness of the newly developed drug. In such a complex process a lack of transparency can have negative effects on patient recruitment and onboarding. The fewer patients or later onboarding to the clinical study results in delays in the time to market of the drug, and subsequently delayed sales.

Why did the client want Process Mining?
The client wanted to leverage process mining to gain data-driven insights across their global drug operations and further optimise the related clinical trial management processes focusing on:

• Visualising process flows across three levels (global, national, clinical site)
• Discovering waste in drug supply due to non-compliance in closing clinical sites on time
• Compliance check of all approval steps
• Calculating additional potential patients for a study based on improvement assumptions
• Comparing project management quality to recruitment performance
• Internal benchmarking of countries regarding their time for approval steps, e.g. ethics committee or health authority
• Optimising trial management support by end-user personalised overview dashboards

Results of the Process Mining?
Deloitte developed a proof of concept and value using process mining to help the organisation:

• Identify bottlenecks and internal best practices as well as waste in the customer’s supply chain
• Leverage further dashboards to get a hold on data compliance and provide trial managers with an overview of the project management milestone.