Celonis, a global market leader in process mining, and the BMW Group has announced they have significantly expanded their strategic partnership in order to continuously optimise BMW’s market-defining processes with the aim of increasing its efficiency, productivity and sustainability.
The two Munich-based industry leaders have also agreed to co-operate closely in the further development of future process mining innovations.
BMW Group leverages Process Intelligence to drive global technology leadership
The enhanced collaboration between the BMW Group and Celonis is a significant milestone in the development and application of Process Mining and Process Intelligence that not only sets the standard for the automotive industry but companies worldwide. By combining their respective leadership and expertise in global innovation, the companies will drive significant advances in Digital Transformation. The companies have a long-standing relationship, showcased by the BMW Group’s pioneering use of Celonis’s recently announced Process Intelligence Graph and the development of AI-based innovations.
Center of Excellence for Process Mining as key success factor
A key factor in the BMW Group’s success since it began using process mining more than eight years ago is the establishment of its dedicated Process Mining Center of Excellence (CoE), which pools the company’s process mining expertise within its central IT department in order to drive the development and implementation of new innovative solutions.
Group-wide digitalisation initiative with Celonis
The BMW Group relies on Celonis’ process mining technology to accelerate its group wide digitalisation initiative. The aim is to make Celonis available to all the group’s employees, giving them the ability to analyse all company processes relevant to them and to identify and eliminate anything that causes inefficiency.
The key areas of the collaboration:
● Continuous data-based optimisation of group wide processes to increase efficiency, productivity and sustainability ● Use of the Celonis Process Intelligence Graph for cross-process optimisation
● Improving the software’s user experience to make it even easier to use, particularly for non-IT-savvy users
● Close collaboration to develop innovative solutions
Close partnership also in the area of software development
The BMW Group’s Center of Excellence for Process Mining and Celonis’ development team also agreed to collaborate more closely to accelerate the joint development of process intelligence innovations. This includes, for example, connecting suppliers in cross-company processes more efficiently by automating the transfer of data (e.g. via CatenaX) and mapping the entire customer journey. The collaboration will also focus on the integration of new AI technologies, such as the processing of information for operational employees in the production area. This will boost operational transparency and accountability by enabling everyone involved in a process to see all the relevant information in areas such as production or logistics.
“The BMW Group aims to be a pioneer in the quality and efficiency of corporate processes. This goal applies especially during our current transformation, the largest in the history of the BMW Group, towards electromobility, digitalisation and circularity. Continuous analysis and optimisation of our end-to-end processes with Celonis is a decisive factor in increasing productivity, minimising resource consumption and making supply chains more resilient,” said Alexander Buresch, CIO of the BMW Group. “The software’s ease of use, thanks to the integration of AI models, opens up new opportunities for us to make process mining available to a large number of users throughout the company and thus utilise the potential of the technology more comprehensively than ever before.”
“Our long-standing collaboration with the BMW Group is a true success story, and we are delighted by the even stronger strategic co-operation that we are announcing,” said Bastian Nominacher, Co-founder and Co-CEO of Celonis. “BMW is known as a trailblazer in the use of new technologies: the company has been using process mining since 2016 and is also using our recently introduced Process Intelligence Graph to gain a holistic overview of their entire supply chain – from vehicle development to customer delivery and subsequent service. Our platform offers companies like the BMW Group unprecedented process intelligence and thus a central decision-making tool to take the right measures, quickly create added value and become more efficient overall.”
We asked Dr. Patrick Lechner, Head of Process Mining Center of Excellence (CoE) at BMW Group, further questions to find out more about the partnership.
How does the expanded strategic partnership between Celonis and BMW Group aim to optimise BMW’s processes for increased efficiency, productivity and sustainability?
Celonis is an important component of BMW Group’s company-wide digitisation initiative. Our aim is to make Process Mining available to all the group’s associates, giving them the ability to analyse all company processes relevant to them and to identify and eliminate anything that causes inefficiency.
In addition, our Centre of Excellence (CoE) for Process Mining and the Celonis development team will work closely together to accelerate the joint development of innovations in the area of process intelligence. This includes, for example, the development of new use cases, AI integration, connecting suppliers in cross-company processes through the automation of data transfer and mapping the entire customer journey.
Could you elaborate on the significance of the collaboration between BMW Group and Celonis in driving advances in Digital Transformation?
As part of the partnership, the BMW Group participates in Celonis’ early adopter programmes. The teams from both companies will work closely together, giving the BMW Group the opportunity to contribute to the further development of the Celonis platform at a very early stage through their feedback.
In addition, Process Mining can be an important tool supporting and driving forward the BMW Group’s strategic initiatives, e.g. streamlined customer journey and closer integration of suppliers.
What role does the establishment of the Process Mining Center of Excellence (CoE) play in BMW Group’s success in utilising process mining technology, and how does it contribute to the development of innovative solutions?
Our central CoE enables BMW Group to drive Process Mining strategically and globally. The CoE pools the Process Mining expertise within the company, has evaluated new applications for Process Mining in recent years, developed use cases together with wider departments. It also acts as an internal consultant, as well as the central interface for close collaboration with the experts and developers at Celonis.
Our amazing team in Munich and Porto is key for the successful usage of Process Mining at the BMW Group.
How does Celonis’ Process Mining technology support BMW Group’s group-wide digitalisation initiative?
For companies the size of the BMW Group, data is distributed across many IT systems.
Our central Cloud Data Hub deals as an intermediate layer to analyse this data further. Process Mining helps us to analyse and optimise our processes based on this data.
By using the latest generation of Process Mining, Object-Centric Process Mining (OCPM), we now have the opportunity to create a digital twin of the entire enterprise company – including the interdependencies of the various processes. This opens up immense potential, as the causes of inefficiencies, for example, are often hidden at the interfaces between individual processes.
With regards to the software’s ease of use and integration of AI models, how does this enhance BMW Group’s ability to analyse and optimise its processes?
AI is already making it easier for users to utilise the possibilities of Process Mining – even for those who are not IT-savvy. The aim is to make Process Mining available to all the group’s employees, giving them the ability to analyse all company processes relevant to them and to identify and eliminate anything that causes inefficiency.
Celonis can also act as an ‘enabler’ for the use of other LLM/AI applications thanks to its standardised object-centric data model.
