Process re-engineering is the fundamental redesign of end-to-end business processes to achieve step-change improvements in cycle time, quality, and efficiency — rather than incremental optimisation of existing processes. EMUG Tech’s process re-engineering service covers six primary process areas for engineering and manufacturing organisations: engineering change management; BOM release and manufacturing handover; quality inspection and NCR management; procurement and purchase order processing; document control and technical documentation; and production planning and scheduling. All programmes follow the EMUG RESET Framework — five phases covering Review, Engineer, Simulate, Execute, and Track — with system integration requirements designed into each redesigned process from the Engineer phase.

EMUG RESET is the five-phase process re-engineering methodology: Review — current-state process mapping, performance baselining, and waste identification; Engineer — future-state process design with system integration requirements and quality system alignment; Simulate — process validation through modelling and stakeholder challenge sessions; Execute — phased process rollout with system configuration, training, and change management; Track — performance measurement against baselines and continuous improvement. RESET addresses the most common process improvement failure: redesigning processes in isolation without validating against quality system requirements, without designing system automation into the new process, and without delivering the change management that makes new processes stick.

EMUG Tech’s current-state process analysis uses three complementary methods: structured stakeholder interviews with process participants at each step to capture actual execution, not the documented procedure; process mining on system event logs (SAP transaction logs, PLM workflow history, MES production records) to measure actual cycle times, waiting times, and deviation frequency from the intended process; and direct observation for manufacturing and quality processes where the actual execution differs significantly from both the documented procedure and the digital system record. This combination produces process maps that reflect operational reality rather than theoretical best practice, and performance baselines with specific quantified metrics per process step rather than aggregate cycle time estimates.

EMUG RESET Engineer phase validates redesigned processes against quality system requirements before any system configuration or automation is built: every approval step, change traceability requirement, and audit trail specification from IATF 16949 and AS9100 is mapped to the redesigned process to confirm compliance is maintained. Redesigned processes typically improve quality system compliance rather than reducing it — replacing manual email-based approvals (which produce inconsistent audit trail evidence) with PLM workflow automation (which produces complete, timestamped, attributable audit records for every approval decision). For organisations pursuing IATF 16949 or AS9100 certification, process re-engineering can accelerate audit readiness by replacing ad hoc manual processes with documented, controlled digital workflows.

Process improvement (continuous improvement, Lean, Six Sigma) optimises existing processes incrementally — reducing waste within the current process design through better execution, tighter control, and targeted defect elimination. Process re-engineering redesigns the process fundamentally — questioning whether each step should exist at all, whether the sequence should change, whether the handoffs between functions are necessary, and whether the process can be executed digitally rather than manually. EMUG Tech recommends process re-engineering when incremental improvement has reached its limit — when a process has been Lean-optimised but still has manual handoffs, approval bottlenecks, and cycle times that are constrained by the fundamental process design rather than by execution quality.

EMUG RESET treats process re-engineering and system automation as a single programme — not sequential phases where process design completes before system design begins. In the Engineer phase, every manual step identified for elimination is evaluated for automation approach: PLM workflow automation (for processes that live inside the PLM system), SAP workflow (for SAP-resident approval and processing steps), RPA (for cross-system data transfer without API integration), or API integration (for bidirectional system integration). Automation requirements are documented as part of the redesigned process specification, ensuring the PLM configuration team, SAP team, and RPA development team all build to the same process design rather than each interpreting the process requirements independently.

A focused single-process re-engineering programme — for example, ECM process redesign for one engineering group — typically completes from Review to Track go-live in 10 to 16 weeks. A multi-process re-engineering programme covering ECM, BOM release, and quality NCR processes typically takes 4 to 6 months. A full enterprise process re-engineering programme across engineering, manufacturing, quality, and procurement functions typically takes 9 to 18 months, phased by process priority and system dependency. The most common schedule constraint is stakeholder availability for the Review workshop series and sign-off on future-state process designs before the Execute phase begins.

Process re-engineering programmes are delivered across automotive OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers, aerospace and defense manufacturers, industrial machinery producers, energy companies, and high-tech electronics firms in 20 countries: Germany, France, UK, Netherlands, Sweden, Italy, Spain, Poland, Czech Republic in Europe; India, Japan, South Korea, China, Malaysia, Thailand in Asia-Pacific; UAE and Saudi Arabia in the Middle East; USA, Canada, Mexico, Brazil in the Americas. Process re-engineering delivery from Hyderabad, Germany, and Dubai with on-site process workshop facilitation and observation capability at client engineering and manufacturing facilities globally.