Reference no: EM133019920

Question - SURVEY - The Birth of Process Thinking - One of the breakthrough events for the development of BPM was Ford's acquisition of a big financial stake in Mazda during the 1980s. When visiting Mazda's plants, one of the things that observant Ford executives noticed was that units within Mazda seemed considerably understaffed in comparison with comparable units within Ford, yet operated normally. Figure 1.3 depicts the way purchasing was done within Ford at the time.

Every purchase that Ford would make needed to go through the purchasing department. On deciding that a particular quantity of products indeed had to be purchased, this department sent out an order to the vendor in question. It would also send a copy of that order to accounts payable. When the vendor followed up, the ordered goods would be delivered at Ford's receiving warehouse. Along with the goods came a shipping notice, which was passed on to accounts payable. The vendor would also send out an invoice to accounts payable directly.

Consider the purchasing process at Ford.

1. Who are the actors in this process?

2. Which actors can be considered to be the customer (or customers) in this process?