GB2355553A

GB2355553A - A management system

Info

Publication number: GB2355553A
Application number: GB9924602A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Anne O'leary; Seamus Hurley; Paul O'leary
Original assignee: CADCO DEVELOPMENTS Ltd
Current assignee: CADCO DEVELOPMENTS Ltd
Priority date: 1999-10-18
Filing date: 1999-10-18
Publication date: 2001-04-25
Also published as: WO2001029719A1; GB9924602D0; AU6363699A

Abstract

A management system (1) interfaces with an external EDMS i.e. electronic document management system (2). A create function (5) creates a corrective action record (CAR) in a database (6). A submit function (7) submits a corrective action to EDMS (2) by activating a workflow engine router with a dummy document. The router submits messages to the inboxes in turn of the persons responsible for each stage. The system (1) processes the corrective action at the inbox of each person in turn by automatically trapping a method via an API when a view or edit option is selected. Access control level permissions are automatically updated as the corrective action routes from one stage to the next.

Description

2355553 "A Management System"

INTRODUCTION

Field of the Invention

The invention relates to management of processes in organisations.

Prior Art Discussion

In recent years there has been much progress in development of work flow engines to manage flow of work represented as documents. An example is the system described in Japanese Patent Specification No. JPI 1025199 (NEC), in which the circulation order of an electronic document is defined in a hierarchy.

This approach has arisen because of the need for electronic document management in organisations, such as insurance companies or financial institutions, and indeed the approach has been very effective for the intended purpose. Such work flow engines typically reside in what are known as electronic document management systems (EDMS).

However, a problem which such organisations encounter is achieving effective control of processes which are not document related and obtaining dynamic management reports indicating process status. An example of such a process is Corrective Action Reporting in which an organisation identifies a problem requiring correction and implements a process to follow it through to solving the problem and implementing appropriate preventative actions.

Objects of the Invention There is therefore a need for a management system for use by organisations having EDMS systems which allows management of such processes in a simple and effective manner.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

According to the invention, there is provided a management system for controlling performance of a work flow process, the system comprising:

create means for creating a database process record in which data defines a sequence of work stages and a person responsible for each stage, and the record further comprises data fields for receiving work perfon-nance data inputted by said persons; submit means for submitting the record to a work flow engine of a separate electronic document management system as a document to be processed in a work flow instance with sequential mailing to said persons; processing means for setting access rights to the record which enable writes only by one of said persons when a message is currently in his or her mailbox, namely an owner, and for allowing the mail engine transmit a message to the person responsible for a next work stage when editing is complete; and reporting means for interrogating a process record database and generating status reports according to the current stages of the process records.

In one embodiment, the create means comprises means for preventing deletion of a work stage definition to ensure integrity of a process lifecycle.

In one embodiment, the create means comprises means for storing a plurality of process record templates, each defining persons responsible for the work stages.

In one embodiment, the create means comprises means for instantiating a template as a work flow router associated with a dummy document and with a process record.

In one embodiment, the submit means comprises means for submitting the router to the work flow engine and for separately storing the process record in a database within the management system.

In one embodiment, the processing means comprises means for trapping an API method of the work flow engine when a viewing or an editing function is selected by an owner, and for retaining control of the editing and viewing functions until editing is complete.

In one embodiment, the processing means comprises means for allowing a process to be terminated as a state arising from a stage.

In another embodiment, the processing means comprises means for capturing explanatory text from its owner to the process record before termination.

In one embodiment, the processing means comprises means for allowing termination only for a stage which has a pre-set termination state.

In a further embodiment, the processing means comprises means for storing process records in a folder associated in a one-to-one relationship with the current process stage or state.

In one embodiment, the processing means comprises means for dynamically building a virtual document on-the-fly from a process record when requested by an owner when a message is in his or her mailbox.

In one embodiment, the virtual document is an HTML document.

In one embodiment, the create means and the processing means comprise means for writing document relational objects to the process record, said objects relating the process record to a document in a storage structure of the 15 electronic document management system.

In one embodiment, the create means and the processing means comprise means for providing a view in the document storage structure and for allowing selection and access to related documents.

In another embodiment, the create means comprises means for setting access control levels in the process record, in which there is data identifying interested persons and data setting an access permission for each of said interested persons.

In one embodiment, the interested persons data comprises identifiers of the person responsible for each work stage, all interested persons, and a group which is a sub-set of all interested persons.

In one embodiment, the processing means comprises means for automatically updating the access control levels when an owner has completed editing.

In one embodiment, the processing means comprises means for capturing dates for stages and the reporting means comprises means for generating historical reports according to interrogation of said dates.

In another embodiment, the system comprises means for operating according to object-oriented methodology, in which each process is an object, and a 10 mailbox message is a graphical view of an object.

In one embodiment, the process record database is managed using embedded SQL code.

In one embodiment, the process is a corrective action management process.

In the latter embodiment, the stages preferably include submit a corrective action process, investigate the process, implement corrective action, and implement preventative action.

According to another aspect, the invention provides a computer program product comprising software code whereby a system as defined above is completed when the product is loaded into the memory of a digital computer.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTON

Brief Description of the Drawings

The invention will be more clearly understood from the following description of some embodiments thereof, given by way of example only with reference to the accompanying dralvvings in which:-

Fig. I is a schematic representation of a management system of the invention and the manner in which it interfaces with an EDMS; Fig. 2 is diagram illustrating stages and states implemented by the system; and Figs. 3 to 9 inclusive are display screens illustrating operation of the system.

Description of the Embodiments

Referring to the drawings, and initially to Fig. 1, there is shown a corrective action management system I of the invention. The system I is for interaction with a separate and external electronic document management system (EDMS) 2. The system I comprises a create function 5 which creates a database corrective action record (CAR). This comprises data defining a sequence of work stages and a person responsible for each stage. It also includes data fields for subsequently receiving work performance data inputted by these persons.

In more detail, the create function 5 comprises SQL and EDMS APIs written to implement object-orientated methodology and embedded SQL code for management of a database 6.

The system I manages lifecycle stages and states, shown in Fig. 2. The stages are as follows:- 21: submit 22: investigate, 23: corrective action, 24: review corrective action, 25: preventative action, 26: review preventative action In this specification, a "stage" is defined as a work flow operation in response to an input by a pre-defined person responsible for that operation. At any one point in time there is only one person responsible and who has access rights to make the input for the operation. That person is referred to as the "owner". The stages 21 to 25 are implemented by the submit and processing functions 7 and 9.

The lifecycle states arise from the stages. These are:- a discard state 30 which arises from the investigate stage 22, and a close state 31 which arises from the corrective action review stage 24 or from the review stage 26.

Each of the stages 21 to 26 and of the states 30 and 31 have an associated storage directory or folder. The corrective action record is stored in the current stage or state folder.

The system I comprises a set of stored templates which provide a lifecycle model of the stages 21 to 26 and the states 30 and 31. This is because all of the templates include these stages and states. An instance of a template is a work flow router associated with a dummy (empty) document.

The create function 5 generates a corrective action record, the data structure of 5 which is set out in the table below.

Table - Corrective Action Record Data Object Name Corr-action Object No. Ca-comments Title Ca-reviewer Subject Ca-rev-comrn Initiator Pa-respons Owner-name Prev-action Owner_permit Pa-comments group_name Pa-reviewer group_pen-nit Pa-rev-comm discard text Ca_target-date prev-action-req Pa-tamet-date priority Inv-signoff-date status Ca-rev-sis2noff-date source dept Pa-si.Rnoff-date response dept Pa-rev-si!anoff-date problem-desc Problem type manager Audit-number investigator inv-comments cause response name An individual corrective action record (CAR) is a single object which has a name and a number. The create function 5 generates a screen which automatically includes the name of the initiator according to that person's user 5 name and ID. The record is also automatically populated with the date that the CAR is created. The screen allows the initiator to select a "source of nonconformance" from a drop-down list. Options are, for example, customer complaint, employee suggestion, product non-confonnance, or supplier nonconformance. The initiator then selects "responsible department" within the organisation from a drop-list. The options selected provide default data in which the identity of the functional manager is automatically populated, However, alternative data may be inputted by the initiator. As shown in Fig. 3, the initiator is prompted to input descriptive text and to select data such as the customer number, the customer name and the type of problem. Problems of this type are also displayed for other sources of non-conformance such as those listed above.

The system I also automatically populates the CAR with additional data, as shown in the Table above. An important set of data generated by the create function 5 are access control levels (ACLs). There is an ACL for each stage. Each ACL comprises a permission for each of the owner, a group, and the world. The owner is that person responsible who is currently authorised to progress the corrective action process. The circumstances in which a person is for the time being in this role are described in more detail below. The world is the maximum-sized group of people within the organisation who can access the system 1. A group is a subset of the world, such as a particular department. Thus, as shown in the Table above, there is a name and a pennission level for 5 each of the owner, the group, and the world.

Data such as the relevant manager in the department involved and the identity of the source department are automatically populated. At the create stage, the initiator inputs some additional data as illustrated in Fig. 3.

The create function 5 creates a CAR, in which many of the fields shown in the Table above are populated. Creation of a process also involves instantiating a template selected by the initiator. This instance is an EDMS work flow router associated with a dummy (empty) document. This router user EDMS work flow engine criteria to define the persons responsible for all of the stages 21 to 26.

The submit function 7 operates in response to a person responsible for the submit stage 21 (owner) to submit a corrective action work flow process to a work flow engine 8 of the EDMS 2. The submit operation involves transferring the work flow engine 8, as it "sees" a conventional router and the router identifies a sequence of addressee persons (persons responsible) and a reference to a document. However, the document is a dummy document and the process is implemented instead by the router in combination with the CAR in the database 6.

The work flow engine 8 then operates in a conventional manner by transmitting a message containing a pointer to the dummy document and to the CAR to the mailbox of the person responsible for the investigate stage 22.

The system processing function 9 is programmed to automatically trap a method in the EDMS 2 via an API whereby when the person responsible selects view or edit options for the message. The system I takes over control using the processing function 9. In this way, the processing of the CAR is centred around the inbox of the persons responsible for the various stages. The person responsible for a current stage and whose inbox contains such a message is referred to as "owner" for the time being.

In this embodiment, the first stage is the investigation stage and a screen such as that shown in Fig. 4 is generated. The CAR includes a "Discard" field to allow owner at the investigation stage to discard the corrective action. This brings the process to the discard state 30 shown in Fig. 2, and the CAR is written to the discard folder. The investigator may select a priority level from a drop-down list and may input comments in a text box. If the investigator selects a "view" option, the system 1 automatically generates an HTML document displaying the CAR details. This is generated on-fly and exists only during the viewing session and so is referred to as a "virtual" document. Fig. 5 illustrates an example of an HTML document which is created from the CAR.

The system I is programmed to access a document storage structure within the EDMS 2 whereby it may retrieve documents and attach them to the CAR by writing relational objects to the CAR.

The "FYI" option allows the owner to send a message to the relevant functional manager as a way of informing him or her of the progress of a corrective action.

The "save" command allows the owner to transfer the process to the next stage, namely the corrective action stage 23. In the corrective action stage 23, the owner receives a message in his or her mailbox and again the processing function 9 takes over processing of the record at that stage. As shown in Fig. 6 the "priority field" is populated automatically, as defined in the investigation stage. The "Responsibility" field is automatically populated with the owner, namely the person responsible for the corrective action as pre-defined. This person may input a target date for closing the preventative action. The type of corrective action may be selected from a drop-down list and the owner may enter "Comments" as free text. Again, the owner may view the CAR data, may attach documents, or may send an FYI notification. The "Save" button transfers control over to the next stage.

As shown in Fig. 7, the next stage arises when the person responsible for reviewing the corrective action receives a message in his or her mailbox and a screen such as that shown in Fig. 7 is displayed. The date for the review is automatically written and the reviewer may input "Comments" as free text. The owner inputs a "Target Date" for closing the process. An important aspect of the review correction action stage 24 is that the owner may select whether there should be preventative action or the process should move to the closed state 31. The preventative action and associated stages are a fixed part of the template, however, the cycle may be terminated at this stage when preventative action is not appropriate. These inputs may only be performed by the person responsible for reviewing the corrective action. The selection is made by clicking one of the radio buttons Yes or No as shown in the bottom left hand comer or the display screen of Fig. 7.

The next stage is definition of the preventative action 25 and this is perforn-led by the person responsible for this stage, as defined during creation of the CAR. As shown in Fig. 8 a "Date" field is automatically populated with the date that the preventative action is defined. The "Target Date" is the date for closing the preventative action. The "Type of Preventative Action" is selected from a drop- down list, and the "Comments" text box is used by the owner to enter free text. The owner may click a "Save" button, causing the workflow engine 8 to take over control again and route a message to the person responsible for the review preventative action stage 26.

This owner is presented with a screen as shown in Fig. 9, and again the date and the person responsible are automatically written by the system, and the system receives free text comments. When the corrective action data is saved by pressing the "Save" button it is automatically closed by the system and no further editing of the CAR is allowed. The CAR is automatically written to the Closed folder associated with the state 3 1.

It will be appreciated that progression of the corrective action through the various stages results in population of the CAR fields illustrated in the Table.

The corrective action may be terminated early at some of the stages, however, this is carried out in a strictly controlled manner with only the owner being allowed to terminate and being required to input explanatory text. As the corrective action moves from one stage to another the system automatically updates the pennissions for the next stage according to the ACL data for that stage. This is set by default from the template and inputs from the initiator.

Referring again to Fig. 1, a reporting function I I generates management reports by interrogating the database 6. The CARs at any point in time contain the upto-date information on all of the processes being managed. There is no need for an intermediate database or for processing the data from the CARs in any significant manner. The reporting function I I is coded with Visual BasiCTM to generate line graphs and bar charts indicating the current process stages. The reporting function I I generates historical reports by simply reading from those fields storing data for the stages and data inputted at those stages. Thus, the

CAR itself provides both current and historical data. The data is very quickly accessed because each stage and state has an associated storage folder so that the CAR locations inherently provide basic current stage data. The fields AAthin the CARs provide the historical data. 5 The invention is not limited to the embodiments described, but may be varied in construction and detail v%Athin the scope of the claims.

Claims

Claims

I. A management system (1) for controlling perfon-nance of a work flow process, the system comprising create means (5) for creating a database process record in which data defines a sequence of work stages and a person responsible for each stage, and the record further comprises data fields for receiving work performance data inputted by said persons; submit means (7) for submitting the record to a work flow engine of a separate electronic document management system as a document to be processed in a work flow instance with sequential mailing to said persons; processing means (9) for setting access rights to the record which enable writes only by one of said persons when a message is currently in his or her mailbox, namely an owner, and for allowing the mail engine transmit a message to the person responsible for a next work stage when editing is complete; and reporting means (11) for interrogating a process record database and generating status reports according to the current stages of the process records.
2. A system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the create means (5) comprises means for preventing deletion of a work stage definition to ensure integrity of a process lifecycle.
3. A system as claimed in claim 2, wherein the create means (5) comprises means for storing a plurality of process record templates, each defining persons responsible for the work stages.
4. A system as claimed in claim 3, wherein the create means (5) comprises means for instantiating a template as a work flow router associated with a dummy document and with a process record.
5. A system as claimed in claim 4, wherein the submit means (7) comprises means for submitting the router to the work flow engine and for separately storing the process record in a database within the management system.
6. A system as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the processing means (9) comprises means for trapping an API method of the work flow engine when a viewing or an editing function is selected by an owner, and for retaining control of the editing and viewing functions until editing is complete.
7. A system as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the processing means (9) comprises means for allowing a process to be terminated as a state arising from a stage.
8. A system as claimed in claim 7, wherein the processing means (9) comprises means for capturing explanatory text from its owner to the process record before ten-nination.
9. A system as claimed in claim 7 or 8, wherein the processing means (9) comprises means for allowing termination only for a stage which has a pre-set ten-nination state.
10. A system as claimed in any of claims 7 to 9, wherein the processing means (9) comprises means for storing process records in a folder associated in a one-to-one relationship with the current process stage or state.
11. A system as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the processing means (9) comprises means for dynamically building a virtual document (Fig. 5) on-the-fly from a process record when requested by an owner when a message is in his or her mailbox.
12. A system as claimed in claim 11, wherein the virtual document is an HTML document.
13. A system as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the create means (5) and the processing means (9) comprise means for writing document relational objects to the process record, said objects relating the process record to a document in a storage structure of the electronic document management system.
14. A system as claimed in claim 13, wherein the create means (5) and the processing means (9) comprise means for providing a view in the document storage structure and for allowing selection and access to related documents.
15. A system as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the create means (7) comprises means for setting access control levels in the process record, in which there is data identifying interested persons and data setting an access permission for each of said interested persons.
16. A system as claimed in claim 15, wherein the interested persons data comprises identifiers of the person responsible for each work stage, all interested persons, and a group which is a sub-set of all interested persons.
17. A system as claimed in claim 16, wherein the processing means (9) comprises means for automatically updating the access control levels when an owner has completed editing.
18. A system as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the processing means (9) comprises means for capturing dates for stages and the reporting means comprises means for generating historical reports according to interrogation of said dates.
19. A system as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the system comprises means for operating according to object-oriented methodology, in which each process is an object, and a mailbox message is a graphical view of an object.
20. A system as claimed in claim 19, wherein the create means (7) and the processing means (9) comprise means for managing the process records using embedded SQL code.
21. A system as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the work flow process is a corrective action management process.
22. A system as claimed in any of claims 5 to 21, wherein the stages include submit a corrective action process (21), investigate the process (22), I -19 implement corrective action (23), and implement preventative action (25).
23. A management system (1) substantially as described with reference to the dravOngs.
24. A computer program product comprising software code whereby a system of any of claims I to 22 is completed when the product is loaded into the memory of a digital computer. 10