Digital Case Study: Augmented Process Analysis and Optimization

We have developed a new approach for teaching business process analysis and optimization based on a digital case study. The case study has been elaborated in cooperation with a production company for compression wear, guided by the concept of action research and the ambition that students can virtually immerse themselves into the company's order-to-cash process. For this purpose, associated process documentation, stations of an order flow, interviews with employees and time stamps of process instances have been made available for students on the educational platform Moodle. The students cooperate in teams analyzing and optimizing the order-to-cash process with the objective to qualify for a consecutive consulting assignment. To gradually increase the level of complexity the students are guided through three phases of analysis building upon one another, being enabled by an interactive guide implemented with the Moodle plugin H5P. The fourth and final phase constitutes an open challenge in which the teams leverage all the information previously collected to identify optimization potential. They summarize their recommendations in a report addressed to a company representative. Feedback of students confirms a well-designed learning path as well as high practical relevance of this new education environment. The structure of the case applies action research at different difficulty levels and can directly be transferred to other companies regardless their business activity or industry. In a planned revision it will be examined how the Moodle plug-in "Level up" can be used to intensify the gamification aspect throughout the assignment.