Process mining at Lufthansa CityLine: The path to process excellence

Process mining is a big data technology, which focuses on the discovery, monitoring, and improvement of business processes, based on real data from information systems. This teaching case describes the objectives of a German airline as it introduces process mining and discusses current and future value potentials of this technology. The case is particularly useful for executive MBA courses on Strategy (the value of IT investments) or master’s-level courses on Business Process Management. This case has three main learning objectives. First, students will evaluate the capabilities of different (technological) approaches to reaching the airline’s business goals and will make a justified decision on the feasibility of implementing process mining. Second, students will analyze the airline’s approach to implementing process mining and the challenges along the way. They will derive lessons learned and discuss approaches to solving challenges. Third, students will evaluate the value potentials of process mining. This will enable the students to make well-informed decisions on technology investments and to discover how these decisions can contribute to business goals. The case is designed to be taught in two formats. In a 90-min lecture, students need to prepare short assignments for classroom discussions. In a 180-min lecture, the assignments are included as group work during the lecture, but they require the students to read the case before class. Teaching Notes, including videos and additional study material to support group work, are available to eligible lecturers upon request.