Process Innovation & Automation Lab

Mission and Vision

The process innovation & automation lab is a virtual laboratory within the Department of Electrical Engineering at the South Westphalia University of Applied Sciences, campus Soest.
We are focused on practical research in the area of digital transformation, especially process innovation and process automation. These topics are also included in study courses on bachelor and master level as well as in trainings for practitioners.
Our research is about both creating new solutions and empirically understanding the usage of concepts, methods and tools for digital transformation, with a strong focus on business processes.
We are constantly open for collaboration with partners from the industry for, e.g., joint research projects, bachelor or master theses, and inclusion into our teaching efforts.

Projects

Understanding the current state of RPA in German organizations
We are currently working with several organizations to understand the current state of RPA in Germany. This is done through interviews and case study research.

Governance of RPA and lightweight IT
We are analyzing and deriving best practices for roles and responsibilities for the use of lightweight information technologies and RPA in organizations.

Team

Ralf Plattfaut
Ralf Plattfaut is a Professor for Business Informatics at Fachhochschule Südwestfalen. He leads the business process innovation and automation lab and has a strong focus on digital transformation and information systems. Before joining the Fachhochschule he worked for an international consulting company. He has published multiple articles in international journals and presented his work on various conferences.

Vincent Borghoff
Vincent Borghoff is a research associate in the Process Innovation and Automation lab. His main focus lies within the field of organizational change due to process automation.

Peter Alois François
Peter Alois François is a research associate in the Process Innovation and Automation lab. His main focus is the Automation of business processes based on design-for-reuse principles and the resulting implications for governance.