Glossary · System coordination, integration and orchestration
Business process engine
Also known as: workflow engine, BPM engine, process engine
German: Geschäftsprozess-Engine
In enterprise software, a business process engine is a software component that executes modeled business processes, for example in BPMN, by creating process instances, assigning tasks, calling services and tracking the state of each instance.
- System integration
In one sentence
A business process engine executes modeled business processes, creating instances, assigning tasks, calling services and tracking their state.
Example
When a quality deviation is recorded in the MES, a process engine starts an approval workflow, assigns review tasks and calls the ERP to block the batch.
How it applies
- Integration: Process engines orchestrate long-running, often human-involving processes across ERP, MES and quality systems. They keep state for hours or weeks, which real-time control systems should not do.
- Engineering: Model error paths explicitly, including compensating steps (Compensating transaction) when a later step fails, and define which system is the owner of each data item.
- Documentation: The process model can serve as a basis for procedure documentation, but the text must describe what users do and see, not the notation. Keep the published procedure and the executable model under the same change control.
Business process engine vs. PLC sequence
A PLC sequence controls machine steps in milliseconds with deterministic timing. A process engine coordinates business steps between systems and people; it must never take over machine control or safety decisions.