Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to describe the case of a leading Italian aerospace company which developed an integrated system aimed to optimize the management of engineering competencies within the Chief Technical Office function. Design/methodology/approach -The paper was based on a set of interviews to company referents and a one-year period of researcher's observation at the company site to analyze competence management processes and the application on the field of the methodology and the tool. The approach adopted is to present a real practice following a pragmatic and illustrative approach. Findings -The integrated system provides an objective method to support critical evaluations related to the management of competencies and actors. The benefits achieved derive from a more effective and efficient monitoring of competencies available to perform given activities, and from the analysis of gaps, actor allocation, and job-rotation issues.Research limitations/implications -The application of the method and the tool is still quite "dependent" from the skills of their developers. Besides, the activities and competencies of those units which support new product development processes should be also integrated in the system. Practical implications -The case described can be a useful benchmark for organizations working in complex industries in the effort of improving the performance of engineering activities through an enhanced management of knowledge about people potential and expertise. Originality/value -The value of the paper may stay in a twofold process/project and people management perspective in the monitoring, development, and scouting of technical competencies.

The benefits of managing companies through a process-based approach are well recognized in the business literature and in many corporate contexts. However, there is a limited discussion on how to practically design and develop an organization based on processes. This paper aims to address this relative 'gap' in the literature by presenting the case of a recent international joint venture in the regional jet industry. In the following paper, we present a story of organization design based on the identification and description of the core process model of the company, with a specific focus on customer service activities. Based on interviews and direct observation at the field site, this paper shows the main steps undertaken to define the process taxonomy levels and to describe process elements, along with a discussion of the relationships with the business model components of the company. The paper provides practical value as it provides practical insights relating to the start-up of a new company driven by a process-based approach.

Purpose: Many differences exist between a generic process representation and the real flow of activities performed in relation to specific products/programs within an enterprise. The product life cycle modeling approach allows us to model the temporal flow of activities from conceptualization to disposal of specific product/program. In contrast, the business process modeling approach provides a general process perspective. The two views taken alone are not entirely satisfactory. This paper aims to propose a unified and integrated product-business process modeling approach, which overcomes the limitations inherent in adopting a single perspective, maintaining as much as possible, the essential characteristics and strengths of both modeling approaches. Design/methodology/approach: The conceptual model of the proposed unified approach is based on the review of existing process and product modeling theories and on an inductive perspective emerging from the observation of the organizational practices in a number of Italian aerospace companies. Findings: The proposed approach is expressed in eight guidelines, which describe a new unifying perspective to be adopted in different domains, which ensure that managers identify the assets and activities that are associated with each product that an organization creates. Constraints are also suggested. Some practical applications and examples using the software, ARIS (IDS Scheer, Saarland, Germany) are also provided based on actual practices in an aerospace company. Originality/value: This paper describes a new unifying perspective for a combination of product/business process modeling view.

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