Patent ID: 8078919

Claim:
A method for managing multiple step processes triggered by a signal, comprising: establishing a plurality of nodes in a business process chain for supporting production of a product, each of the plurality of nodes representing at least one process involved in production of the product, wherein the business process chain is formed by a sequence of processes that each waits for a trigger signal, and wherein the plurality of nodes are associated with a plurality of parties having responsibility for at least one process associated with one of the plurality of nodes; receiving at each of the plurality of nodes in the business process chain an incoming trigger signal, wherein at least one of the plurality of nodes in the business process chain receives a plurality of incoming trigger signals; transmitting by each of the plurality of nodes in the business process chain an outbound trigger signal, wherein at least one of the plurality of nodes in the business process chain transmits a plurality of outbound trigger signals, and wherein the incoming and outbound trigger signals comprises a plurality of different signal types used for different processes at the plurality of nodes; creating status records by node processors responsible for executing each of the plurality of processes of the plurality of nodes in the business process chain; wherein the status records include key data for restarting the business process chain, and, if associated with a node experiencing an error, an error record; forwarding the status records to a control processor monitoring the sequence of processes in the business process chain; presenting, by the control processor, a visual display of the business process chain, the visual display configurable to display each process associated with each of the plurality of nodes in the business process chain and a status record associated with each of the plurality of nodes in the business process chain; detecting, by the control processor, an error condition occurring in the business process chain; identifying, by the control processor, a failed node in the business process chain where the error condition occurred; analyzing, by the control processor, a status record associated with the failed node where the error condition occurred including an error record associated therewith, and analyzing a status record for a node immediately prior to the failed node where the error condition occurred; determining, by the processor, one of the plurality of nodes for restarting the business process chain based on the analysis of the status record associated with the failed node where the error condition occurred including the error record associated therewith, and the status record for the node immediately prior to the failed node where the error condition occurred; and initiating, by the processor, a restarting of the business process chain at the determined one of the plurality of nodes.