Personally, I prefer to use swimlanes in my process maps wherever this makes sense.

The reason is because I think swimlanes enable a more easy-to-assimilate visualization of an ERP processe than a single lane linear or 'wraparound' flow.

A swimlane process map has the central or core process lane in the middle plus 'above the line' and 'below the line' process lanes.

Above the line lanes could include

• a reporting lane to specify output reports/alerts/KPIs
• a customer lane to specify customer interactions/impacts

Below the line lanes could include:

• an inventory impact lane to specify inventory interactions/impacts
• a supplier lane to specify supplier interactions/impacts

Swimlanes are also helpful when defining processes that involve multi application interactions in that each application can have its own lane.

Project Management 1