Abstract
Companies have been trying to improve the cost of their supply chains for a long time. However, they have not been able to make progress in improving indirect costs because of the wide range of items and the com-plexity of the organization. To solve this problem, we propose the application of the business process value chain diagram, a visualization method. We applied the business process value chain diagram to indirect cost improvement as a model of inter-organizational business processes related to indirect cost improvement and the flow of information and decision making within a complex organization, and verified the results. The results of the application of the business process value chain diagram to indirect cost improvement are ex-amined. The relationship between the business process value chain diagram and the 3S model of program management theory is discussed from a case study in which this model was applied to a domestic manufac-turing company.
