The story
Two checks at once, one decision after both.
Somebody in purchasing nominates a supplier: a new part, a second source, a replacement. The supplier receives access to the supplier portal and completes a questionnaire about the company, its certificates and its capacity. Purchasing evaluates the answers in the supplier relationship system. Then the model does something the other examples do not: it splits the work in two.
A parallel gateway, the diamond with the plus sign, sends the case to quality and to compliance at the same time. Quality audits the supplier's quality system and records the result in the QMS. Compliance runs a due diligence check against sanctions lists and supply chain risk sources with a screening tool. That check is the control step, drawn in blue: a step the organisation has made mandatory before any new supplier is approved.
A second parallel gateway joins the two branches. It waits until both are complete; neither result alone is enough. Then purchasing decides with an exclusive gateway, approve or not. On yes, purchasing creates the vendor master record in the ERP and the supplier is approved. On no, the supplier is rejected, and the end event sits in the supplier's lane.
This is a fictional example model. A real supplier onboarding would add sample parts, price negotiation, a contract, bank details with their own four-eyes check, and periodic re-evaluation. The example keeps the parallel pair and the single decision after it.
The diagram
The model as BPMN 2.0.
The two diamonds with the plus sign are the parallel pair. Everything between them happens at the same time; everything after the second one waits for both branches. The exclusive gateway with the cross comes only after the join.
Elements used
What is in the model, and why.
Eleven nodes, three gateways, five systems. The parallel pair is what makes this example worth reading next to the others.
Lanes: Purchasing, Supplier, Quality, Compliance
The supplier has a lane because the supplier does work: completing the questionnaire. Quality and compliance are separate lanes because they are separate functions that must not depend on each other's result.
Parallel split and join
Two parallel gateways, both in the purchasing lane. The split has one incoming and two outgoing flows; the join has two incoming and one outgoing. A join without a split, or the other way round, is the most common modelling mistake with parallel work.
Gateway: Approve?
The exclusive gateway after the join. It is answered by purchasing with both results on the table. Putting it after the join, not inside one of the branches, is what makes the two checks truly parallel.
Control step: Due diligence check
The blue task in the compliance lane, with the screening tool under it. The quality audit is important but it is work; the due diligence check is a control, because the organisation has decided it must never be skipped.
Systems and end events
Supplier portal, SRM, QMS, screening tool and ERP, one per role. Two end events in the supplier's lane: Supplier approved after the vendor master record exists, Supplier rejected straight from the gateway.
Where the process waits
What to look at in a supplier onboarding model.
Parallel work is faster on paper. In practice the join waits for the slower branch, and the slower branch is usually the one that depends on someone outside the company.
The questionnaire
Complete questionnaire is in the supplier's lane. A supplier who wants the business answers quickly; a supplier who is one of many does not. The process cannot start in earnest until this step is done.
The audit date
A quality audit on site needs a date that suits two companies. The join waits for it. If audits are scheduled in batches, every onboarding waits for the next batch.
Who tells the supplier?
The rejection ends in the supplier's lane, but no task sends it. In a real process somebody in purchasing writes that message, and whether they do it promptly is worth checking.
The vendor master record
Create vendor master is the last task, in the ERP. Until it exists, nobody can order. If the record needs its own approval, the model has a second control step waiting to be drawn.
Request the file
The model as a .bpmn file.
The file is a fictional example model in BPMN 2.0 XML. It opens in standard BPMN tools such as Camunda Modeler, Signavio or ADONIS, with lanes, the parallel pair, the decision gateway, the control step and the diagram layout. It is sent by email on request; nothing is downloaded from this page.
Parallel gateways and when to use them: the BPMN guide. The order side of the same plant: order-to-delivery. Processes in manufacturing as a whole: manufacturing.