A business process consists of several consecutive steps, such that if a process flows from one step to another then the pair of steps is considered single-way connected. How does one call a person or a team which is fed with results from previous step to begin their work?
For example, on a car production pipeline, painting only starts when each detail is ready to: cut, pressed, and welded. So, painting stage "consumes" prepared components.
What is a proper name, in general, for a person or team in such a relationship?
I have several alternatives, and all of them seems unsuitable for me:
- consumer — one is called a consumer when she actually gets a complete result, not intermediate one;
- customer — same;
- next-in-line — too general, too impersonated;
- stakeholder — too general.