The invention discloses a process management system, an individual controller used therein, and an access control method. The process management system comprises one or more operation devices (10) and individual controllers (20) that are directly or indirectly applied to workpieces (2) and that control the operation devices (10). Each operation device (10) has an operation-device-side storage unit (11), an operation-device-side communication unit (12), an operation unit (13), and an operation-device-side control unit (14). Each individual controller (20) has an individual-controller-side storage unit (21), an individual-controller-side communication unit (22), and an individual-controller-side arithmetic/control unit (24) that transmits, to an operation-device-side communication unit (12), related-setting information and the content of an operation to be performed by the corresponding operation device (10) as part of a process, as stored in that individual-controller-side storage unit (21), with execution results up to that point reflected therein, and adds received execution results to that individual-controller-side storage unit (21).