Hongmei Gou

A framework for virtual enterprise operation management

This paper presents researches on operation management for virtual enterprises (VEs). A virtual enterprise is a temporary alliance of member enterprises (MEs) formed to exploit fast-changing opportunities. During the operation of a virtual enterprise, its constituent member enterprises, which are geographically distributed and organizationally independent, collaborate with each other to execute the whole business process (BP) of the virtual enterprise. With the aim of addressing business integration for virtual enterprises, this paper develops a framework for virtual enterprise operation management. From the viewpoint of business processes, carried out is integral research on business process modeling, analyzing, and managing for virtual enterprises. Both the distributed business process model and the model of the virtual enterprise itself are established. The former provides the functional basis of the virtual enterprise operation, while the latter provides its structural basis. Further, the two models are integrated through the loading from the distributed business process model to the virtual enterprise model. Through such model separation and integration, business process management for virtual enterprises is enacted and business integration for virtual enterprises is achieved.

Petri-net-based business process modeling for virtual enterprises

The paper presents our studies on Petri net based business process modeling for virtual enterprises. A virtual enterprise (VE) is a temporary alliance of member enterprises. Generally, a business process consists of a series of logically interrelated activities, to which appropriate resources will be assigned. In the virtual enterprise, both the activities and the resources are in multiple member enterprises, while collaborations exist among these distributed activities and resource sharing is often required. Thus, the modeling of business processes in virtual enterprises is challenging work. Based on Petri nets, the paper proposes a business process modeling method for virtual enterprises, which focuses on the two basic elements of the business process: activities and resources, while addressing their properties of distribution and collaboration particular to virtual enterprises.

Agent-based virtual enterprise modeling and operation control

We propose an agent-based virtual enterprise model and provide the agent collaboration mechanisms under the model, thereby achieving agent-based virtual enterprise modeling and operation control. We establish a network of distributed activity agents and resource agents for each member enterprise, collaborations among which can deal with activity precedence arrangements and activity-resource assignments in each sub-business-process. Then, we model each member enterprise in the virtual enterprise as an agent. Collaborations among member enterprise agents can deal with activity coordination and resource sharing among various sub-business-processes. Thus, our agent-based approach achieves distributed control over the whole business process execution of the virtual enterprise.

An agent-based approach for workflow management

The authors propose an agent based approach for workflow management, aiming at achieving flexible and dynamic workflow management in the distributed environment. We treat agents as autonomous entities with abilities to solve problems independently and propose an agent hierarchy as well as an agent model. The agent hierarchy consists of three kinds of agents at three neighboring levels: activity agents, role agents and actor agents. With our agent hierarchy, the gap between the dynamic workflow enactment and the static business process model can be bridged. The three levels of agents collaborate with each other through the contract-net approach and the feedback mechanism. Through such collaboration, activity-actor assignments can be achieved flexibly and dynamically; and the workflow execution can be monitored and managed in a real time fashion. The agent model consists of three sub-agents: a message-receiving one, a decision-making one and a message-sending one. Connected by two message queues, these three collaboratively operating sub-agents can complete functions of an agent effectively. Through message transfers of the message-receiving/sending sub-agents and the message based behavior-performing of the decision-making subagent, individual agents as well as the agent hierarchy can operate effectively and efficiently.

Modeling distributed business processes of virtual enterprises based on the object-oriented approach and Petri nets

Based on the object-oriented approach and Interval Timed Coloured Petri nets (ITCPNs), we study the modeling of distributed business processes in virtual enterprises. We model each member enterprise in a virtual enterprise as an object, and define both the internal model of the member enterprise object and the interaction model among the member enterprise objects based on ITCPNs. These two kinds of models are two views of the system and when combined, a complete model for the whole business process of the virtual enterprise is achieved.

Ontology based decision support system for partner selection of virtual enterprises

Partner selection is an important and complex decision problem for virtual enterprises. We present the Tenderee Decision Support System based on goal ontology, which adopts distributed constraint satisfaction and multi-attribute utility theory to solve and optimize the problem, and provides powerful decision support capability by human-machine interaction in the aspects of setup and maintenance of goal, selection and optimization partner.

Ontology and multi-agent based decision support for enterprise bidding

The paper discusses a decision support system (DSS) for bidding by manufacturing enterprises. It is based on a competence ontology, which can evaluate the competence of an enterprise, analyse its feasibility and prospective benefits, and optimize bids. The ontology of enterprise competence provides a terminology and micro-theory for the description of and reasoning about enterprise competence. The DSS adopts a scheduling system based on multi-agent negotiation, which estimates the time and cost to achieve the goal of inviting public bidding, and which provides an important basis for enterprise bidding decisions.

An electronic market architecture for virtual enterprises

The current network environment cannot support the creation and operation of virtual enterprises effectively. The paper analyzes characteristics of virtual enterprises, including information, communication, interaction, and the existing network environment, and then presents an electronic market architecture for virtual enterprises, which is a peer-to-peer network (P2P-VEN, Peer-to-Peer Virtual Enterprise Network). We discuss the core technologies of P2P-VEN, including communication, transfer, search and security. P2P-VEN supports the creation and operation of virtual enterprises, and provides effective information sharing and exchange. It ensures autonomy and privacy of individual enterprises, and is appropriate as the network infrastructure of virtual enterprises.

Ontology for goal management of virtual enterprises

Partner selection is an important and complex decision problem for virtual enterprises (VEs). In this paper, we present a goal ontology for partner selection in a VE, and provide self-contained computing theory and a problem solving meta-model to manage and analyze VE goals. The paper focuses on the concept, attributes and constraints of goal ontology, decomposition relationship and redundancy of the goal system, and changeability and consistency of constraints.

Operation management of virtual enterprises

The paper presents a study on the operation management of virtual enterprises. A virtual enterprise is a temporary alliance of member enterprises formed to exploit fast-changing opportunities. During the operation of a virtual enterprise, its constituent member enterprises, which are geographically distributed and organizationally independent, collaborate with each other to execute the whole business process of the virtual enterprise. Therefore, how to support the business process oriented virtual enterprise cooperative operation is the focus of our study on the operation management of virtual enterprises. In order to achieve this, we propose a scheme that consists of three parts: the modeling of the distributed business process in virtual enterprises, the modeling of virtual enterprises themselves, and the control of the business process execution in virtual enterprises based on the two kinds of models established in the former two parts.