Mh Monique Jansen-Vullers

Managing traceability information in manufacture

In this paper, an approach to design information systems for traceability is proposed. The paper applies gozinto graph modelling for traceability of the goods flow. A gozinto graph represents a graphical listing of raw materials, parts, intermediates and subassemblies, which a process transforms into an end product, through a sequence of operations. Next, the graphical listing has been translated into a reference data model that is the basis for designing an information system for tracking and tracing. Materials that are modelled this way represent production and/or purchase lots or batches. The composition of a certain end product is then represented through modelling all its constituent materials along with their intermediate relations. By registering all relations between sub-ordinate and super-ordinate material lots, a method of tracking the composition of the end product is obtained. When the entire sequence of operations required for manufacturing an end product adheres to this registering of relations, a multilevel bill of lots can be compiled. That bill of lots then, provides the necessary information to determine the composition of a material item out of component items. These composition data can be used to recall any items having consumed a certain component of specific interest (e.g., deficient), but also to certify product quality or to pro-actively adjust production processes to optimise the product quality in relation to its production characteristics (e.g., scarcity, costs or time).

Configurable Process Models: Experiences from a Municipality Case Study

Configurable process models integrate different variants of a business process into a single model. Through configuration users of such models can then combine the variants to derive a process model optimally fitting their individual needs. While techniques for such models were suggested in previous research, this paper presents a case study in which these techniques were extensively tested on a real-world scenario. We gathered information from four Dutch municipalities on registration processes executed on a daily basis. For each process we identified variations among municipalities and integrated them into a single, configurable process model, which can be executed in the YAWL workflow environment. We then evaluated the approach through interviews with organizations that support municipalities in organizing and executing their processes. The paper reports on both the feedback of the interviewed partners and our own observations during the model creation.

Verification of the SAP reference models using EPC reduction, state-space analysis, and invariants

A reference model is a generic conceptual model that formalizes recommended practices for a certain domain. Today, the SAP reference models are among the most comprehensive reference models, including over 4000 entity types and covering over 1000 business processes and inter-organizational scenarios. The SAP reference models use Event-driven Process Chains (EPCs) to model these processes and scenarios. Like other informal languages, EPCs are intended to support the transition from a business model to an executable model. For this reason, researchers have tried to formalize the semantics of EPCs. However, in their approaches, they fail to acknowledge the fact that in EPCs constructs exist that require human judgment to assess correctness. This paper aims to acknowledge this fact by introducing a two-step approach. First, the EPC is reduced using universally accepted reduction rules. Second, the reduced EPC is analyzed using a mixture of state-space analysis, invariants, and human judgment. This approach has been implemented in a tool, and applying this tool to the SAP reference models showed that these contain errors, which clearly shows the added value of this verification approach.

Merging Event-Driven Process Chains

While business processes are typically handled differently among companies, many of them are variations of a common process like procurement or invoicing. To gain synergy effects from corporate mergers, process analysts align such processes by identifying and seamlessly integrating overlapping process parts. To support this, we present in this paper an approach that merges two business process models which are depicted as Event-driven Process Chains into a single process model which can serve as a starting point for further process optimization. The approach has been implemented in the ProM process mining framework and can thus be used together with a wide range of other process mining and analysis techniques.

Configurable process models - a foundational approach

Off-the-shelf packages such as SAP need to be configured to suit the requirements of an organization. Reference models support the configuration of these systems. Existing reference models use rather traditional languages. For example, the SAP reference model uses Event-driven Process Chains (EPCs). Unfortunately, the choice construct within traditional process modeling languages like EPCs do not capture different scopes or impacts of decisions. That means they offer no opportunities to distinguish between decisions made for a single case (i. e. process instance) when executing the process and decisions made in advance for numerous cases impacting bigger parts of the company. This paper discusses the need for configurable process models. An analysis of configuration from a theoretical perspective provides a solid fundament for such models. Within the analysis a link is made to inheritance of dynamic behavior and previously defined inheritance concepts. By applying these concepts to process models the essence of configuration is determined, which enables the development of more mature configurable process modeling languages.

Workflow management systems + swarm intelligence = dynamic task assignment for emergency management applications

The assignment of tasks to human performers is a critical componentin people-centric business process management systems. Workflowmanagement systems typically assign work items using strategies that onlyconsider qualified resources. There are, however, situations, where thisapproach falls short. For instance, in emergency response situations, tasks needto be carried out by resources that are available immediately, even if they do notmatch all skill requirements. This paper compares the performance of a set ofsix task assignment mechanisms for workflow applications using a scenariofrom the emergency management domain. In particular, we develop andsimulate assignment strategies inspired by stimulus/response models derivedfrom swarm intelligence, and benchmark these strategies against conventionaltask assignment strategies. Our findings show that swarm intelligence-based approaches outperform the traditional assignment of tasks in ad-hoc organizations, and that workflow-based emergency management systems couldbenefit significantly from these novel task assignment strategies.

Protos2CPN: using colored Petri nets for configuring and testing business processes

Protos is a popular tool for business process modelling used in more than 1,500 organizations. It has a built-in Petri-net-based simulation engine which shows key performance indicators for the modelled processes. Reference process models offered for Protos reduce modelling efforts by providing generic solutions which only need to be adapted to individual requirements. However, the user can neither inspect or interact with simulations running in Protos, nor does Protos provide any explicit support for the adaptation of reference models. Hence, we aim at a more open and configurable simulation solution. To realize this we provide two transformations from Protos models to colored Petri nets (CPNs), which can be executed by CPN Tools. The first transformation enables the usage of the extensive simulation and measuring features of CPN Tools for the simulation of Protos models. The second transformation creates colored Petri nets with dedicated features for process configuration. Such configurable process models can be restricted directly within the process model without changing the model’s structure and provide therefore dedicated adaptation features for Protos’ reference process models.

Configurable process models as a basis for reference modeling

Off-the-shelf packages such as SAP need to be configured to suit the requirements of an organization. Reference models support the configuration of these systems. Existing reference models use rather traditional languages. For example, the SAP reference model uses Event-driven Process Chains (EPCs). Unfortunately, traditional languages like EPCs do not capture the configuration-aspects well. Consider for example the concept of “choice” in the control-flow perspective. Although any process modeling language, including EPCs, offers a choice construct (e.g., the XOR connector in EPCs), a single construct will not be able to capture the time dimension, scope, and impact of a decision. Some decisions are taken at run-time for a single case while other decisions are taken at build-time impacting a whole organization and all current and future cases. This position paper discusses the need for configurable process models as a basic building block for reference modeling. The focus is on the control-flow perspective.

Business process redesign in healthcare: towards a structured approach

Abstract This paper focuses on the potential contribution of Business Process Redesign to society’s demand for decreasing costs of healthcare. Our focus is on the reduction of throughput times and service times by exploiting business process redesign techniques, i.e. rules of thumb that aim to optimise the business process by improving its tasks, its routing structure, the resource organisation, etc. We define a redesign approach based on a set of existing redesign heuristics (Reijers, 2003) and apply this approach in a mental healthcare case. We show seven alternative redesigns for an intake process and evaluate their impact on throughput times and service times. Our conclusion is that the approach is feasible and results in a fruitful input for the organisation in question. This result is in line with results from the evolutionary approach of (Buchanan, 1998). The application of best practices in the mental healthcare setting shows its potency in this specific context and very similar settings. A next necessary step towards a wider application in healthcare seems to be a more structured method on how to select or combine an effective set of best practices for a specific medical context.

Mining Reference Process Models and Their Configurations

Reference process models are templates for common processes run by many corporations. However, the individual needs among organizations on the execution of these processes usually vary. A process model can address these variations through control-flow choices. Thus, it can integrate the different process variants into one model. Through configuration parameters, a configurable reference models enables corporations to derive their individual process variant from such an integrated model. While this simplifies the adaptation process for the reference model user, the construction of a configurable model integrating several process variants is far more complex than the creation of a traditional reference model depicting a single best-practice variant. In this paper we therefore recommend the use of process mining techniques on log files of existing, well-running IT systems to help the reference model provider in creating such integrated process models. Afterwards, the same log files are used to derive suggestions for common configurations that can serve as starting points for individual configurations.