Managing distributed business processes in the virtual enterprise

In this work the supply–chain coordination in the virtual enterprise environment is subject of analysis. The system developed by UFSC-DBPMS—for the management of distributed business process is presented and some basic concepts for its definition and development are detailed. The DBPMS provides means for getting, analyzing, making available and managing the information from and about a virtual enterprise, enabling the enterprises to make their logistics more efficiently by means of an integrated information-based supply-chain management. All the work presented in this paper was developed within the scope of the ESPRIT project PRODNET-II (production planning and management in an extended enterprise).     

Version management for business process schema evolution

The current business environment changes rapidly, dictated by user requirements and market opportunities. Organisations are therefore driven to continuously adapt their business processes to new conditions. Thus, management of business process schema evolution, particularly process version control, is in great demand to capture the dynamics of business process schema changes. This paper aims to facilitate version control for business process schema evolution, with an emphasis on version compatibility, co-existence of multiple versions and dynamic version shifts. A multi-level versioning approach is established to specify dependency between business process schema evolutions, and a novel version preserving graph model is proposed to record business process schema evolutions. A set of business process schema updating operations is devised to support the entire set of process change patterns. By maintaining sufficient and necessary schema and version information, our approach provides comprehensive support for navigating process instance executions of different and changing versions, and deriving the process schema of a certain version. A prototype is also implemented for the proof-of-concept purpose.     

Execution system for distributed business processes in a virtual enterprise

New cooperative approaches for manufacturing and service industries, as represented by the virtual enterprise paradigm, are enabled by the recent advances in communication technologies, computer networks, and logistics. The implantation of this paradigm requires the design and development of a flexible execution environment to support the distributed business processes that materialize the cooperation in a network of enterprises. A configurable architecture for such execution system is proposed focusing the support for multi-level process coordination. A set of examples to illustrate the adopted concepts and developed tools are discussed.     

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.     

Managing context in business process management systems

Businesses need to continuously focus on change and innovation in order to survive in dynamic environments. The ability of an organization to deploy appropriate business processes requires that the fit between business processes and systems that support the management of these processes is continuously maintained and evolved. Acquisition and use of the knowledge about the context in which business processes are defined, modified, and implemented can help maintain this fit. We identify requirements for a business process management system (BPMS) capable of managing contextual knowledge. Based on these requirements, we have enhanced KOPeR, a knowledge-based system for business process improvement, with an explanation facility that can acquire and maintain knowledge about the context behind process definitions and design choices. A case study that illustrates the functionalities of this system which is designed to improve the fit between business processes and BPMS is presented.

Distributed shared memory infrastructure for virtual enterprise in building and construction

This paper proposes a new approach to building a virtual enterprise (VE) software infrastructure that offers persistence, concurrent access, coherence and security on a distributed datastore based on the distributed shared-memory paradigm. The platform presented, persistent distributed store (PerDiS), is demonstrated with test applications that show its suitability and adequate performance for the building and construction domain. In particular, the successful adaptation of standard data access interface (SDAI) to PerDiS and a comparison with CORBA are presented as examples of the potential of the distributed shared-memory paradigm for the VE environment.     

Developing a decision model for business process outsourcing

Information technology (IT) outsourcing has been one of the critical issues in organization management. Business process outsourcing (BPO) is an advanced type of IT outsourcing, which will be the next big wave in information technology services. Nevertheless, since prior studies have only examined issues related to traditional IS outsourcing, there have been few researches that introduce and discuss the important factors that should be considered in the decision of BPO adoption. This paper identifies factors affecting the BPO decision and structures a decision model using the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) method.By proposing a quantitative decision model, this paper will not only assist management in making better decisions in outsourcing their business processes, but also help them to obtain the most benefits from BPO.     

基于知识管理的过程企业设备管理系统模型分析

在分析过程企业设备管理现状的基础上,提出基于知识的集成化设备管理模式,将设备管理知识化、系统化,设备工艺可靠性与设备运行可靠性结合,建立以共享技术解决基于工艺指标、流程监控、设备管理的企业能力平衡模式,实行以企业经济效益为目标的综合管理。并进而提出了设备管理的知识模型体系,包括设备优化控制模型、设备运行成本模型、经济评价决策支持模型、设备故障诊断模型、设备运行评价与更新决策模型等。知识建立与发布以企业设备管理业务流与决策流为目标。     

Measures and mechanisms for process monitoring in evolving business networks

The literature on monitoring of cross-organizational processes, executed within business networks, considers monitoring only in the network formation phase, since network establishment determines what can be monitored during process execution. In particular, the impact of evolution in such networks on monitoring is not considered. When a business network evolves, e.g. contracts are introduced, updated, or dropped, or actors join or leave the network, the monitoring requirements of the network actors change as well. As a result, the monitorability of processes in the network may be disrupted. This paper proposes a framework to solve the problem of preserving the monitorability of processes in an evolving business network. We first propose a formal model of business networks, contracts, and monitoring requirements. Then, we model network evolution and the mechanisms to preserve the monitorability of the processes in the network for different types of evolution. In particular, the preservation of monitorability requires the actors in the network to take appropriate actions in case of dependencies between already established contracts, and update their monitoring infrastructure to satisfy the new monitoring requirements introduced by evolution. We also define a set of metrics that can be used for supporting decisions regarding the potential evolution of a business network. A case study in healthcare and the discussion of a prototype implementation show the applicability of our framework in real-world scenarios.     

A toolset for building the virtual enterprise

Much research has been undertaken to define what a virtual enterprise is and how it should work. This paper addresses the specific question, how a virtual enterprise can be designed to have the agility to support short-term business opportunities. A framework is presented for the organizational design and the changing business roles of the business architect who constructs the various phases of the virtual enterprises lifecycle. This infrastructure for creating virtual enterprises is referred to as the value system designer; a set of methods and tools to select partners, re-engineer business- and logistic processes and to set up an information and communication platform for the virtual enterprise. The methods and tools have been developed in two longitudial research projects TELEflow and the Virtuelle Fabrik between 1995 and 1999. Focusing on the experiences gained from numerous cases, a summary on crucial success factors for designing virtual enterprises shall be presented. Thus, this paper gives insights and applicable know-how for companies and managing engineers in their role as virtual enterprise architects, for example leaders of project consortia or joint ventures or as first-tier suppliers co-ordinating supplier (sub-) nets.     

Distributed process execution in collaborative networks

Processes are a central entity in enterprise collaboration. Collaborative processes need to be executed and coordinated in a distributed computational platform where computers are connected through heterogeneous networks and systems. Life cycle management of such collaborative processes requires a framework able to handle their diversity based on different computational and communication requirements. This paper proposes a rational for such framework, points out key requirements and proposes a strategy for a supporting technological infrastructure. Beyond the portability of collaborative process definitions among different technological bindings, a framework to handle different life cycle phases of those definitions is presented and discussed.     

Detecting approximate clones in business process model repositories

Empirical evidence shows that repositories of business process models used in industrial practice contain significant amounts of duplication. This duplication arises for example when the repository covers multiple variants of the same processes or due to copy-pasting. Previous work has addressed the problem of efficiently retrieving exact clones that can be refactored into shared subprocess models. This paper studies the broader problem of approximate clone detection in process models. The paper proposes techniques for detecting clusters of approximate clones based on two well-known clustering algorithms: DBSCAN and Hierarchical Agglomerative Clustering (HAC). The paper also defines a measure of standardizability of an approximate clone cluster, meaning the potential benefit of replacing the approximate clones with a single standardized subprocess. Experiments show that both techniques, in conjunction with the proposed standardizability measure, accurately retrieve clusters of approximate clones that originate from copy-pasting followed by independent modifications to the copied fragments. Additional experiments show that both techniques produce clusters that match those produced by human subjects and that are perceived to be standardizable.     

Configurable multi-perspective business process models

A configurable process model provides a consolidated view of a family of business processes. It promotes the reuse of proven practices by providing analysts with a generic modeling artifact from which to derive individual process models. Unfortunately, the scope of existing notations for configurable process modeling is restricted, thus hindering their applicability. Specifically, these notations focus on capturing tasks and control-flow dependencies, neglecting equally important ingredients of business processes such as data and resources. This research fills this gap by proposing a configurable process modeling notation incorporating features for capturing resources, data and physical objects involved in the performance of tasks. The proposal has been implemented in a toolset that assists analysts during the configuration phase and guarantees the correctness of the resulting process models. The approach has been validated by means of a case study from the film industry.     

Resource behavior measure and application in business process management

Efficient resource behavior measure in business process management is a real and challenging problem. It reflects the actual situations in business process execution from resource perspective and is highly relevant for the business process performance. This paper presents an approach of measuring resource behavior from four important perspectives, i.e., preference, availability, competence and cooperation, based on process mining. Furthermore, this paper shows how business process management can benefit from resource behavior measure. In particular, four applications are addressed to demonstrate the applicability of resource behavior measure in business process management. The presented approach is evaluated based on a proof-of-concept implementation and its application to a real case form health-care. The results show that the proposed approach is possible to improve current state of business process management.     

Modelling families of business process variants: A decomposition driven method

Business processes usually do not exist as singular entities that can be managed in isolation, but rather as families of business process variants. When modelling such families of variants, analysts are confronted with the choice between modelling each variant separately, or modelling multiple or all variants in a single model. Modelling each variant separately leads to a proliferation of models that share common parts, resulting in redundancies and inconsistencies. Meanwhile, modelling all variants together leads to less but more complex models, thus hindering on comprehensibility. This paper introduces a method for modelling families of process variants that addresses this trade-off. The key tenet of the method is to alternate between steps of decomposition (breaking down processes into sub-processes) and deciding which parts should be modelled together and which ones should be modelled separately. We have applied the method to two case studies: one concerning the consolidation of existing process models, and another dealing with green-field process discovery. In both cases, the method produced fewer models with respect to the baseline and reduced duplicity by up to 50% without significant impact on complexity.     

Choosing the right business process maturity model

We have built and tested a decision tool which will help organisations properly select one business process maturity model (BPMM) over another. This prototype consists of a novel questionnaire with decision criteria for BPMM selection, linked to a unique data set of 69 BPMMs. Fourteen criteria (questions) were elicited from an international Delphi study, and weighed by the analytical hierarchy process. Case studies have shown (non-)profit and academic applications. Our purpose was to describe criteria that enable an informed BPMM choice (conform to decision-making theories, rather than ad hoc). Moreover, we propose a design process for building BPMM decision tools.     

Process-centered knowledge model and enterprise ontology for the development of knowledge management system

Among many enterprise assets, knowledge is treated as a critical driving force for attaining enterprise performance goals. This is because knowledge facilitates the better business decision makings in a timely fashion. However, since knowledge is created and utilized during the execution of business processes, if knowledge is separated from the business process context, it does not lead to the ability to take the right action for target performance.This paper proposes the framework for process-centered knowledge model and enterprise ontology for the context-rich and networked knowledge storage and retrieval required during task execution. The enterprise knowledge object for a process-centered knowledge model is classified into two types: process knowledge and task support knowledge. In the proposed enterprise ontology, which represents major enterprise concepts, and the relationships between them, all domain concepts are related to the “process” concept, both directly and indirectly. As a result, networked and sophisticated knowledge, rather than single-level knowledge, is provided to the participant of unit activity.In order to show the applicability of the proposed framework, a process-centered KMS (knowledge management system) was also developed, which is classified into 3 parts: (1) project management sub-system based on process knowledge. (2) Knowledge management sub-system for maintaining task support knowledge. (3) Infrastructure sub-system which supports the above two sub-systems.     

Virtual enterprise and its intelligence management

Virtual enterprise (VE) will be the efficient organization form in the future owing to the rapid development of computer techniques and information technology. This paper exposes systematically the concept of VE and its structure. Methodology for intelligentized management is described. An integrated system based on client/server is proposed, which is useful for intelligent decision making in VE management.     

虚拟企业协同生产过程的远程监控模型

针对虚拟企业生产过程和远程监控的特点，提出了支持虚拟企业制造环境的基于移动Agent计算模式的分布式多层远程监控模型，并在模具制造动态联盟企业中实施了应用验证。应用显示了良好的效果和运行稳定性。     

Similarity of business process models: Metrics and evaluation

It is common for large organizations to maintain repositories of business process models in order to document and to continuously improve their operations. Given such a repository, this paper deals with the problem of retrieving those models in the repository that most closely resemble a given process model or fragment thereof. Up to now, there is a notable research gap on comparing different approaches to this problem and on evaluating them in the same setting. Therefore, this paper presents three similarity metrics that can be used to answer queries on process repositories: (i) node matching similarity that compares the labels and attributes attached to process model elements; (ii) structural similarity that compares element labels as well as the topology of process models; and (iii) behavioral similarity that compares element labels as well as causal relations captured in the process model. These metrics are experimentally evaluated in terms of precision and recall. The results show that all three metrics yield comparable results, with structural similarity slightly outperforming the other two metrics. Also, all three metrics outperform text-based search engines when it comes to searching through a repository for similar business process models.