110 research outputs found

    Business Process Simulation Using Coloured Petri Nets

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    Äriprotsesside juhtimine on tänapäeva maailmas muutunud järjest olulisemaks tänu suurenevatele nõudmistele protsesside tõhusamaks muutmisel. Protsesside juhtimisega üritatakse leida võimalikke kitsaskohti, tõsta tootlikust ja vähendada vajadust ressursside järjele. Paljud protsesside modelleerimise vahendid toetavad lisaks protsesside modelleerimisele mudelite juurutamist ning simulatsioone. Simulatsioonid on üks parimaid tehnikaid protsesside efektiivsemaks muutmisel. Enamus äriprotsesside modelleerimise standardeid ei toeta simulatsioone (k.a. de facto standard BPMN). Mitmed protsesside modelleerimise vahendid võimaldavad simulatsioone, kuid simulatsioonimootor on peidetud nende vahendite sisse. See piirab simulatsioonimootorite laiendatavust ning protsesside simulatsioonides tuleb läbi ajada tarkvara vahenditega. Kuid modelleerimistarkvara võimalused on võrreldes reaalse maailma situatsioonidega väga piiratud. Antud töö eesmärgiks on välja pakkuda eelpool mainitud probleemile üks võimalik lahendus – BPMN meta-mudeli laiendus simulatsiooni atribuutidega. Töös kasutatakse simulatsioonimootorit CPN Tools, mis baseerub Coloured Petri Nets (CPN) modelleerimis-keelel. CPN on loodud spetsiaalselt diskreetsete süsteemide simulatsiooni keeleks. Esmalt tehakse ülevaade BPMN standardist ning kahest levinumast BPMN modelleerimise vahendist – IBM WebSphere Modeller ja IPT Commerce. Järgnevalt antakse lühiülevaade Petri Nets ja CPN mudelitest ning CPN Tools modelleerimisvahendist. Kasutades olemasolevate vahendite analüüsist saadud kogemusi, laiendatakse BPMN standardi meta-mudelit simulatsioonide meta-mudeliga. Seejärel kirjeldatakse kuidas saada simulatsiooni andmetega täiendatud BPMN mudelist CPN mudel ning demonstreeritakse erinevaid võimalusi CPN mudelite simuleerimiseks kasutades CPN Tools vahendeid. Töös kirjeldatud simulatsiooni meta-mudel ja BPMN mudeli elementide teisendamine CPN mudeli konstruktsioonideks on esitatud üldiselt, sest eesmärgiks oli testida välja pakutava lahenduse võimalikkust. CPN Tools sai valitud simulatsioonimootoriks sellepärast, et tema mudelid on kirjeldatud kasutades XML-i. Töö edasiarendusena pakub autor välja BPMN mudelitest CPN mudelite automaatse konverteri loomist.Business process management plays an increasingly important role in the business world as it promotes effectiveness and efficiency in business operations. The simulation of business processes is one of the most versatile techniques for analyzing business processes quantitatively in order to identify and remove performance bottlenecks. The graphical representation of business process models has proven to be a very effective tool for presenting information to business stakeholders, including business analysts and system developers. Unfortunately most of the graphical business process modeling standards (including de facto standard BPMN) do not support attaching simulation information to the models. Major business process modelling tools and suites still provide ability to add simulation data and execute those models. However, only models designed with the tools themselves can be simulated and no extensibility mechanism is provided to add new features or change the pre-built simulation and reporting options. This paper proposes a meta-model for specifying simulation scenarios on the top of the BPMN meta-model. Also, the paper advocates using CPN Tools as an open and extensible business process model simulator. The paper provides an initial design of a transformation from BPMN process models to CPN models. The proposed design has been validated through one fully-worked case study

    Simplifying the verification of simulation models through Petri net to FlexSim mapping

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    Simplifying the encoding of a simulation conceptual model representation reduces the number of errors that will be detected in the verification phase. In this paper, we present a mapping between Petri nets, a well-known formalism, and FlexSim, a well-known simulation tool. The proposal is illustrated through an example of how a model specified in a Petri net can be encoded easily, reducing the time needed to understand and verify the model. In the proposed methodology, the mapping must be defined at the initial stage of the encoding, starting from (in this case) a Petri net conceptual model, and ending at the encoding tool (FlexSim in this case). The main advantages of the proposed methodology are discussed.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

    Tenth Workshop and Tutorial on Practical Use of Coloured Petri Nets and the CPN Tools Aarhus, Denmark, October 19-21, 2009

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    This booklet contains the proceedings of the Tenth Workshop on Practical Use of Coloured Petri Nets and the CPN Tools, October 19-21, 2009. The workshop is organised by the CPN group at the Department of Computer Science, University of Aarhus, Denmark. The papers are also available in electronic form via the web pages: http://www.cs.au.dk/CPnets/events/workshop0

    Responsible Composition and Optimization of Integration Processes under Correctness Preserving Guarantees

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    Enterprise Application Integration deals with the problem of connecting heterogeneous applications, and is the centerpiece of current on-premise, cloud and device integration scenarios. For integration scenarios, structurally correct composition of patterns into processes and improvements of integration processes are crucial. In order to achieve this, we formalize compositions of integration patterns based on their characteristics, and describe optimization strategies that help to reduce the model complexity, and improve the process execution efficiency using design time techniques. Using the formalism of timed DB-nets - a refinement of Petri nets - we model integration logic features such as control- and data flow, transactional data storage, compensation and exception handling, and time aspects that are present in reoccurring solutions as separate integration patterns. We then propose a realization of optimization strategies using graph rewriting, and prove that the optimizations we consider preserve both structural and functional correctness. We evaluate the improvements on a real-world catalog of pattern compositions, containing over 900 integration processes, and illustrate the correctness properties in case studies based on two of these processes.Comment: 37 page

    An Automated Framework for BPMN Model Verification Achieving Branch Coverage

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    BPMN model is used in software development process that the procedural logics of software are described in term of graphical representation. Formal verification using colored Petri net (CPN) can be used to prove whether a designed BPMN model is frees of undesirable properties such as deadlock and unreachable task, and meets user requirements or not. Although there are many researches providing the transformation rules and frameworks for automating and verifying the CPN model, the CPN markings determination covering all execution paths is quite cumbersome. This paper proposes an automated BPMN verification framework that integrates the BPMN modeling tool and the CPN model checker together. The designed BPMN model is transformed into a CPN model and control flow graph (CFG). The CFG is used to create the execution paths and to find the interleaved activities. The interleaved activities are then considered for creating the CPN port places and markings by an applying of the branch coverage testing technique. Behaviors of the CPN model are analyzed by using a state space analysis based on the CPN model and automated markings. Our framework has been implemented as an Eclipse BPMN modeler plugin, and it is tested with the five case studies. The results show that our framework is practical. It can automate the CPN models from the BPMN model and guide the designers regarding the CPN markings determination to achieve branch coverage criteria

    Dynamic Multilevel Workflow Management Concept for Industrial IoT Systems

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    Workflow management is implemented in manufacturing at many levels. The nature of processes variesat each level, hindering the use of a standard modeling orimplementation solution. The creation of a flexible workflow management framework that overarches the heterogeneous business process levels is challenging. Still, one of the promisesof the Industry 4.0 initiative is precisely this: to provideeasy-to-use models and solutions that enable efficient execution of enterprise targets. By addressing this challenge, this articleproposes a workflow execution model that integrates information and control flows of these levels while keeping their hierarchy. The overall model builds on the business process model andnotation (BPMN) for modeling at the enterprise level and recipemodeling based on colored Petri net (CPN) at the production level. Models produced with both alternatives are implemented and executed in a framework supported by an enterprise servicebus (ESB). Loosely coupled, late-bound system elements are connected through the arrowhead framework, which is builtupon the service-oriented architecture (SOA) concept. To proveits feasibility, this article presents the practical application ofthe model via an automotive production scenario

    Automated managed cloud-platforms based on energy policies

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    Delivering environmentally friendly services has become an important issue in Cloud Computing due to awareness provided by governments and environmental conservation organisations about the impact of electricity usage on carbon footprints. Cloud providers and cloud consumers (organisations/ enterprises) have their own defined greengreen policiespolicies to control energy consumption at their data centers. At service management level, greengreen policiespolicies can be mapped as energyenergy managementmanagement policiespolicies or managementmanagement policiespolicies. Focusing at cloud consumer's side, managementmanagement policiespolicies are described by business managers which can change regularly. The continuous changing is based on the nature of the technical environment, changes in regulation; and business requirements. Therefore, there is a gap between the level of describing and implementing managementmanagement policiespolicies in the cloud environment. This thesis provides a method to bridge that gap by (a) defining a specification for formulating managementmanagement policiespolicies into executable form for an infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) cloud model; (b) designing a framework to execute the described managementmanagement policiespolicies automatically; (c) proposing a modelling and analysis method to identify the potential energyenergy managementmanagement policypolicy that would save energy-cost. Each aspect covered in the thesis is evaluated with a help of an Energy Management Case Study for a private cloud scenario

    Propagating Changes between Declarative and Procedural Process Models

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    Debatt protseduuriliste ja deklaratiivsete keelte eeliste ja puuduste üle erinevate kasutusjuhtude korral on olnud tuline. Protseduurilised keeled on sobivamad operatiivsete protsesside modelleerimiseks, deklaratiivsed keeli kasutatakse regulatsioonide/juhiste jaoks. Ometi tekib olukordi, kus on mõistlik kombineerida neid keeli, et saavutada parem tulemus. Selle asemel, et sundida modelleerijaid õppima uusi hübriidkeeli, peame me paremaks kahe spetsifikatsiooni eraldi hoidmist ja pakume välja viisi, kuidas protseduurilist mudelit automaatselt muuta nii, et see oleks kooskõlas deklaratiivsete reeglitega. Nõudlus sellise lahenduse jaoks tekib, näiteks kui organisatsioon peab muutma protsesse vastavalt muutuvatele välistele reeglitele. Üldiselt on nii võimalik ära kasutada deklaratiivsete keelte paindlikust ja hoida kõrgetasemelist tuge, mida pakuvad protseduurilised keeled. Lisaks, võrreldes originaalset ja parandatud mudelit, on võimalik selgelt näha reeglite mõju. Käesolevas lõputöös sõnastame me antud probleemi, loome teoreetilise vundamendi ja pakume välja olekumasinatel põhineva lahenduse, mida me võrdleme olemasolevate lahendustega mudelite parandamiseks ja protsesside avastamiseks.The debate on advantages and disadvantages of declarative versus procedural process modelling languages for different usage scenarios has been intense. Procedural languages are more suited for describing operational processes while declarative ones for expressing regulations/guidelines, and in many situations the need of combining the benefits of the two rises. Instead of forcing modellers to use a hybrid language, we envisage to keep the two specifications separate and propose a technique that automatically adapts procedural models so as to comply with sets of declarative rules. This not only fits scenarios where, e.g., company processes have to be modified according to changing external rules, but, more in general, it presents a way to take advantage of the flexibility of declarative while maintaining the high level of support provided by procedural languages. Furthermore, by comparing the original and the resulting procedural models, the impact of rules is clearly exposed. In this thesis, we frame the problem above by providing its theoretical characterisation and propose an automata-based solution, which is then evaluated against approaches leveraging state-of-the-art techniques for process discovery and model repair

    Flexible Process Notations for Cross-organizational Case Management Systems

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    In recent times western economies have become increasingly focussed on knowl-edge work. Knowledge work processes depend heavily on the expert knowledge of workers and therefore tend to require more flexibility then the processes seen in traditional production work. Over-constrained processes cause frustration and inefficiency because they do not allow workers to use their expert experience to make the best judgements on how to solve the unique challenges they are faced with. However some structuring of their work is still required to en-sure that laws and business rules are being followed. IT Systems for process control have a large role to play in structuring and organizing such processes, however most of these systems have been developed with a focus on produc-tion work and fail to support the more flexible processes required by knowledge workers. The problem arises at the core of these systems: the notations in which the processes are defined. Traditional process notations are flow-based: control of the process flows from one activity to the next. This paradigm in
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