Utilization of Discrete Event Simulation in Business Processes Management Projects: a Literature Review

Discrete event simulation (DES) software is often used in business process management (BPM) projects, in order to support modeling, change and automatization of process modeling. However, the current research lacks systematic overview of the benefits and pitfalls of using DES software for BPM. The goal of this paper is to provide a systematic analysis of research paper related to the operations research, computer science, business and management that report the usage of DES in BPM projects, in order to shed some light in this area. Results of this analysis could be useful to academics and business practitioners in their projects

A dynamic time warped clustering technique for discrete event simulation-based system analysis

Abstract This paper introduces a novel approach for discrete event simulation output analysis. The approach combines dynamic time warping and clustering to enable the identification of system behaviours contributing to overall system performance, by linking the clustering cases to specific causal events within the system. Simulation model event logs have been analysed to group entity flows based on the path taken and travel time through the system. The proposed approach is investigated for a discrete event simulation of an international airport baggage handling system. Results show that the method is able to automatically identify key factors that influence the overall dwell time of system entities, such as bags that fail primary screening. The novel analysis methodology provides insight into system performance, beyond that achievable through traditional analysis techniques. This technique also has potential application to agent-based modelling paradigms and also business event logs traditionally studied using process mining techniques