Modeling IS Activities for Business Process Reengineering : A Colored Petri Net Approach

The day to day functioning of any organization involves many business processes. Each business process is comprised of different activities. The identification of activities and their cost drivers is a critical factor for successful Business Process Reengineering. Since the resources used by the activities form an integral part of the model, the identification of the cost drivers is also simplified. This paper details the following : 1. It proposesthe use of colored Petri nets for process modeling. Brimson(1991) identifies the process modeling approach to activity analysis as useful since it graphically links the inputs and outputs among activities and identifies the information flow in the processes. However, use of process flow charts, which is most commonly used in activity analysis cannot capture some of the aspects of office processes, like supervision, general management, etc. In addition, representing the complex business logic associated with activities would be difficult in such flow models. The use of colored Petri nets overcomes this limitation, as business logic and various office processes can be easily represented. In addition, the complexity of the system is handled by resorting to hierarchical representation of the processes. 2. The paper applies the concept of activity based costing to the management of the IS processes in firms. The cost structure of these processes, to our knowledge, has not been studied from the activity based costing perspective. The article proposes the use of activity based costing for IS processes. Such analysis could help the organization in making operational as well as strategic decisions as related to its IS processe

Business process modeling and simulation

The textbook provides the essentials of the Business Process (BP) Modeling and Simulation (M&S) from the verbal BP description to the formulation of the mathematical scheme of the model and the simulation program. Both the analytical modeling and the simulation approaches to BP M&S are considered. Special attention is given to the theoretical and practical aspects of the BP M&S. The text covers the following topics: fundamentals of the BP M&S, conceptual modeling using IDEF3 standard, cost metrics and the activity based costing, analytical modeling (queuing networks, linear and dynamic programming), simulation with GPSS, timed Petri Nets, and Crystal Ball toolkits. Case studies include BP simulations with BPwin and GPSS. The intended readers are senior graduate students and junior postgraduate students of computer science and industrial management

Translating UML State Machines to Coloured Petri Nets Using Acceleo: A Report

UML state machines are widely used to specify dynamic systems behaviours. However its semantics is described informally, thus preventing the application of model checking techniques that could guarantee the system safety. In a former work, we proposed a formalisation of non-concurrent UML state machines using coloured Petri nets, so as to allow for formal verification. In this paper, we report our experience to implement this translation in an automated manner using the model-to-text transformation tool Acceleo. Whereas Acceleo provides interesting features that facilitated our translation process, it also suffers from limitations uneasy to overcome.Comment: In Proceedings ESSS 2014, arXiv:1405.055

Performance modeling of e-procurement workflow using Generalised Stochastic Petri net (GSPN)

This paper proposes a Generalised Stochastic Petri net (GSPN) model representing a generic e-procurement workflow process. The model displays the dynamic behaviour of the system and shows the inter relationship of process activities. An analysis based on matrix equation approach enabled users to analyse the critical system's states, and thus justify the process performance. The results obtained allow users for better decision making in improving e-procurement workflow performance

Cost reduction using process analysis in company PEGRES obuv s.r.o.

Firma PEGRES obuv s.r.o. se již delší dobu potýká se stagnací v oblasti plánování a řízení výroby. Některé podnikové procesy jsou nyní značně zastaralé a v aktuálních podmínkách již neefektivní. Cíl práce je snížení nákladů s využitím procesní analýzy. Pro dosažení tohoto cíle bude provedena analýza současného stavu zastaralých procesů a budou popsány vybrané metody řízení výroby, které jsou svou povahou relevantní pro výrobu obuvi. Výstupem práce je sada doporučení a návrhů na změny v existujících procesech. Vybrané návrhy budou v prostředí firmy implementovány a práce zahrne zhodnocení výsledků po zavedení těchto změn.Company PEGRES obuv s.r.o. has been long time struggling with stagnation in production planning and control. Some of the internal processes are now obsolete and in current conditions no longer effective. The goal of the paper is to reduce the costs using process analysis. To achieve this goal, analysis of the current state of outdated processes will be performed, followed by description of selected methods of production management, which by their nature are relevant to the production of the shoes. Output of the work is a set of recommendations and proposals for changes to existing processes. Selected proposals will be implemented in the company and paper will include evaluation of results after the implementation of these changes.

Benefits of Implementing Automated Costing in a Small Machine Shop: A Case Study

Knowledge based cost estimating systems are available, but is there a lower limit to their applicability in an industrial environment?  This paper answers this question by examining a knowledge based cost estimating expert system application in a small machine shop.  Differences between the traditional experienced-based system currently employed and the automated system are studied.  Data is gathered to analyze time effectiveness, accuracy, and payback of the software.  Data from seventy part models is recorded to study the time experiment and data from fifty part models is used to study accuracy and consistency.The results indicate that the software is faster than traditional quoting systems; however, the payback point is high. Also, results show that the software has a smaller average time to manufacture percent difference between the automated system and the actual time to manufacture (TTM) compared to the percentage difference between the traditional TTM and actual TTM. Standard deviation for the automation is also less, implying better consistency.  As a result, the attractiveness of the automated system in the limiting case of a small machine shop rests with significantly improved accuracy and consistency rather than payback.

An approach to resource modelling in support of the life cycle engineering of enterprise systems

Enterprise modelling can facilitate the design, analysis, control and construction of contemporary enterprises which can compete in world-wide Product markets. This research involves a systematic study of enterprise modelling with a particular focus on resource modelling in support of the life cycle engineering of enterprise systems. This led to the specification and design of a framework for resource modelling. This framework was conceived to: classify resource types; identify the different functions that resource modelling can support, with respect to different life phases of enterprise systems; clarify the relationship between resource models and other modelling perspectives provide mechanisms which link resource models and other types of models; identify guidelines for the capture of information - on resources, leading to the establishment of a set of resource reference models. The author also designed and implemented a resource modelling tool which conforms to the principles laid down by the framework. This tool realises important aspects of the resource modeffing concepts so defined. Furthermore, two case studies have been carried out. One models a metal cutting environment, and the other is based on an electronics industry problem area. In this way, the feasibility of concepts embodied in the framework and the design of the resource modelling tool has been tested and evaluated. Following a literature survey and preliminary investigation, the CIMOSA enterprise modelling and integration methodology was adopted and extended within this research. Here the resource modelling tool was built by extending SEWOSA (System Engineering Workbench for Open System Architecture) and utilising the CIMBIOSYS (CINI-Building Integrated Open SYStems) integrating infrastructure. The main contributions of the research are that: a framework for resource modelling has been established; means and mechanisms have been proposed, implemented and tested which link and coordinate different modelling perspectives into an unified enterprise model; the mechanisms and resource models generated by this research support each Pfe phase of systems engineering projects and demonstrate benefits by increasing the degree to which the derivation process among models is automated