TUPLESPACE-BASED INFRASTRUCTURE FOR DECENTRALIZED ENACTMENT OF BPEL PROCESSES

Business processes in WS-BPEL are a manifestation of the two-level-programming paradigm where remote-accessible Web services are composed to potentially complex orchestrations. WSBPEL processes are executed by Workflow Management Systems that navigate through the process\u27 activities and interact with the orchestrated services. While Web service technology enables interactions with remote services, process navigation is typically done in a centralized manner. Especially in scenarios of complex interactions between multiple distributed process participants, this way of process enactment has several drawbacks. In this paper, we outline those drawbacks and propose an alternative approach to execution of BPEL processes in a distributed, decentralized manner

An event model for WS-BPEL 2.0

This report presents an engine-independent WS-BPEL 2.0 event model. It supports both passive monitoring and active control of process execution by external applications. Some of the assumptions in the presented event model are inspired by a particular implementation, e.g. fault handling and compensation; however they are kept as general as possible, so that they can be mapped on other engine-specific approaches to tackle faults and support compensation. In addition, the report draws on the experience of some of the authors in business process management and software development. The overall BPEL event model consists of a set of event models for the different types of BPEL entities that change their states: processes, process instances, general activities, scope activities, invoke activities, loops, links, variables, partner links, and correlation sets. The event model is used by the authors of the report in several projects, all utilizing process life cycle events in different scenarios

Supply Chain Configurations in the Circular Economy: A Systematic Literature Review

As the circular economy (CE) gains traction in literature and practice, several academic communities are opening up spaces that move away from the CE as a pure engineering concept. This systematic literature review (n = 77) analyses and discusses the fragmented body of knowledge on the meso-level of supply chains (SCs): (a) to find common ground that underpins the current implementation of the CE on this level; and (b) to identify drivers, inhibitors, and enablers from which CE SC configurations emerge. The review finds that there remain differences in CE definitions that result from claimed antecedents and scopes, resulting in distinct research streams. On the meso-level, eco-industrial parks, environmental SCs, and closed-loop SCs each face significant challenges. The latter potentially offers the largest environmental benefits but engenders radical changes for business models and exposes SCs to more risk. We firstly argue for moving away from using a prescriptive set of practices as definitions for the CE towards a set of overarching goals to allow for the inclusion of future practices and techniques. Secondly, we highlight that research going beyond the meso-level to consider the wider social and institutional environment is needed to solve current challenges

Collaborative problem solving within supply chains: general framework, process and methodology

The Problem Solving Process is a central element of the firms' continuous improvement strategies. In this framework, a number of approaches have succeeded to demonstrate their effectiveness to tackle industrial problems. The list includes, but is not limited to PDCA, DMAICS, 7Steps and 8D/9S. However, the emergence and increasing emphasis in the supply chains have impacted the effectiveness of those methods to solve problems that go beyond the boundaries of a single firm and, in consequence, their ability to provide solutions when the contexts on which firms operate are distributed. This can be explained because not only the problems, but also the products, partners, skills, resources and pieces of evidence required to solve those problems are distributed, fragmented and decentralized across the network. This PhD thesis deals with the solving of industrial problems in supply chains based in collaboration. It develops a general framework for studying this paradigm, as well as both a generic process and a collaborative methodology able to deal with the process in practice. The proposal considers all the technical aspects (e.g. products modeling and network structure) and the collaborative aspects (e.g. the trust decisions and/or the power gaps between partners) that simultaneously impact the supply chain operation and the jointly solving of problems. Finally, this research work positions the experiential knowledge as a central lever of the problem solving process to contribute to the continuous improvement strategies at a more global level

Choreography-based business process consolidation in one-to-many interactions

In different real world scenarios the big companies can acquire other companies, or the company can insource some of its own organizational units residing abroad to increase security and control on those units, also achieve minimization of transaction costs. In these scenarios business processes of partner companies need to be consolidated with each other. Interaction of the business processes of partner companies can be modeled by choreographies. The related works contain an approach for consolidation of the business processes which are represented in choreography with only one instance per process type. In other words, the related works only contain consolidation solution for one-to-one interaction scenarios. However, this thesis presents a concept for choreography based business process consolidation in one-to-many interaction scenarios, where one process interacts with multiple instances of another process. In particular, the number of involved instances is unknown at design time, and it only becomes known at run time of choreography. Flight ticket booking choreography is used as a motivation scenario, where it is assumed that number of involved airlines is not known in advance. On the whole, the process consolidation approach is extended for supporting consolidation of multi-instance partner processes into one merged process

SUSTAINABLE VALUE OF RICE SUPPLY CHAIN: A SYSTEMATIC LITERATURE REVIEW AND RESEARCH AGENDA

The rice supply chain is important to achieve food security. It has various perspectives, challenges or issues that causes a complex problem in supply chain system. The existing problem are related to food availability, inventory level, fragmented distribution, affordability of prices, accessibility, variation of business processes and the environmental impact from production and logistics system. Moreover integration framework in the dimension of sustainability is limited. The objective of this article is to identify current problems to construct the idea of supply chain integration and to build the formulation for improvement the value of rice supply chain. Fifty articles discuss rice supply chain. The remaining discuss on increasing rice productivity, inventory optimization, performance improvement, and traceability. The VOS viewer result showed that sustainability is connected to the supply chain at a distant position which indicates that sustainability has the opportunity to be studied wider range in future research. The gap analysis showed that the production increase is limited to agronomy innovation and didn’t consider sustainable characteristics input. The indirect innovations that use information technology for precision farming also had not been comprehensively collaborated. The production absorption had not been considered in inventory optimization and traceability system had not been developed for supply availability. The improvement activities to fill the gap will transform supply chain performance more efficient, responsive and minimum environmental impacts for the enhancement of the sustainability value of the rice supply chain. Keywords: gap analysis,  integration, rice supply chain, sustainability, production and logistics syste

SUSTAINABLE VALUE OF RICE SUPPLY CHAIN: A SYSTEMATIC LITERATURE REVIEW AND RESEARCH AGENDA

The rice supply chain is important to achieve food security. It has various perspectives, challenges or issues that causes a complex problem in supply chain system. The existing problem are related to food availability, inventory level, fragmented distribution, affordability of prices, accessibility, variation of business processes and the environmental impact from production and logistics system. Moreover integration framework in the dimension of sustainability is limited. The objective of this article is to identify current problems to construct the idea of supply chain integration and to build the formulation for improvement the value of rice supply chain. Fifty articles discuss rice supply chain. The remaining discuss on increasing rice productivity, inventory optimization, performance improvement, and traceability. The VOS viewer result showed that sustainability is connected to the supply chain at a distant position which indicates that sustainability has the opportunity to be studied wider range in future research. The gap analysis showed that the production increase is limited to agronomy innovation and didn’t consider sustainable characteristics input. The indirect innovations that use information technology for precision farming also had not been comprehensively collaborated. The production absorption had not been considered in inventory optimization and traceability system had not been developed for supply availability. The improvement activities to fill the gap will transform supply chain performance more efficient, responsive and minimum environmental impacts for the enhancement of the sustainability value of the rice supply chain. Keywords: gap analysis,  integration, rice supply chain, sustainability, production and logistics syste

Résolution collaborative de problèmes au sein des chaînes logistiques : cadre conceptuel, processus et méthodologie

La Résolution de Problèmes est l'un des piliers des stratégies d'amélioration continue des entreprises. Dans ce cadre, un certain nombre des méthodes ont réussi à démontrer son efficacité pour adresser des problèmes particulièrement complexes. Parmi ces méthodes, on peut distinguer le PDCA, le DMAICS, le 7Steps et le 8D/9S. Pourtant, l'apparition des réseaux distribuées de partenaires, ainsi que le positionnement du concept d'entreprise étendue, ont obligé les entreprises à aller au-delà de ses frontières pour travailler en synergie avec tous les partenaires en amont et en aval de sa chaîne. Dans ce contexte, l'efficacité de ces méthodes de résolution des problèmes a été fortement impactée. Ceci car non seulement les problèmes, mais aussi les produits, les partenaires, les ressources et l'information nécessaires pour sa résolution sont extrêmement fragmentés et décentralisés. Cette thèse s'intéresse donc à la résolution collaborative de problèmes au sein des chaînes distribuées de partenaires et son objectif est de proposer un processus et une méthodologie adaptés à ces contextes. Les propositions faites prennent en compte les aspects techniques (e.g. la modélisation des flux et la configuration de la chaîne) ainsi que les aspects collaboratifs (e.g. le niveau de confiance et/ou le rapport de pouvoir entre les partenaires) que conditionnent l'opération et l'efficacité du réseau. Finalement, cette thèse s'intéresse à l'articulation d'un système de retour d'expérience dans la résolution de problèmes distribués afin d'améliorer son efficacité. ABSTRACT : The Problem Solving Process is a central element of the firms' continuous improvement strategies. In this framework, a number of approaches have succeeded to demonstrate their effectiveness to tackle industrial problems. The list includes, but is not limited to PDCA, DMAICS, 7Steps and 8D/9S. However, the emergence and increasing emphasis in the supply chains have impacted the effectiveness of those methods to solve problems that go beyond the boundaries of a single firm and, in consequence, their ability to provide solutions when the contexts on which firms operate are distributed. This can be explained because not only the problems, but also the products, partners, skills, resources and pieces of evidence required to solve those problems are distributed, fragmented and decentralized across the network. This PhD thesis deals with the solving of industrial problems in supply chains based in collaboration. It develops a general framework for studying this paradigm, as well as both a generic process and a collaborative methodology able to deal with the process in practice. The proposal considers all the technical aspects (e.g. products modeling and network structure) and the collaborative aspects (e.g. the trust decisions and/or the power gaps between partners) that simultaneously impact the supply chain operation and the jointly solving of problems. Finally, this research work positions the experiential knowledge as a central lever of the problem solving process to contribute to the continuous improvement strategies at a more global level

Technology-related disasters:a survey towards disaster-resilient software defined networks

Resilience against disaster scenarios is essential to network operators, not only because of the potential economic impact of a disaster but also because communication networks form the basis of crisis management. COST RECODIS aims at studying measures, rules, techniques and prediction mechanisms for different disaster scenarios. This paper gives an overview of different solutions in the context of technology-related disasters. After a general overview, the paper focuses on resilient Software Defined Networks