Possibilistic interorganizationalworkflow net for the recovery problem concerning communication failures

In this paper, an approach based on interorganizational WorkFlow nets and on possibilistic Petri nets is proposed to deal with communication failures in business processes. Routing patterns and communication protocols existing in business processes are modeled by interorganizational WorkFlow nets. Possibilistic Petri nets with uncertainty on the marking and on the transition firing are considered to express in a more realistic way the uncertainty attached to communication failures. Combining both formalisms, a kind of possibilistic interorganizational WorkFlow net is obtained. An example of communication failure at a process monitoring level that precedes the presentation of a paper at a conference is presented

Recent advances in petri nets and concurrency

CEUR Workshop Proceeding

Modelagem e simulação de sistemas de gerenciamento de processos de negócios baseadas em workflow net temporais com mecanismos de alocação de recursos híbridos fuzzy

The main objective of this doctoral research is to propose a new business process model for efficient (and realistic) resources and time management in Workflow nets. This research had as its starting point the validation of the fuzzy resource allocation model presented in (JESKE, 2006). In particular, a specialized inference mechanism of the token player type adapted to a fuzzy hybrid resource allocation model was implemented in the modeling, analysis and simulation tool of colored Petri nets called CPN Tools. Such simulations have shown that the new model in relation to a simple resource allocation mechanism with an earlier firing policy (FIFO) allows an improvement in the proportion of cases that meet the established deadlines. To solve the scheduling problem in Workflow Management Systems, important characteristics inherent to these systems should be considered. In particular, when many cases are run concurrently, conflict situations due to shared resource can occur and must be resolved in real time (without a backward mechanism). Also, temporary restrictions regarding the deadlines for delivery of specific cases should be considered. For that, a fuzzy time associated to the activities of the processes was defined as well as a mechanism of propagation of restrictions whose role is to guarantee the consistency of the time constraints to carry out the activities respecting the expected delivery times. With the objective of making the behavior of the new model the closest and consistent with the behavior of the human collaborators involved in the execution of business process activities, the notion of joint possibility was inserted in the model. This notion involves the uncertain and nebulous character of the execution times of the activities of the processes and the intensity of the resources used to carry out the activities. New firing rules for transitions were then defined based on the concept presented. Token players based on the new model presented were defined, implemented, simulated and validated in the CPN Tools, whose main role is to show the execution of the new models presented. Using the CPN Tools, it was possible to evaluate the system behavior considering the expected or most critical operating. It is important to point out that through the simulation results it is possible to predict how the system will behave and, from this, to evaluate several possible resource distribution scenarios in order to be able, in the future, to carry out the sizing of the system based on a modeling and simulation tool that approximates of the way employees work in an office environment.Tese (Doutorado)O principal objetivo desta pesquisa de doutorado é propor um novo modelo de processo de negócios para uma gestão eficiente (e realista) dos recursos e do tempo em Workflow nets. Esta pesquisa teve como ponto de partida a validação do modelo de alocação de recursos fuzzy apresentado em (JESKE, 2006). Em particular, um mecanismo de inferência especializado do tipo token player adaptado a um modelo de alocação de recurso híbrido fuzzy foi implementado na ferramenta de modelagem, análise e simulação de redes de Petri coloridas chamada CPN Tools. Tais simulações mostraram que o novo modelo em relação a um mecanismo simples de alocação de recurso com uma política de disparo mais cedo (FIFO) permite uma melhoria da proporção de casos que respeitam os prazos estabelecidos. Para resolver o problema do escalonamento em Sistemas de Gerenciamento de Workflow deverão ser consideradas características importantes inerentes a estes sistemas. Em particular, quando muitos casos são executados simultaneamente, situações de conflito por recursos compartilhados podem ocorrer e devem ser resolvidas em tempo real (sem um mecanismo de retrocesso). Também, deverão ser consideradas restrições temporais relativas aos prazos de entrega de casos específicos. Para tanto, definiu-se um tempo fuzzy associado às atividades dos processos bem como um mecanismo de propagação de restrições cujo papel é garantir a consistência das restrições de tempo para realização das atividades respeitando os prazos de entrega previstos. Com o objetivo de tornar o comportamento do novo modelo o mais próximo e consistente com o comportamento de funcionários humanos envolvidos na execução de atividades de processos de negócios, a noção de possibilidade conjunta que envolve o caráter incerto e nebuloso tanto dos tempos de execução das atividades dos processos quanto das intensidades de carga dos recursos utilizados para a realização de atividades foi inserida no modelo. Novas regras de disparo de transições foram então definidas baseadas no conceito apresentado. Jogadores de rede de Petri do tipo token player baseados no novo modelo apresentado foram definidos, implementados, simulados e validados na ferramenta CPN Tools, cujo papel principal é mostrar a execução dos novos modelos apresentados. Com o uso da ferramenta CPN Tools foi possível avaliar o comportamento do sistema em funcionamento esperado ou em situação mais crítica. É importante salientar que através dos resultados de simulação é possível prever como o sistema se comportará, isso a fim de avaliar diversos cenários possíveis de distribuição de recursos para poder, no futuro, realizar o dimensionamento do sistema baseado numa ferramenta de modelagem e simulação próxima da forma de trabalhar dos funcionários em ambiente de escritório

Technology and Management Applied in Construction Engineering Projects

This book focuses on fundamental and applied research on construction project management. It presents research papers and practice-oriented papers. The execution of construction projects is specific and particularly difficult because each implementation is a unique, complex, and dynamic process that consists of several or more subprocesses that are related to each other, in which various aspects of the investment process participate. Therefore, there is still a vital need to study, research, and conclude the engineering technology and management applied in construction projects. This book present unanimous research approach is a result of many years of studies, conducted by 35 well experienced authors. The common subject of research concerns the development of methods and tools for modeling multi-criteria processes in construction engineering

Safety and Reliability - Safe Societies in a Changing World

The contributions cover a wide range of methodologies and application areas for safety and reliability that contribute to safe societies in a changing world. These methodologies and applications include: - foundations of risk and reliability assessment and management - mathematical methods in reliability and safety - risk assessment - risk management - system reliability - uncertainty analysis - digitalization and big data - prognostics and system health management - occupational safety - accident and incident modeling - maintenance modeling and applications - simulation for safety and reliability analysis - dynamic risk and barrier management - organizational factors and safety culture - human factors and human reliability - resilience engineering - structural reliability - natural hazards - security - economic analysis in risk managemen

Concepts and Methods from Artificial Intelligence in Modern Information Systems – Contributions to Data-driven Decision-making and Business Processes

Today, organizations are facing a variety of challenging, technology-driven developments, three of the most notable ones being the surge in uncertain data, the emergence of unstructured data and a complex, dynamically changing environment. These developments require organizations to transform in order to stay competitive. Artificial Intelligence with its fields decision-making under uncertainty, natural language processing and planning offers valuable concepts and methods to address the developments. The dissertation at hand utilizes and furthers these contributions in three focal points to address research gaps in existing literature and to provide concrete concepts and methods for the support of organizations in the transformation and improvement of data-driven decision-making, business processes and business process management. In particular, the focal points are the assessment of data quality, the analysis of textual data and the automated planning of process models. In regard to data quality assessment, probability-based approaches for measuring consistency and identifying duplicates as well as requirements for data quality metrics are suggested. With respect to analysis of textual data, the dissertation proposes a topic modeling procedure to gain knowledge from CVs as well as a model based on sentiment analysis to explain ratings from customer reviews. Regarding automated planning of process models, concepts and algorithms for an automated construction of parallelizations in process models, an automated adaptation of process models and an automated construction of multi-actor process models are provided