Redesigning Check-Processing Operations Using Animated Computer Simulation

This paper describes the steps taken by a major commercial bank in the USA to redesign a critical function within its check-processing operation. Animated simulation models of the current and new process were developed to understand the relationship between process parameters waiting times and productivity measures. We describe the animated simulation modeling approach in detail present sample results and provide directions for further use of such an approach in banking

Towards a Methodology to Assess Changes in IT Business Value in Terms of Business Process Performance

Scientific literature strongly indicates that IT business value is best observed on the level of business processes. However, methodologies by which the contribution of IT can be systematically analyzed on a business processes level are currently insufficient. Therefore, this paper presents a methodology which, proceeding from a given status quo, analyzes and measures changes in IT usage in business processes. The proposed methodology combines the possibilities of the methods Data Envelopment Analysis and Business Process Simulation. An example of application will demonstrate how effects on business process performance resulting from changes in IT usage can be analyzed and measured in a practical application by means of this methodology. The results show that this methodology bears potential for analyzing about the quantification of IT contribution to business value. It allows an assessment of IT business value due to changes in IT usage before an investment decision in IT is made

Discrete event simulation and lean production: quantification of waste in a pharmaceutical industry

Nowadays it is imperative that companies seek constant improvements in their operational performance so as not to become obsolete in relation to the new cutting edge trends of smart manufacturing or industry 4.0. In this context, it is noteworthy that manufacturing must occur in the presence of variability and uncertainty, and manufacturing systems must be complex, efficient and lean. Therefore, a conduct aimed at interventions focused on reducing waste in manufacturing and service operations are essential actions. A tool that can help in this purpose is the discrete event simulation (DES). In this context, the objective of this research is to apply DES and quantify the financial waste arising from non-value-adding activities. The object of study was a production line of a pharmaceutical industry and as a research method an approach was used combining modeling and simulation (quantitative) and case study (qualitative) methods. The software chosen was Flexsim®, a powerful simulation and process analysis tool that helps professionals in decision making. Finally, the results obtained through this research show the great financial waste in the analyzed assembly line. This impactful result on losses in the operation serves as a warning so that intervention measures are planned and executed to eliminate or mitigate the consequences of this waste

AN EMPIRICAL ASSESSMENT OF THE USEFULNESS OF WEAKNESS PATTERNS IN BUSINESS PROCESS REDESIGN

Business Process Management (BPM) is a topic with growing relevance for businesses as well as public organisations. Until today, the analysis part of a BPM cycle is mostly done manually. Process modelling methods are not designed to allow for automated analysis. Our aim is to show that meaningful weakness patterns that support semi-automatic analysis of business process diagrams (BPD) can be defined when a semantically enhanced modelling method is used. We derive exemplary weakness patterns by analysing literature and interviews from a business process redesign project. These are applied to a set of process models, in which occurrences of these weaknesses are being searched automatically. A comparison of achieved and expected results indicates that our approach helps to identify weaknesses within the processes and therefore supports business process analysis endeavours

Simulación en tiempo discreto de un proceso de abastecimiento de combustible como una herramienta de toma de decisiones: Caso estación de servicios en Barranquilla

We present an analysis of a queue model, specifically in a service station that has some traffic problems and productivity, which negatively affects the fill rate and sustainability of the company. Based on concepts of simulation and modeling of processes, supported in probability theory, mathematical statistics and queuing models, we obtained a computer model simulation that recreates the reality of the current system, generating vital statistics the decision making process. The research is descriptive into a pilot study of a traffic simulation project in one of the towns of the city of Barranquilla, Colombia and its interaction with the massive transportation system. The model allows a diagnostic the statistical behavior of supply stations supporting strategic decisions related to capacity.Se presenta un análisis de un modelo de líneas de espera, específicamente en una estación de servicio que posee algunos problemas de tráfico y productividad, lo cual afecta negativamente el nivel de servicio y la sostenibilidad de la empresa. A partir de conceptos de la simulación y modelaje de procesos, soportados en la teoría de la probabilidad, estadística matemática y modelos de colas de espera, se obtuvo un modelo computacional de simulación que recrea la realidad que vive el sistema actual, generando estadísticas vitales para el proceso de toma de decisiones. La investigación tiene un enfoque descriptivo dentro de un estudio piloto de un proyecto de simulación de tráfico en una de las localidades de la ciudad de Barranquilla, Colombia y su interacción con el sistema de transporte masivo. El modelo permite diagnosticar el comportamiento estadístico de las estaciones de suministro apoyando la toma de decisiones estratégicas relacionadas con la capacidad instalada

Business Process Simulation: A Systematic Literature Review

Business process simulation marks an essential Business Process Management technique for analysing business processes and for reasoning about process improvement. Despite its importance, literature is lacking a comprehensive, updated overview of research contributions to the field of business process simulation. In this systematic literature review, we assess the present state of research on business process simulation including prior work between 1990 and 2016. Results reported in the present study assist in advancing the discussion on future research on business process simulation by compiling and analysing prior work. The present literature review focuses on prior research involving conceptual business process models, e.g., BPMN models, with a graphical model representation as a starting point for business process simulation and excludes other foundations to build simulation models

Perturbing event logs to identify cost reduction opportunities: A genetic algorithm-based approach

Organisations are constantly seeking new ways to improve operational efficiencies. This research study investigates a novel way to identify potential efficiency gains in business operations by observing how they are carried out in the past and then exploring better ways of executing them by taking into account trade-offs between time, cost and resource utilisation. This paper demonstrates how they can be incorporated in the assessment of alternative process execution scenarios by making use of a cost environment. A genetic algorithm-based approach is proposed to explore and assess alternative process execution scenarios, where the objective function is represented by a comprehensive cost structure that captures different process dimensions. Experiments conducted with different variants of the genetic algorithm evaluate the approach's feasibility. The findings demonstrate that a genetic algorithm-based approach is able to make use of cost reduction as a way to identify improved execution scenarios in terms of reduced case durations and increased resource utilisation. The ultimate aim is to utilise cost-related insights gained from such improved scenarios to put forward recommendations for reducing process-related cost within organisations

An Interval-Valued Approach to Business Process Simulation Based on Genetic Algorithms and the BPMN

Simulating organizational processes characterized by interacting human activities, resources, business rules and constraints, is a challenging task, because of the inherent uncertainty, inaccuracy, variability and dynamicity. With regard to this problem, currently available business process simulation (BPS) methods and tools are unable to efficiently capture the process behavior along its lifecycle. In this paper, a novel approach of BPS is presented. To build and manage simulation models according to the proposed approach, a simulation system is designed, developed and tested on pilot scenarios, as well as on real-world processes. The proposed approach exploits interval-valued data to represent model parameters, in place of conventional single-valued or probability-valued parameters. Indeed, an interval-valued parameter is comprehensive; it is the easiest to understand and express and the simplest to process, among multi-valued representations. In order to compute the interval-valued output of the system, a genetic algorithm is used. The resulting process model allows forming mappings at different levels of detail and, therefore, at different model resolutions. The system has been developed as an extension of a publicly available simulation engine, based on the Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN) standard

Identification of Critical Business Processes: A Proposed Novel Approach

Critical Business Processes (CBPs) are processes that are crucial to the financial stability and operations of an organisation. This paper focuses on surveying the literature, while presenting a critical synthesis of the findings of previous studies on CBPs. The paper seeks to extensively and critically review the current literature to understand state-of-the-art methods and key research gap for CBP identification. While this paper targets the process of identifying the gap in literature, it helps in finding out what is needed for mitigating it, motivating the future researches in this area, and pushing the boundary between human and machine interaction in key strategic decisions for organisations along with security implications