No abstract

Organizations need to be agile and fl exible to meet the continuous changes. Business Process Management (BPM) is harnessing the continuous changes suffered by organizations in the value chain and, therefore, in their processes. Simulation models offer the ability to experience different decisions and analyze their results in systems where the cost or risk of actual experimentation are prohibitive. BPMN models are not directly executable nor is it possible to simulate their behavior in various input parameters. This paper proposes the application of model-driven engineering (MDE) to integrate the defi nition of business processes with Discrete-Event Simulation (DES) as a tool to support decision-making. We propose a platform independent DES metamodel and a set of rules, to automatically generate the simulation model from BPMN 2.0 based business process in accordance with previous metamodel.

Nowadays most existing products and services are the result of the collaboration of a large number of companies that form a value chain known as Supply Chain (SC). Then individual Business Process Management (BPM) requires a holistic vision that incorporates an inter organizational view that supports SC decision making. This study proposes a novel idea trying to address collaborative BP modelling problem with a new perspective, a bottom-up approach, reusing process models that each organization may have created with a different modelling language. Collaborative Business Generation (CBG) Framework, following Model-Driven Engineering (MDE) paradigm, includes a meta model, a method, a set of model transformations and a support tool to create collaborative BP models from individual ones, maintaining privacy and autonomy in decision making. This paper presents main CBG-Framework elements as well as a real world case study for early validation.