A dynamic hierarchical description method for workflow is presented. The method provides a dynamic hierarchical way to define a workflow with non-determinate or dynamic factors. With this method, the main process defi...A dynamic hierarchical description method for workflow is presented. The method provides a dynamic hierarchical way to define a workflow with non-determinate or dynamic factors. With this method, the main process defined at build-time can be reified and extended by the principle of the sub-organizations at either the build-time or the run-time. To ensure the consistency and integrity of the description, a series of constraint rules are also discussed to realize seamless integration between a decomposed process and its original one. This approach supports the description of unpredictable uncertainties, the dynamic hierarchy of business process, and the dynamic modification of enterprise organizations, and all of these improve the flexibility and extendability of workflow management systems dramatically.展开更多
With the vehement development of global competition , Agile Supply Chain (ASC) becomes an effective approach that supports dynamic ent erprise alliance and realizes agile manufacturing, as for the enterprises to cap t...With the vehement development of global competition , Agile Supply Chain (ASC) becomes an effective approach that supports dynamic ent erprise alliance and realizes agile manufacturing, as for the enterprises to cap ture market opportunities rapidly and strengthen their anti-risk ability. As Ag ile Supply Chain System (ASCS) is dynamic and distributed, the realization of it ’s processes needs to be much flexible. Often in Agile Supply Chain System (ASCS ), there are many dynamic tasks, many changes of the processes, and cooperative workflows, which need the workflows able to be adjusted agilely and smoothly, no t much affecting others. This paper will propose a flexible workflow management for achieving the agility and compatibility. At the first of the paper, we will discuss the situation in which Agile Supply C hain System is applied, and then we will elaborate the characteristics of Agile Supply Chain System. So with that, the shortcomings of the process managements t hat are, at present, used in Supply Chain Systems will be displayed clearly. The n, the proposal will be given in the paper, to resolve the problems in the prese nt process management in ASCS. We will see supply chain systems implemented mult i-agent-based technology to adapt to the dynamic environment, however in many systems, coordination of the workflows is executed by the explicit messages comm unicated between the agents. This will lead to a tightly coupled system. To over come it, the paper suggests the workflow management in agent-based ASCS using t he Events-Triggering mechanism, instead of the explicit messages. We create Eve nts-Triggering contents and rules, having push-pull mechanism, event-state se t and triggering-conditions, and store them in the distributed database subject ed to the corresponding agents. Adjusting the Events-Triggering data will be us ed to adapt to the dynamic tasks and the changes of processes. In sum, we will p resent the methods of process modeling, the system structure, and the executing -mechanism of the flexible workflow management we propose in the paper. Also, t he paper outlines several exception-handling policies for the flexible workflow management, in succession. And at the final of the paper, we discuss the realiz ation of the flexible workflow management in Agile Supply Chain System. The flex ible workflow management will be implemented using CORBA services and Java techn ology for the distributed systems. CORBA is chosen as the specification of distr ibuted electronic data exchange, and Java as the construction tool of the system . The framework of the flexible workflow management constructed on them is showe d in the paper.展开更多
Flexibility plays an important part in the application of the workflow management system and has become one of the major research hotspots in this field recently. When adapting a workflow process definition to specifi...Flexibility plays an important part in the application of the workflow management system and has become one of the major research hotspots in this field recently. When adapting a workflow process definition to specific needs or changing the structure of the workflow process as a result of evolutionary change, coarse-grained reuse of work- flow is of significance to the reduction of the work effort, modeling system and enhancing the reliability of their work. Based on decomposition of workflow tasks and teamwork, this paper proposes an approach to describing interoperability behavior between roles in teamwork by using activity-pattern. In activity-pattern, abstract mechanisms of activity specialization and activity aggregation are presented, enabling reuse of workflow by means of reuse of interoperability behavior between roles. The experimental system shows that our approach presented is feasible.展开更多
文摘A dynamic hierarchical description method for workflow is presented. The method provides a dynamic hierarchical way to define a workflow with non-determinate or dynamic factors. With this method, the main process defined at build-time can be reified and extended by the principle of the sub-organizations at either the build-time or the run-time. To ensure the consistency and integrity of the description, a series of constraint rules are also discussed to realize seamless integration between a decomposed process and its original one. This approach supports the description of unpredictable uncertainties, the dynamic hierarchy of business process, and the dynamic modification of enterprise organizations, and all of these improve the flexibility and extendability of workflow management systems dramatically.
文摘With the vehement development of global competition , Agile Supply Chain (ASC) becomes an effective approach that supports dynamic ent erprise alliance and realizes agile manufacturing, as for the enterprises to cap ture market opportunities rapidly and strengthen their anti-risk ability. As Ag ile Supply Chain System (ASCS) is dynamic and distributed, the realization of it ’s processes needs to be much flexible. Often in Agile Supply Chain System (ASCS ), there are many dynamic tasks, many changes of the processes, and cooperative workflows, which need the workflows able to be adjusted agilely and smoothly, no t much affecting others. This paper will propose a flexible workflow management for achieving the agility and compatibility. At the first of the paper, we will discuss the situation in which Agile Supply C hain System is applied, and then we will elaborate the characteristics of Agile Supply Chain System. So with that, the shortcomings of the process managements t hat are, at present, used in Supply Chain Systems will be displayed clearly. The n, the proposal will be given in the paper, to resolve the problems in the prese nt process management in ASCS. We will see supply chain systems implemented mult i-agent-based technology to adapt to the dynamic environment, however in many systems, coordination of the workflows is executed by the explicit messages comm unicated between the agents. This will lead to a tightly coupled system. To over come it, the paper suggests the workflow management in agent-based ASCS using t he Events-Triggering mechanism, instead of the explicit messages. We create Eve nts-Triggering contents and rules, having push-pull mechanism, event-state se t and triggering-conditions, and store them in the distributed database subject ed to the corresponding agents. Adjusting the Events-Triggering data will be us ed to adapt to the dynamic tasks and the changes of processes. In sum, we will p resent the methods of process modeling, the system structure, and the executing -mechanism of the flexible workflow management we propose in the paper. Also, t he paper outlines several exception-handling policies for the flexible workflow management, in succession. And at the final of the paper, we discuss the realiz ation of the flexible workflow management in Agile Supply Chain System. The flex ible workflow management will be implemented using CORBA services and Java techn ology for the distributed systems. CORBA is chosen as the specification of distr ibuted electronic data exchange, and Java as the construction tool of the system . The framework of the flexible workflow management constructed on them is showe d in the paper.
基金This research is supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China （60574028） the Key Projects of Natural Science Foundation of Edtication Department of Anhui Province of China （2006kj016A, 2005kj065）
文摘Flexibility plays an important part in the application of the workflow management system and has become one of the major research hotspots in this field recently. When adapting a workflow process definition to specific needs or changing the structure of the workflow process as a result of evolutionary change, coarse-grained reuse of work- flow is of significance to the reduction of the work effort, modeling system and enhancing the reliability of their work. Based on decomposition of workflow tasks and teamwork, this paper proposes an approach to describing interoperability behavior between roles in teamwork by using activity-pattern. In activity-pattern, abstract mechanisms of activity specialization and activity aggregation are presented, enabling reuse of workflow by means of reuse of interoperability behavior between roles. The experimental system shows that our approach presented is feasible.
