Companies are constantly faced with the need to grow and advance in order to compete with other corporations. The implementation of computer innovations allows for smoother transitions to adaptive changes through the use and understanding of analytical tools. Modeling and Simulation Techniques for Improved Business Processes is a critical scholarly resource that examines the systems currently implemented in companies and how they can be upgraded and advanced through various computer design methods. Featuring coverage of a broad range of topics including scenario planning, casual modeling, and system dynamics, this publication is targeted toward researchers, professionals, and engineers searching for current research on corporate innovations created through computer design methods.

Business Process Modeling, Simulation and Design covers the design of business processes from a broad quantitative modeling perspective. The text presents a multitude of analytical tools that can be used to model, analyze, understand and ultimately, to design business processes. The range of topics in this text include graphical flowcharting tools, deterministic models for cycle time analysis and capacity decisions, analytical queuing methods, as well as the use of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) for benchmarking purposes. And a major portion of the book is devoted to simulation modeling using a state of the art discrete-event simulation package.

Business processes are among today's hottest topics in the science and practice of information systems. Business processes and workflow management systems attract a lot of attention from R&D professionals in software engineering, information systems, business-oriented computer science, and management sciences. The carefully reviewed chapters contributed to this state-of-the-art survey by internationally leading scientists consolidate work presented at various workshops on the topic organized by the editors of the book in the past few years. The book spans the whole spectrum of business process management ranging from theoretical aspects, conceptual models, and application scenarios to implementation issues. It will become a valuable source of reference and information for R&D professionals active in the fascinating interdisciplinary area of business process management and for ambitious practitioners.

An introduction to the modeling of business information systems, with processes formally modeled using Petri nets. This comprehensive introduction to modeling business-information systems focuses on business processes. It describes and demonstrates the formal modeling of processes in terms of Petri nets, using a well-established theory for capturing and analyzing models with concurrency. The precise semantics of this formal method offers a distinct advantage for modeling processes over the industrial modeling languages found in other books on the subject. Moreover, the simplicity and expressiveness of the Petri nets concept make it an ideal language for explaining foundational concepts and constructing exercises. After an overview of business information systems, the book introduces the modeling of processes in terms of classical Petri nets. This is then extended with data, time, and hierarchy to model all aspects of a process. Finally, the book explores analysis of Petri net models to detect design flaws and errors in the design process. The text, accessible to a broad audience of professionals and students, keeps technicalities to a minimum and offers numerous examples to illustrate the concepts covered. Exercises at different levels of difficulty make the book ideal for independent study or classroom use.

Simulation Modelling has been used for many years in the manufacturing sector but has now become a mainstream tool in business situations. This is partly because of the popularity of Business Process Reengineering (BPR) and other process based improvement methods that use simulation to help analyse changes in process design. This text book includes case studies in both manufacturing and service situations to demonstrate the usefulness of the approach. A further reason for the increasing popularity of the technique is the development of business orientated and user-friendly windows-based software. This text provides a guide to the use of ARENA, SIMUL8 and WITNESS simulation software systems which are widely used in industry and available to students. Overall this text provides a practical guide to building and implementing the results from a simulation model. All the steps in a typical simulation study are covered including data collection, input data modelling and experimentation.

This is the first practical guide to simulating business processes and predicting the impact of change. The book offers new tools for reducing the risks associated with strategic change. Pragmatic strategies are given for implementing simulation.

The design of communication systems has grown too complicated for the traditional design tools--mathematical analysis and laboratory breadboards. Enter the computer simulation, a powerful and versatile tool that is becoming essential for anyone who designs signal transmission or storage systems. This volume explains in detail how to use simulation programs as a software breadboard to analyze and evaluate the performance of data communications links. It describes the engineering principles of signal transmission and its simulation, explores programming issues, and provides a comprehensive reference for models of signal processes. The book clearly demonstrates how simulation techniques can be used to: * Create valid models of signal processes * Provide exibility through the use of modules * Simulate various elements of communications systems, from filters and modulators to test instruments * Explore alternative models for a given system * Circumvent the mathematical intractability of modern transmission links * Plan and construct a computer model in a matter of hours or days, versus the weeks or months needed for laboratory breadboards * Make parameter changes in minutes once a link has been modeled * Provide engineers and students with complete training on the elements of simulation A must have for designers, practicing engineers, and graduate students, this volume presents real-world techniques that can be used with the authors' ST?DT program (a companion work also published by Wiley), or independently with other commercially available simulators.