On the automatic generation of workflow processes based on product structures

Workflow management promises a new solution to an age-old problem: controll ing, monitoring, optimizing and supporting business processes. What is new about workflow management is the explicit representation of the business pr ocess logic which allows for computerized support. Business processes suppo rted by a workflow management system (WFMS) are case-driven in the sense th at tasks are executed for specific cases. A case corresponds to a service t o the environment. Approving a loan, processing an insurance claim and hand ling a traffic violation are examples of case-driven processes. A case corr esponds to a product that needs to be produced. Although the product is not a physical object, it has an internal structure, i.e., it is an informatio nal object assembled from components. Therefore, the well-known bill-of-mat erials (BOM) can be used to describe the product that is manufactured using a WFMS. This paper describes a technique (based on Petri nets) to automati cally generate a workflow process based on a BOM. It allows workflow design ers to think in terms of the end-product instead of the internal process an d constitute a basis for the automatic configuration of a WFMS on the basis of a BOM. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.