Process modeling and analysis of manufacturing supply chain networks usingobject-oriented Petri nets

This paper presents a systematic methodology for modeling and analysis of m anufacturing supply chain business processes. The proposed approach first e mploys Computer Integrated Manufacturing Open System Architecture (CIMOSA) behavior rules to model the business process routing structures of manufact uring supply chain networks. Object-oriented predicate/transition nets (OPT Ns) are then developed for the modular modeling and analysis of process mod els. Based on the structure of OPTNs, a procedure to obtain the system's P- invariants through objects' P-invariants is suggested. From the P-invariant s obtained, system structural properties such as deadlock and overflow can be analyzed. By using Petri net unfolding techniques and by extracting the process model of each object from the entire process model, the sequencing analysis for operations in supply chain processes becomes possible. Several manufacturing supply chain examples are used to illustrate the effectivene ss of the proposed method. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserv ed.