s-cube lp: analyzing and adapting business processes based on ecologically-aware indicators

www.s-cube-network.eu

S-Cube Learning Package

Analyzing and Adapting Business Processes based on Ecologically-aware Indicators

University of Stuttgart (USTUTT)

Alexander Nowak, USTUTT

Learning Package Categorization

S-Cube

Adaptable Coordinated Service Compositions

Adaptable and QoS-aware Service Compositions

Analyzing and Adapting Business Processes based on Ecologically-aware Indicators

© Alexander Nowak

Learning Package Overview

Problem Description

Green Business Process Reengineering

Discussion

Conclusions

© Alexander Nowak

Problem Description

Business Process Reengineering (BPR) is a common

methodology to analyze and optimize business processes in

organizations

In recent years, the concepts and methods of BPR have been

extended in order to account for cross-cutting concerns, like

environmentally-aware business process optimization

Green Business Process Reengineering accounts for 5

different dimensions

– Cost

– Time

– Quality

– Flexibility

– Environment

© Alexander Nowak

Motivating Scenario – Part 1 (1)

Current Car Finishing Process of Auto Inc.

After completely assembling a car the following process is

executed:

Put Car into

Operation

Prepare

Detailed CheckEngine Test Visual Check Test Run

Check Water

Density and

Clean Car

Perform Quick

CheckCreate Report

© Alexander Nowak


The sample process shows two different branches that are

performed randomly:

– A quick check is performed, considering only some basic analysis

– A detailed check that includes some further steps:

- First, the check is prepared in general (create documents etc.)

- Second, the engine is tested in detail

- Third, a detailed visual check is performed

- Forth, a test run on the test track is performed

- Fifth, the water density of the car is checked and the car gets

cleaned

© Alexander Nowak


The management of Auto Inc. now decides to also improve

their environmental impact, in particular their water

consumption and CO2 emission.

Now, the question is:

Current business process management approaches lack in

considering an environmental dimension

© Alexander Nowak

How to optimize the environmental impact of this process?


Problem Description


Discussion

Conclusions

© Alexander Nowak

Green Business Process Reengineering - Introduction

Green Business Process Reengineering requires, compared

to regular Business Process Reengineering,

– Additional information with respect to the environment

– New analysis technologies

Common BPR Architecture needs to be extended!

© Alexander Nowak

Green Business Process Reengineering - Architecture

© Alexander Nowak

IT-Systems

Manufacturing Operations

Human Tasks

Ecosystem

Facilities and

Buildings

Logistics

4. Adaptation

Energy

Water

CO2

…

Process Model Evolution

Process Instance

Migration BPR & BPM (CIP)

Middleware / Deployment

Dynamic Provisioning

Manual Adaptation …

Key Performance Indicators, Key Ecological Indicators

3. Analysis & Management

2. Sensing & Monitoring

Carbon1 Carbon2 Carbon3








Business Analyst

Business/Enterprise

Architect

(IT) Developer /

Architect

(IT) Operator

Operational Staff

(IT) Developer /

Architect

Top Management

1. Strategy

Architecture – Phase 1

We define Key Ecological Indicators (KEIs) as

Tupel consisting of

– Ecological Characteristic (EC) Metric

– Target Value Function

Example: max CO2 emission (of a process instance) < X1

© Alexander Nowak

Key Performance Indicators, Key Ecological Indicators

Top Management

1. Strategy


Different Systems need to measure the environmental impact,

for example IT-Systems or Manufactoring Operations (see

Figure above)

Distinguish between different sensing and monitoring types:

– Same EC metric, e.g. from service specification, SLA, or existing

knowledge, for all process instances

– Monitored while performing the process instance

– Mixed Value Function

– Dynamic Value Function

© Alexander Nowak

IT-Systems

Manufacturing Operations

Human Tasks

Ecosystem

Facilities and

Buildings

Logistics

2. Sensing & Monitoring

Operational Staff

(IT) Developer /

Architect


Analysis of Business Processes based on sensed and

monitored information

Business Process Views:

– Custom Visualization of Business Processes

– Augment Process with additional Information

© Alexander Nowak

Energy

Water

CO2

…









Business Analyst


What are Business Process Views:

– A view on a process intends to abstract from details and make

complex processes easier to understand.

– Highlight parts of interest based on augmented information

– A process view results from specific transformations applied to a

process model.

A Transformation Example concerning environmental aspects

is shown in the following

© Alexander Nowak


Augment a business process with runtime information

© Alexander Nowak

Carbon1

Carbon2

Carbon3

Carbon1

Carbon2

Carbon3

Carbon1

Carbon2

Carbon3

Carbon1

Carbon2

Carbon3

Carbon1

Carbon2

Carbon3

Carbon1

Carbon2

Carbon3

Carbon1

Carbon2

Carbon3

Carbon1

Carbon2

Carbon3

augment

process

Legend

Activity

Control-Flow

Carbon1

Carbon2

Carbon3 Augmentation

Transformation

Original Process

Model

Augmented Process View


Transformation 1: Omit some activities that cannot be

changed or replaced by design

Transformation 2: Graphically represent environmental

information

© Alexander Nowak

omit

activities

adjust

visualization 8

3 7 15

9 5 Carbon1

Carbon2

Carbon3

Carbon1

Carbon2

Carbon3

Carbon1

Carbon2

Carbon3

Carbon1

Carbon2

Carbon3

Carbon1

Carbon2

Carbon3

Carbon1

Carbon2

Carbon3

Carbon1

Carbon2

Carbon3

Carbon1

Carbon2

Carbon3

Augmented Process View Visually Transformed View 1 Visually Transformed View 2

Carbon1

Carbon2

Carbon3

Carbon1

Carbon2

Carbon3

Carbon1

Carbon2

Carbon3

Carbon1

Carbon2

Carbon3

Carbon1

Carbon2

Carbon3

Carbon1

Carbon2

Carbon3


Drill-Down specific activities to access more detailed

information

© Alexander Nowak

8

3 7 15

9 5

drill-

down 8

3 7

9 5

7 8

Visually Transformed View 2 Drill-Down View


Business Process Views provide decision support for

adapting business processes

Trade-off between different indicators (KPIs, KEIs, etc) need

to be addressed

Business Process Variants as means to evaluate adaptation

strategies

© Alexander Nowak

4. Adaptation

Process Model Evolution

Process Instance

Migration BPR & BPM (CIP)

Middleware / Deployment

Dynamic Provisioning

Manual Adaptation … Business/Enterprise

Architect

(IT) Developer /

Architect

(IT) Operator


Indicators are aggregated through all activities of a single

business process variant

Different business process variants can be compared

Concrete Adaptation Mechanisms depend on concrete

business processs

© Alexander Nowak

modify

structure

CO2=100

Cost=100

Time=100

CO2=90

Cost=105

Time=98

CO2=85

Cost=95

Time=110

Original Process

View

Variant 1

Variant 2


Green Objectives: Reduce

– Carbon Emission

– Water Consumption

© Alexander Nowak

Transformation Steps:

1) Omit Activities (Selection indicated

by dashed lines)

Put Car into

Operation

Prepare

Detailed CheckEngine Test Visual Check Test Run

Check Water

Density and

Clean Car

Create ReportPerform Quick

Check



– Carbon Emission


© Alexander Nowak


2) Augment Green Data and change

activity appearance

Put Car into

Operation

Engine Test Visual Check Test Run

Check Water

Density and

Clean Car

Create Report

Put Car into

Operation

Engine Test Visual Check Test Run

Check Water

Density and

Clean Car

Create ReportLow CO2 emission

High CO2 emission

Low water consumption

High water consumption



– Carbon Emission



3) Create Process Variant

Low CO2 emission

High CO2 emission

Low water consumption

High water consumption

Put Car into

Operation

Put Car into

Operation

Engine Test Visual Check

Create Report

Test Run at

Test Track

Test Run at

roller

dynamometer

Check Water

Density and

Clean Car

The approach has various advantages:

– Utilizing well established methods from business process

reengineering

– “Virtual” business process adaptation using business process views

– Decoupling of business and IT

- Business process experts can analyze the process, model different

business process variants and evaluate them

- IT experts can use standardized business process models to setup

runtime environment

© Alexander Nowak

Now Let’s Check How Accurate Predictions are (1)

The approach also has some open issues:

– How to get all ecological information one needs to improve the total

environmental impact of an organization?

– How to implement different K*Is in enterprise architectures?

– How to handle different levels of granularity between business

processes and sensor and monitoring data?

© Alexander Nowak

Summary

Green Business Process Reengineering methods can be

used to address environmentally-aware business process

optimization

Steps:

1. Define indicators based on organizations strategy

2. Augment and analyze process models with runtime information using

business process views

3. Create and evaluate business process variants considering the

trade-off between different optimization dimensions

4. Adapt current process model with chosen business process variant

© Alexander Nowak

Further S-Cube Reading

Nowak, Leymann, Schumm, and Wetzstein. An Architecture and Methodology for a Four-Phased Approach to Green Business Process Reengineering. In Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on ICT as Key Technology for the Fight against Global Warming - ICT-GLOW 2011 (accepted for publication), Springer-Verlag, Berlin, Heidelberg.

© Alexander Nowak

http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1719370

http://www2.informatik.uni-stuttgart.de/cgi-bin/NCSTRL/NCSTRL_view.pl?id=INPROC-2011-33&mod=0&engl=0&inst=IAAS




Acknowledgements

The research leading to these results has

received funding from the European

Community’s Seventh Framework

Programme [FP7/2007-2013] under grant

agreement 215483 (S-Cube).

© Alexander Nowak