Towards a flexible business process modeling and simulation environment

Business process is crucial to the success of any business. Business process modeling enables a common understanding and analysis of a business process, and simulation is an effective way to diagnose and evaluate complex business processes. There are lots of software tools in market for business process modeling and simulation, however, a common issue for these tools is the conflict between usability and flexibility. The improvement of usability often means the reduction of flexibility. This paper introduces an IBM asset named Supply Chain Process Modeler (SCPM), which aims at providing a tailored business process modeling and simulation environment for business users. SCPM tries to achieve a better trade-off between usability and flexibility with two major efforts, a process repository for process modeling, and a flexible environment for process simulation. A case study from real consulting practice is also included to illustrate how SCPM works for business process simulation. © 2008 IEEE.