Collaborative Process Management Research Articles

A collaborative platform for complex product development based on multi-domain unified modeling and simulation

In order to intensify market competition, manufacturing enterprises must improve their product innovation capability. It is difficult to integrate the system modeling, simulation and collaborative process management in complex product development. A collaborative platform for complex product development based on multi-domain unified modeling and simulation is proposed in this paper. The architecture of the platform is firstly stated. The idea and realization of three key technologies, i.e. multi-domain modeling and simulation for complex product, knowledge management for product design and simulation, multi-domain collaborative mechanism, are emphasized. Finally, an industry case is given. The demonstration of the system shows that integration architecture is the effective infrastructure for multi-domain collaborative product development.

Dynamic collaboration

Groups and decision makers are increasingly running headlong into complexity as interconnections and interdependencies between individuals and organizations continue to grow, decision time horizons shrink and more work is being performed by distributed teams. These factors are driving up overall problem space complexity and limiting the effectiveness of time-tested decision and collaboration processes. Increases in problem space complexity lead to higher equivocality in collaborative processes and associated products. Electronic collaboration support tools and associated process management schemes have proven successful in many challenging contexts. However, current collaboration process management schemes and tools may not be able to effectively handle more complex tasks. We posit that heightened problem space complexity must be addressed with commensurate process and technological support for collaborative efforts. To achieve truly agile collaborative solutions, we propose Dynamic Collaboration -- a process management scheme that utilizes group consensus, and process evolution via iterative process alignment and product refinement phases to meet the challenges posed by complexity and equivocality.

Realizing Automatic Conversion of Service Models into Web Services towards Dynamic and Adaptive Business Process Management

The highly competitive and rapidly changing nature of the current business environment creates tremendous pressure on organizations to collaborate. This led to utterly different type of business eco-system in which individual organizations in collaborative business services increasingly demand for a collaborative business process that can easily adapt to changes. As a result, the development and management of organization's IT infrastructures that can able to cope up with the requirements of dynamic and flexible business environments are challenging. Service-based approach can enhance the development and management of collaborative processes through service abstraction to satisfy the needs of today's dynamic business environment. Service-oriented computing paradigm uses service models to represent the requirements of continuously changing business needs through service abstraction and use platform independent interaction nature of web service and its enabling available technologies for implementation. Hence, in this paper we discussed the collaborative BPM trends and concepts, technologies and proposed a generic framework to realize automatic conversion of service models into Web services in order to support dynamic and adaptive development of collaborative business process and deploy them over the internet through a web service standards platform.

Triplex-network design for research of supply chain reliability

The purpose of this paper was to explore a research design, which can integrate knowledge in multi-discipline into triplex-network architecture, for the development of systematic Supply Chain Reliability (SCR) theory. Through analysis of the emergence of triplex-network in supply chains, triplex-network-based evaluation model of SCR was proposed and a numerical example was provided. The dynamic interactions of various entities involved in a supply chain lead to their relation emerging as interactive triplex-network in higher level and further lead to the supply chain emerging as a complex societal-techno interactive system in even higher level. Therefore, hierarchical conceptual architecture and triplex-network analysis are significant for the development of SCR theory. SCR was considered as a unification of fuzzy and random meaning in dynamic environment in this paper. Furthermore, intrinsic relationship between the theoretical foundation of SCR evaluation and the cloud theory was discovered and accordingly, cloud theory is applied to study the evaluation of SCR. Multi-disciplinary meta-synthesis research method presented in this paper will bring inspiration to multi-disciplinary reliability-related researches. This work contributed to the understanding and evaluation of SCR and has important implication as for the need to incorporate various entities and networks into the collaborative management process of supply chains to reduce disruption risks. This work will provide valuable insight to academicians and business professionals. Key words: Supply chain management, reliability, triplex-network, emergence, societal-techno interactive system, meta-synthesis.

Event-driven service coordination for business process integration in ubiquitous enterprises

The Internet has improved service-oriented enterprises to allow for real-time enterprises, collaborative process management, and supply chain integration. However, ubiquitous enterprise environments are becoming more and more complicated since a variety of communication devices are emerged and interconnected to the existing enterprise systems. Service-oriented architecture based on web services technology provides a promising platform from which enterprises can coordinate seamlessly with e-Services in heterogeneous information systems. Nevertheless, adopting the architecture for ubiquitous enterprise environments poses some challenges since the wireless/wired systems around the enterprise may dynamically interact in the network and cause a considerable amount of meaningful state changes (called “events”). In this paper, a methodology that uses event-driven service technology and active rule processing is introduced for business process integration of ubiquitous enterprises. The event-driven approach to business process integration can supplement the service-oriented enterprise architecture by facilitating real-time event processing and distributed service coordination. We illustrate the proposed architecture by applying it to an international post-sales service company that sells electronic products.

Where can social learning be improved in international river basin management in Europe?

AbstractIn recent years, collaborative planning and processes of social learning (SL) have gained increasingly in interest in river basin management. In this paper, we first summarize the prerequisites for SL to take place in collaborative management processes. These are openness, gains and incentives, and a perceived pressure to learn. We then study the European situation subsequent to the introduction of the European Water Framework Directive (2000/60/EC; WFD) as an example. Based on an analysis of policy documents, a case study of the Elbe river basin and an elaboration of concepts related to theories of international regimes, we conclude that the conditions for SL are often not met if management processes are highly formalised. Considering SL that is necessary for innovation and change, this can best be supported through the establishment of parallel “learning processes”, such as the Common Implementation Strategy that accompanies implementation of the WFD at European level. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.

Distributed process execution in collaborative networks

Processes are a central entity in enterprise collaboration. Collaborative processes need to be executed and coordinated in a distributed computational platform where computers are connected through heterogeneous networks and systems. Life cycle management of such collaborative processes requires a framework able to handle their diversity based on different computational and communication requirements. This paper proposes a rational for such framework, points out key requirements and proposes a strategy for a supporting technological infrastructure. Beyond the portability of collaborative process definitions among different technological bindings, a framework to handle different life cycle phases of those definitions is presented and discussed.

Building supply chain collaboration: a typology of collaborative approaches

PurposeThis research aims to examine the characteristics, requirements, benefits, and barriers to various collaborative relationships and proposes a typology of collaborative approaches.Design/methodology/approachThe research discusses insights and observations from exploratory interviews with 21 managers from ten different manufacturers and retailers.FindingsA typology of three types of collaborative approaches (collaborative transaction management; collaborative event management; and collaborative process management) is proposed. The three collaborative approaches are compared and contrasted. Benefits and limitations associated with each type of collaboration are discussed.Practical implicationsManagers can use the typology to assess current collaborations and seek ways to improve current collaborative efforts. Managers can also use the typology to develop collaborative strategies across a broad spectrum of relationships in order to determine which type of collaboration best fits each individual business relationship.Originality/valueThis research extends previous relationship typologies by focusing specifically on collaborative relationships. The research examines various types of collaborative relationships in order to categorize collaborative approaches in a manner useful to academicians and practitioners.

Capacity Building: A New Focus for Collaborative Approaches to Community-Based Suburban Deer Management?

Increasing human-wildlife interactions in urban and suburban environments have created new challenges for management agencies as residents seek to become more involved in the decision-making process. White-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) management may best illustrate both the challenges and the opportunities that exist in human-dominated environments. In these settings wildlife managers are increasingly being expected to engage stakeholders in identifying objectives and implementing management actions tailored to local needs and circumstances. We argue that successful management in these environments is closely related to several attributes of the stakeholder involvement process. Thus, additional theoretical developments and more empirical research will be needed to help managers facilitate community-based decision-making processes that are truly collaborative. We believe the next frontier for continued advancement and increased community and agency satisfaction with suburban deer management is improving local knowledge and leadership. We contend this can best be done through comprehensive intervention programs. In this paper we draw on the body of wildlife agency collaborative management process research to identify and describe the role of knowledge and local leadership in collaboration.

Technology-supported management of collaborative learning processes

This paper deals with collaborative learning processes in a technology-enhanced learning environment and claims that a fully fledged technological support for management of such processes is still missing. To back up that claim the paper introduces an analysis framework for the evaluation of the state-of-the-art in technology-supported management of learning processes. This evaluation clearly reveals deficiencies in such a support and points out possible approaches for resolving the identified problems and drawbacks. As one of such approaches, this paper discusses possibilities of using the Business Process Management (BPM) technology for the management of collaborative learning processes.

COLLABORATIVE CAE AND THE METHOD OF IMPLEMENTATION FOR SYSTEM

Following the CAE technology networking and collaborating trend, the basic concept of collaborative CAE and the technological aim are described. And three collaborative strategies are put forward, which are collaboration in tasks, collaboration in pre-process and collaboration with CAD design flow. According to collaborative strategies, the framework of collaborative CAE is built by arrangement structure method at first time, and the technological structural model is put forward. The collaborative analysis scheme programming and the process management of collaboration based on PDM are explained detailedly as key technologies. The concurrent collaborative analysis environment for multi-user and multi-task is provided by the integration of the CAE technology and the collaborative process management. Finally the implementation and case study are described to verify the feasibility and adaptability of system.

Implementing Collaborative Process Management

Businesses often do not succeed with the implementation of collaborative processes, and research has not provided adequate help. The article provides a concept for services and standards to implement collaborative processes and describes experiences from a successful solution. The case of Net-Tech’s Elex analyzes how Net-Tech realized a collaborative process management for its manufacturing operations. The case study shows a concept for implementing collaborative processes as well as its implementation as a “proof by demonstration.” Even if the solution has proven to implement collaborative processes in a network of more than 50 partners in high-tech industry, more research is required toward generalization. Business managers might use the concept of the services and standards at Elex and the experiences of Net-Tech as guidelines when they are in a situation to decide on the implementation of collaborative processes.

Modeling and managing collaborative processes over the internet

PurposeCollaborative processes are relatively complex and are therefore difficult to handle. Representing the joint processes and capturing the interactions among stakeholders in a structured way are critical to improve the collaboration productivity. This paper aims to present a generic collaborative process model that improves on current approaches by explicitly representing the perspectives of stakeholders and their evolution traversing a work process.Design/methodology/approachThis approach provides a mechanism to identify the interdependencies among tasks and stakeholders, and realizes collaboration through process management. A web‐based information system using the model to support collaborative process management is also described.FindingsThe research work provides collaboration management systems with the ability to analyze and control the processes through sharing perspectives.Originality/valueThe models and methods described in this paper are an important part of a pervasive, resilient and predictable means for business process management over the internet.

How public conversation management integrated with local business process management

In order for enterprises to collaborate at the business-process level, they must deal with two kinds of processes: the public conversation processes specifying inter-enterprise document flows, and the private business processes specifying local workflows of document manipulation and other related tasks. The provisioning, interaction and integration of conversation management and business process management, have become the common interest of the e-business (electronic business) industry. We discuss the relationship and interaction between conversation management and business process management; point out the difference between public conversation processes (e.g. BPSS processes) and peer-conversation processes (e.g. BPEL4WS processes). We then illustrate our collaborative process management system that has functionally separated conversation manager and business process manager. The conversation manager is based on the ebXML (Extensible Markup Language) BPSS (Business Process Execution Language) standard; it is used for validating document exchange at run-time and for activating corresponding process tasks. We have also proposed the conversation model driven asynchronous task activation mechanism for interaction between a conversation process and the coupled business process dynamically. With this mechanism, generic APIs (application program interfaces) between the conversation manager and the business process manager can be easily defined and used by multiple plugged-in conversation managers.

A workflow system for the management of inter-company collaborative engineering processes

Information Technology has supported distributed team members in concurrent engineering environments for some time. This paper addresses the co-ordination of design work within the concurrent engineering environment. We refer to this as engineering workflow (EWF) [1]. We also address the challenging task of co-ordinating design activity across the supply chain. Current workflow systems, either stand-alone or incorporated into a product data management system, are rather static and offer little flexibility to engineering design. This limits their ability to support dynamic complex processes such as product development, especially for activities that span company borders. This paper describes an engineering workflow approach to control early phases of product design that is suitable for concurrent engineering's dynamic and iterative processes. The approach uses parameters to reflect basic engineering decisions. It captures parameter evolution, the relationships among parameters, and communication among different partners in the supply chain during evolution of parameter values. The EWF presented co-ordinates this activity through: the control procedure for upgrading parameters, the control procedure roles, the work list associated with the activities performed, and the data associated with the EWF approach. This paper develops these concepts, and highlights the benefits of this approach when used in a distributed concurrent engineering environment.

New Meaning to it Alignment

One of the perennial top issues in surveys of IT management concerns is IT alignment. It always seems to be in the top-ten, but cyclically rises to number-one at times of economic decline. When the economy turns down, information services departments are called upon to redouble their vigilance on spending and to focus their attention on projects and initiatives that are in line with the near-term objectives of the overall business. the enterprises that have developed collaborative management processes between the business and information services organizations do this best and with the least amount of disruption. in fact, it seems that there has been tremendous progress in the past ten or fifteen years in terms of leadership and management practices on the part of both business and information services organizations that have contributed to a dramatic improvement in the handling of downward economic adjustments. Upward economic change, on the other hand, poses more perplexing challenges.

AWARENESS PROVISIONING IN COLLABORATION MANAGEMENT

Collaboration management involves capturing the collaboration process, coordinating the activities of the participating applications and humans, and/or providing awareness, i.e. information that is highly relevant to a specific role and situation of a process participant. In this paper, we propose an awareness provisioning solution that allows focusing, customizing, and temporally constraining the awareness delivered to each process participant. Unlike existing collaboration management technologies (such as workflow and groupware) that provide only a few built-in awareness choices, the proposed awareness solution allows the specification of what information is to be given to what users and at what time. To support this advanced level of awareness, we require the definition of awareness roles and the specification of corresponding awareness descriptions. Awareness roles can be dynamically created and associated with any process scope. Awareness descriptions define what information is to be given to users in an awareness role. Since awareness roles are created or become visible when they are needed, the existence of an awareness role also determines the appropriate time interval during which the information specified in the awareness description can be delivered. This awareness provisioning approach minimizes information overloading and allows the combination of process-relevant information with external information as needed by the process participants. The proposed awareness provisioning solution is employed by the Collaboration Management Infrastructure (CMI), a federated system for collaboration process management. In this paper, we introduce an Awareness Model (AM) for creating awareness specifications and defining related execution semantics. Awareness specifications in AM are specialized composite event specifications that define patterns of process-related events and external events, as well as how information should be digested from them. We also describe the implementation of CMI's awareness provisioning engine and related tools.

Workshop summary

Several situations in modern working life imply that people have to cooperate in order to handle dynamic systems. The work is distributed in several respects; people work with different tasks and have different expertise, they are often geographically distributed and they work at different times or cover different time scales. The activities are often time critical and cooperation has to be efficient. The problems involved in these situations have great economical and societal impacts. Approaches to the problems require expertise in several domains.The objectives of the workshop was to identify key features of collaborative process management and to identify critical needs in the domain of collaborative process management.

Collaborative realtime process management

Several situations in modern working life imply that people have to cooperate in order to handle dynamic systems. The work is distributed in several respects; people work with different tasks and have different expertise, they are often geographically distributed and they work at different times or cover different time scales. The activities are often time critical and cooperation has to be efficient. The problems involved in these situations have great economical and societal impacts. Approaches to the problems require expertise in several domains.The objectives of the workshop was to identify key features of collaborative process management and to identify critical needs in the domain of collaborative process management.

Requirements of a technology supporting collaborative process management

Requirements of a technology supporting collaborative process management