Source / Reference:
Bae, J.S., Jeong, S. C., Seo, Y.H., Kim, Y. H., and Kang, S. K. Intergration of workflow management and simulation. Computers Ind. Engng, 1999,37(1-2).
Subject:
The introduction of workflow management software Holoxsoft and its advantages and disadvantages.
Response:
According to Jeong(1999), Workflow management systems are “computer software that support control, management, and collaboration of business processes through automating flows of tasks, electronic information, and documents as well as consistent access to data and maintenance.” The Holosofx workflow software is one of the workflow management software that helps enterprises to manage their workflow in a systematic way.
This is the layout of a designed workflow.
This is the layout of a designed workflow.
This workflow shows an external entity(student) , the process which is done by the external entity is called external entity process. Then the student will be checked whether he is in the blacklist.
Then a decision should be made. If the decision is positive, there is a task to reject the booking and finally an output is given out. If the decision is negative, then a booking record is inputted, identity will be verified, a computer will be delivered and a loan record is generated.
After the workflow is designed, the process cases can be generated. In the above example, there are 2 cases only. Moreover, process simulated can be generated too, after the simulation, the cycle duration, process duration and working duration. This is a salient function of the Holosofx workflow software.
Sometimes there is incorrect simulation due to the improper design of workflow, for example, the decision diamond should not be connected like this:
It means that if the student is in the blacklist there are two results(reject booking and booking record). If the student is not in the blacklist, there are no result as there are no connection from the bottom of the diamond. Therefore this design cannot pass the software validation and gives a incorrect simulation.
A correct design should be like this:
The advantages of using workflow management software are that we can analyze the performance of processes before actual implementation. It can reduce the cost of amendment of processes during the actual execution. Moreover, the software can coordinate system participants and user and lead to successful task implementation.
However, the disadvantage is that the software involves various parameters. It is quite cumbersome to adjust the elapsed time and workflow time for different parameters.
