Business process simulation models: the (re)use of simulation components

Abstract

Depending on the complexity of organizational processes, the development of process simulation models might be a very demanding activity in which simulation professionals describe business processes using a specific simulation language. Besides being a difficult and error prone activity, process simulation modelling is also a major reason why simulation projects have a tendency to take too much time to be accomplished. In an effort to contribute to improve the situation, in this paper we present an approach in which previously developed process simulation components are used in the context of simulation projects. Using this approach, new process simulation models are developed in a component-based fashion by simply selecting pieces of simulation functionality from a repository of process simulation components, which were previously developed and properly tested. As an example, by taking advantage of the componentization mechanisms available in a specific simulation tool, we have developed a small set of process simulation components which were stored in a repository and then used in the development of a new business process simulation model.