Standards-based approaches to B2B workflow integration
Computers and Industrial Engineering - Special issue: Logistics and supply chain management
A simplified framework for stochastic workflow networks
Computers & Mathematics with Applications
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Workflow management systems (WfMSs) are acceptedworldwide due to their capability to model and controlbusiness processes. With WfMS, enterprises can improvework efficiency and react to the emergent situationquickly. However, most WfMSs adopt the centralizedarchitecture in an organization so that they usually lackof a cooperative communication mechanism acrossdifferent organizations.In this paper, we propose a cooperative framework forinter-organizational workflow systems. The frameworkconsists of an inter-workflow meta-model, CA-PLAN(Cooperative Agentflow Process LANguage), and aprototype system based on Agentflow, a system developedin our laboratory. The cooperation mechanism betweenWfMSs in CA-PLAN is modeled as a Remote Call Process(RCP) paradigm.A Process Service is a mechanism that defines aprocess to participate in an inter-organizational processamong different WfMSs and specifies the associatedarguments in and out. A Remote Process is a proxymechanism that refers to a process service on anotherWfMS. RCP provides the mechanism by which theprocess service and the remote process communicate andpass information back and forth and process monitormechanism. The mechanism, also allowing dynamicchanges and reconfiguration, can adapt dynamic andcompetitive business environment. Through RCP, thecooperative process across organizations becomessimple, faster, and flexible.